(Picture: A drama portraying a witch doctor; Megan’s belly update photo, now in third trimester)Our teammate, Sergio, related a funny story to us this week. A man came to visit him with a sad story. Someone had robbed his home and stolen his money. Sergio’s language skills are pretty good (he’s been here for less than 6 months), but he was having trouble following part of the man’s story. It was clear the man was asking for money, but something didn’t make sense—something didn’t sit right in Sergio’s mind. So he called Beka (our resident language expert) to help him out. The man was indeed asking for some money, but it was not for food or medicine. It was for magic. He wanted to get a hitima—a curse—to place upon whoever it was that had robbed him! Needless to say, Sergio turned him away.
Although not necessarily condoned by the orthodox members of our island’s majority religion, witchcraft, superstition, blessings and curses are all an active aspect of spiritual life here. At first glance, especially in the city, these things can go unnoticed and undetected, but the dark powers of fear are a latent force beneath the fabric of urban life. In its lightest form, it looks a lot like superstition and what we might call in the West belief in “luck.” Here it is phrased in terms of blessings and curses. There are a host of such beliefs that we are only slowly becoming aware of. For example, our neighbor told us that she would not begin building on her house until Thursday, because Thursday was a blessed day. So even though everything was ready to begin on Tuesday, she waited because Tuesday is devoid of blessing and a bad day to start anything. When you enter someone’s home, it is common to see pieces of paper with their holy verses in the corners of their ceilings, to add blessing and to keep away curses.
Islanders also have a very strong belief in the evil eye. This is the sort of curse people can put upon you, even unintentionally when they see something of yours that is good and covet it. Even if they mean you no ill harm, their thoughts of jealousy can result in curses upon you. Therefore people are careful (to some extent) to hide their wealth, and to put gifts and groceries in bags that cannot be seen by others. We even have to be careful not to complement babies and children. Positive statements like, “She is getting big!” or “What a beautiful baby!” can be seen as bringing curses not complement.
At deeper levels people will call on the help of a mgangi—a witchdoctor. The witchdoctors will mix up blessing and curses, love potions and charms. From the sound of it, everyone at sometime or another finds themselves going to a mgangi. It might be for sickness, or for a new business venture, for traveling, for an exam or for help with a sporting event. The last is fairly common. One friend explained that he used to do it all the time with his football team. Strangely enough he acknowledged, “When you do it, you get a sin.”
We tell you about these things not merely to fascinate you with culture, but also to reveal a deeper understanding of the world we live in and the darkness that surrounds us. For our friends and neighbors the universe is stacked against them, love is conditional, and hope is uncertain. They cannot say as we can, “In all things we are more than conquers through him who loved us.” We wait and hope for day when they can.
PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our adjustment back to the island has gone smoothly except for Grace’s sleeping schedule. It’s taken her a number of days to adjust back, but it looks like she is finally getting over the time difference. Megan and the baby continue to be doing well and the plans for our medical leave are coming together nicely. Our neighbors have welcomed us back warmly and we are getting back into our normal routines. The details for our time in South Africa are coming together, we have a reservation for housing and OB/GYN appointments set up.
PRAYERS REQUESTED
The leadership seminar is this weekend. Pray for good attendance and fruitful times of study and fellowship. Pray for wisdom as we decide how to best use our time and invest our energies here. We’ve lost one of our language helpers to Russia, pray for our continued local language study. Pray for the work and amazing ways God is moving all over Africa and the world, we keep hearing remarkable things.
