"There is this about witchcraft, that when it has once been practised on you, you will never completely rid yourself of it. I thought it a painful, a very painful process to be hung upon the pole, I wish that I could have escaped it."
(Karen Blixen, Out of Africa 1937)
Blixen never explains her meaning of being "hung upon the pole" nor does she elaborate on witchcraft in her writings that I have read. I think that I now understand this, she knew that things happened in Kenya, things that cannot necessarily be explained or described, but you feel them in your gut. I think that she knew, as I do, that to justify the phenomenon of witchcraft to a European society such as the UK (she wrote Out of Africa in English) would be futile. I think that, generally, society in the UK is so far removed from spirituality and the spiritual world that to talk of it with any degree of sincerity is perceived as talk of the absurd.
Tim Butcher, an English journalist, was the Africa correspondent for The Daily Telegraph for 19 years, he wrote of the use of Witchcraft during Liberia's civil war:
"...an underlying theme of sinister ritualism, the hall mark of fighting in Liberia, but one that was deeply frustrating as it was difficult to fathom. When I started to enquire further, various sources said the practice reached the top of the regime and I even heard accusations that Taylor, like other Liberian warlords, used cannibalism....to somehow harness their power by consuming their enemies dead body parts."
(Tim Butcher, Chasing the Devil: On Foot through Africa's Killing Fields, 2010)
Butcher's reporting of Charles Taylor's alleged cannibalism (article can be viewed at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/liberia/1433846/Taylor-turns-back-to-cannibalism.html) led to him receiving death threats from Taylor's regime preventing him from returning to the country to report until the regime fell. The difference between the European view towards Witchcraft and the African view towards it differ vastly. It would appear that Taylor was not so disturbed by the fact that he was being labelled by the international media a monster for funding an atrocious civil war, but for the specific allegation that he was using Witchcraft in his quest to keep power. I don't know enough about Taylor to know, but I do wonder if this anger was on account of some effect the revelation could have on the effectiveness of the rituals or whether he felt it made him seem absurd amongst his European counterparts.
To be honest, I have been putting off completing this post. The reason for this is not because of anything sinister, rather, there is something about the unshakeable belief that Witchcraft exists in Sierra Leone. It is like blood pumping through the veins of everyday life, inseparable from the mundane. It makes it difficult to pin it down to write about it. I am not looking to justify it's existence though, even if you don't believe, it's just that the anecdotes make interesting stories. So I am going to talk about Witchcraft, the things I have heard and seen living in Sierra Leone.
The overwhelming thing I feel about Witchcraft in Sierra Leone is that you shouldn't really ask questions! Winston's family speak openly about their own experiences and the experience of people that they know but it's not a good thing to start that kind of conversation with a stranger. Public transport or gatherings provide good forums for people to discuss their experiences and you can hear lots of different stories about ju ju and if you listen long enough undoubtedly pick up a few tales. Another of the strange things about the stories is that they just sound better in Krio, translated into English and then written down they lose a bit of their flavour, I'll try my best ;)
It is important to understand that here, (whether you do or not) almost everyone believes in the existence of Witches, ju ju, morie men, the underworld. This belief alone is very powerful and sometimes it determines the way that people live their lives, for example a woman may be threatened by another woman that she will use Witchcraft on her if she does not give up her husband. The threat is enough to have the woman pack up her bags and return to her mother and father's house. I have also written before about the driver who refused to work for us, despite not having an alternative job, because he was afraid that our previous driver (who we fired) had performed some rituals to place doom upon the tipper and any future drivers.
The Cat in the Lap
Mama (Winston's mother Mahawa) told me of one of her sisters (I'll call her Kadie) in the family's home village. she said that Kadie, who desperately wanted children, had had a bad relationship with her mate (this is the Krio word for her husband's other wife), they simply did not like each other. One night Kadie had a dream that a cat had climbed onto her lap, urinated on her, and left. This dream preceded a series of events that included her husband leaving her with his other wife. From that day forth she could not find and hold onto another man, she was apparently beautiful and the reluctance was not on account that she had already been married. One man started a relationship with her but left her soon after. he said that he had tried to stay with the woman and he genuinely loved her he just couldn't be around her.
It is viewed here that witches (this covers both men and women) operate in the underworld, this is a parallel dimension which you cannot see or experience unless you are a witch or you are involved in it by a witch. In this underworld they can perform their magic undetected by humans, this can include shape shifting or using animals to do their bidding. Cats are among the animals believed to be commonly used by witches, I suspect that is why most Sierra Leoneans that I have met despise cats.
Tied in Knots
As it has been explained to me, you can become a witch by different means, you can ask to be allowed enter the underworld but you can also be born a witch with abilities inherited from somewhere in your lineage (not necessarily your parents, this could be anyone of your ancestors.) I understand only a little of either of these routes, and nothing from anyone who claims that they are a witch, these are all closely guarded secrets.
As I understand it to become a witch you enter through some kind of ceremony and would then have to initiate into a group of witches (I suppose this would be called a coven in English) and you will have to pay. The way you pay in the underworld is with a human's life force, most commonly it needs to be a member of your own family. Members of the coven will take it in turns to donate of one of their family member's life force. Once someone's life force is taken they die and you will sometimes hear, by means of an explanation for a mysterious death, that the person was eaten by a witch.
The other way you can become a witch is to be born a witch. A friend of Winston's (Alusine) told us of his sister; she brought great trouble to her family, from a coven of witches in their village, when she was a small child. As a child of parents that were not involved in the underworld they had no idea of her activities in this parallel dimension.
Now the family owned a poyo bafa (this is a shelter where people will come to drink palm wine) and one day whilst the parents were out, an old man came to drink at the bafa. He saw the young girl and asked Alusine, who was selling the palm wine for his parents, where the child's parents were. Alusine told him that they were out and the old man asked him to tell them to come and see him. Dismissing the man's talk as unimportant Alusine forgot to say anything to his parents about it.
A couple of days later the girl became incapacitated. By this I mean that she was stuck with her hands invisibly bound behind her back by her wrists & elbows and her feet by her ankles & knees. She was unable to communicate. Obviously the family were all extremely concerned and it wasn't until someone mentioned that this looked like the work of witches that Alusine remembered the old man's words and told his parents. The man (not all witches are bad and some are gifted with seeing into the underworld, they will use their knowledge to help people rather than for self-profit or to do damage) said that she was in grave danger because she had been creating innocent havoc and interfering with the local coven's business at night. The old man warned the family telling them that the coven were unhappy about the young girl's games and further he said that they clearly felt threatened as she was displaying a great deal of talent for someone so young. The coven claimed that they had her, they said that if she did not denounce her abilities and take the necessary steps to remove herself from the underworld they would kill her.
At the families request, the old man performed the rituals required to take away her powers. She was unbound and regained complete movement in all her limbs. It was said that she was stuck in this torturous position for three days with no visible bindings at all.
The Coconut Palm
In one of the southern villages of Sierra Leone lives a very powerful witch (well call him Mr Mohmoh) and in his garden he has a coconut palm. One year there were a lot of coconuts on the tree but Mr Mohmoh had not picked any of them. One morning one of the young men of the village (I'll call him Salman) passed, and hungry, he said in the old man's presence "I am going to pick some of those coconuts to eat." Mr Mohmoh warned him that he was not to climb the coconut palm and if he did, he would certainly regret it. Now I am sure that you know that a coconut palm has no branches, so to climb it you have to use the power of your arms and legs to shimmy up the tree (not easy - not that I have tried!)
So regardless of the warning, Salman shimmied up the tree and picked the coconuts he wanted and then turned his face down to climb down from the tree. He froze, terrified and shouting that a deep hole had opened up in the ground at the base of the tree, should he climb down he would surely fall into the hole and die. He stayed up the tree for an entire day (I am sure you can imagine the strain that would have been on his arms and legs!) until the evening when Mr Mohomoh, feeling that the young man had learnt his lesson, rubbed the required herbal remedy on the base of the palm tree. The hole (visible only to Salman) closed up releasing him from his treetop prison. No one again tried to steal Mr Mohmoh's coconuts!
The Kamajors
There are countless tales of people witnessing the effects of witchcraft, especially during the war. As rebels ravaged the country and the government soldiers proved ineffective men in the villages decided to stand up for themselves by establishing a civil army called the Kamajors originally they were established by the local chiefs but were later led by a man called Hinga Norman. They were established to try and bring some balance back after it seemed that all factions had taken to pillaging, looting, raping, killing and mutilating the innocent civilians of Sierra Leone.
The Kamajors were predominantly from the Mende tribe and are said to have possessed magical powers that allowed them to be able to disappear, to dodge bullets and to protect the villages. Apparently they were also able to use their herbalist talents (the Mende are said to be very good herbalists) to heal themselves and others. It is also said that the Kamajors won several seemingly impossible battles against the RUF (Revolutionary United Front) with the help of their supernatural powers. It was said that if they commanded, the enemies guns would not fire and that bullets could not penetrate their supernatural armour. Many women who were living in villages where there were Kamajor forces have a distinctive scar (three horizontal lines in a row) on their upper arms. I have asked what this scar is and was told that the Kamajors did it by making the cuts with a razor and rubbing something into the cuts, for their protection (I know that the rebels were said to rub cocaine into wounds but I doubt very much that this is what the Kamajors were doing, the substance used is a closely guarded secret of the Poro society.)
Unfortunately, after some time the Kamajors ceased to be managed properly and seemed to turn to the ways of all the other forces involved in the war by raping and killing leading to the indictment of Norman Hinga and his lieutenants to the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The Wikipedia article on the Kamajors (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamajors) says that some said that the Kamajors motivation was primarily the diamond fields, I don't think this was the case. Everyone who I have spoken to about the Kamajors tells me that in the beginning they were definitely a force for the good. Tired of the lack of help they were driven to create this civil force of soldiers.
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| Image taken from http://www.raffaeleciriello.com/site/pw/56kamajor.html this is a kamajor high priest. |
It is said that the amount of people with supernatural abilities has dwindled through the years in Sierra Leone, the reasons given for this are 1) the war, many who carried the innate abilities were killed before they had the chance to pass on the knowledge required to hone these talents. 2) Some of the more powerful people involved in the underworld did not have children and therefore the line would die with them. 3) Exposure to Western cynicism has stopped young people's interest in what are considered ancient traditions. If you think about English folklore magic is such a prevalent part of our storytelling past, it could be said that the Witch Hunts of 17th Century England wiped out all the supernatural abilities there and that is why we are so alienated from this phenomenon. However, I do think that the Church had a great deal to gain, politically, in eliminating witches.
I think that for those with a faith in God it is easier to have an understanding of these things, as if you believe in God then you accept that there is a dimension which exists beyond our human senses, or to be plain about it, you are more likely to believe in the supernatural if you believe in God. The church fervently discourages people from engaging in witchcraft, some describe rituals as connecting and 'making deals' with demons in return for personal gain and believe that the only way to escape being targeted by witchcraft is simply to pray to God.
My intent here has not been to try and sway opinion as to whether there is a parallel dimension where witches exist and cause havoc in some people's lives, or whether Witchcraft offers a scapegoat explanation for infertility, child mortality or even the fact that some people are very successful. I hope that this post has offered an entertaining insight into part of life in Sierra Leone.
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