J ust as each doctor has their own tools, methods, and followers they have personal and often elaborate and mystical shitongelejo. The tree and its reeds, she explains represent the region where her grandmother came from, the water, Lake Victoria that she crossed, and the dwelling the one her ancestor used to practice medicine. The entire architectural layout is a shitongelejo which was communicated to her in a dream by her ancestors. Ibogo Muhangwa, the current, though disputed, leader of the Bagika lives like most traditional doctors in a round house with a thatched roof, has built many nyumba ya Masamva or ancestral huts, and has a sacred area surrounded by euphorbia where he creates medicine. A lthough the styles of traditional healers' compounds may differ according to how the family's ancestors lived, certain similarities abound.
Most Sukuma doctors encircle their compounds with a dense, protective fence of Euphorbia hedge.
The memory of the family's ancestors is crucial to a traditional doctor's success in healing. Only traditional doctors build maduku and these serve to advertise a healer's compound to those who pass by. In some areas a doctor will build both an iduku lya shigele, with consecutive rows of grass thatching and an iduku lya buzwelele thatched in one long row. The shigele dwelling honors the patrilineal ancestors, while the buzwelele recalls those on the mother's side. M ost traditional doctors maintain their practices in rural areas because of the expensive costs of running a business in the city.