Irene and I had read through a lot of transcripts of interviews from this area before we arrived, and in those interviews many respondents mentioned the things people do to prevent themselves from becoming possessed by mashetani or becoming the victims of witchcraft, which frequently require consultations to a local healer (called an mganga or fundi), who chants spells and creates concoctions and medicines (sometimes herbal medicines, sometimes Islamic medicines, sometimes both) for people to take. Once possessed or cursed, people also consult the healer to divine how to appease the spirit or undo the curse. They exact significant sums from their clients, often just a hair cheaper than the cost of going to the hospital. It seems to me it makes for a very good business, and one that effectively competes for clients with the formal health system as well as religious counseling in most areas. Most babies under the age of two, and many women, wear mganga-made amulets tied around their necks, their waists, and their wrists (Even in church on Easter morning many of the Christian children were wearing these amulets). This is a world perceived to be full of threats, and so people try to protect themselves from as many of these threats as possible by as many means possible, which ironically sets God/Allah on par with the abilities of the local fundi.
[photo of a fundi]
As the South is an almost exclusively Muslim area, whereas the research team (my assistant Irene, as well the 4 guys on the larger project’s research team who we frequently travel with) is almost entirely comprised of Christians from Northern Tanzania, the contrast seems to have set us up for something resembling spiritual warfare. The whole team has complained to me of nightmares and strange things at night: Irene claims to have felt hands coming around her neck to choke her one night so she couldn’t breathe, and she swears she was not yet asleep when this happened. Albert says he saw a large dark object moving outside his room one night, and that the guesthouse where we are staying has a policy of not allowing lanterns to be kept on all night, which Albert and Irene believe is so we can’t see as many bad things in the night. One night a couple of weeks ago, Albert and Peter both claim to have encountered a being in their room one night and they swear they had to beat him to get him to go away. I don’t really know any other explanation other than that these are nightmares, simple manifestations of fear. Though in this less rational and individualistic world, sometimes I wonder if there could really be spirits out there, and what they are capable of doing.
Even the small and harmless take on new life in this spiritual realm. Irene had a rat in her room yesterday, munching on her soap and running around her mosquito net, and it made her so nervous she couldn’t sleep and she called me at 1 in the morning to come sleep in my room (which, thankfully, has remained rat-free the whole time). These strange goings-on make all of them rely heavily on prayer: Irene’s Bible is an amulet to her, and she frequently calls on the name of Jesus when she feels scared at night. For all her bravery and boldness, her one fear is the darkness, particularly sleeping alone in it, so she likes to sleep with the light on.
The strange thing is, though I too am a Christian, I feel oddly immune to this larger-than-life spiritual world. Most likely, I rationalize them away... in keeping with what I have been taught, I feel much more afraid of a vehicle accident or malaria. Certainly, I too have said prayers for safety, but I have had no nightmares, seen no strange things, had no trouble sleeping (okay, aside from the bat, but that was over soon and rationally enough). Irene says she thinks it might be that the mashetani are scared of an mzungu (white person)!
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