Did You Say Witches?

As each day and week passes we are getting a wider view of the way things work here, some great others more difficult to understand. We had the pleasure of visiting a bank in town last week. We strolled into the bank ready to do a quick transaction but there must have been close to 300 people on line. It seems that the combination of tobacco selling going on at this time of year and the fact that the biggest note is equivalent to $4 means banking takes a while. People came in to the bank with duffle bags full of money, and waiting for the teller to count all of it is an entire days work.

Aside from banking I have been doing some snooping around about the witchcraft people keep mentioning. As far as I know, witchcraft is something that is practiced in the village among a few people. Those who practice it are often trained by one of their family members to carry on the tradition. The witches apparently also try to train young children. Additionally, witches can and apparently do put curses on people and many people are truly terrified of these witches So much so that, as in the case of the former standard 7 teacher at our school, they can be beaten and chased out of the community. People equate death, accidents and bad dreams to witchcraft. In fact some students claim that during the night, their teacher would take them to Japan for her wedding and when they tried to leave, she would beat them. Apparently, many of these children woke up with bruises all over the faces. When I asked one of my students why their teacher was fired he told me because “she flew at night.” I then asked him how he keeps the witches from bothering him and he replied, ‘’I pray all night, in my sleep.”

In addition to witchcraft I have been learning about some of the traditional sex practices that take place in the village. I have become particularly interested in one called Fisi. I found out about this from an anti HIV/AIDS play being performed by some students at our school. Apparently when several girls in the village reach puberty one man is assigned to have intercourse with each one of them to make sure that they are both prepared for and able to marry. This practice is incredibly problematic because not only can girls become pregnant at a very young age but if the man selected is HIV positive all of the women can become infected. This practice is not present in all communities but many in the Mangochi area.

While many of these things are difficult to understand and even more difficult to fully grasp, many people are willing to discuss them, but it ends there. Witchcraft and Fisi are deeply entrenched in cultural roots one just has to hope that they don’t interfere with the health and safety of the people.