Questionable Visions

The belief in witches runs deep. People don't often talk of their beliefs openly but when the subject comes up storytelling begins slowly and then crescendos; contributions follow progressively shorter pauses and the terror quotient increases, leaving everyone present either wide-eyed or nodding knowingly. Most Malawians if pressed will admit to believing in witches regardless of their educational level and/or the fervor of their affiliation with a brand of western religion.

There are the well-known comical stories, which people tell with straight faces but are hard to hear without erupting into hysterics. One friend told me about his encounter with "Bottle Man" - a sort of street performer from the sound of it. He would draw a crowd, ask for money, and then somehow shrink down and get inside a Coke bottle. I had to ask, of course, if anyone ever picked up the bottle to shake it or examine it, and he said the crowd was so horrified that the thought never crossed anyone's mind. Another personal favorite is the story the man who shrunk 60 cattle and tied them to a handkerchief, which he slipped in his pocket before boarding a minibus. Once aboard, the minibus acted as though it was extremely overloaded, sagging to the ground and unable to move. Perhaps suspecting something, the driver then had everyone disembark and searched until the culprit - the man with 60 cattle in his pocket - was caught red handed. I have no idea how the Cattle Man was reprimanded but the implication was that his cattle were not allowed to board and the minibus drove happily into the sunset. To add to this collection are the many stories of witches who fly through the night sky, crossing the continent in moments and always returning before dawn. Their "airplanes" of choice are large wicker baskets usually used for storing grain. Several stories, reported with true journalistic candor, of such "airplane" crashes have made their way into the national newspaper recently.

There are other more frightening stories. One close friend told me of an experience he had as a child of being haunted night after night by a neighbor. The neighbor would appear to him completely naked with menacing expressions, even while he was in the company of his parents and friends. After almost a year of sleepless nights and numerous incidents of describing with terror the approach of this man, whom no one else could see, his well-educated father took him to a traditional healer. From that time on the visions stopped but the haunting permanently damaged his parents' relationship with the neighbor.

Finally, there are the most horrific stories involving murder and trafficking in body parts. Whether or not people chose to belief in the power of black magic and the "success" of its practice, horrific physical evidence exists to confirm its existence. Mutilated bodies found with missing eyes, or fingers, or various internal organs cannot be shrugged off as easily as Cattle Man.

Often when I hear these stories, particularly the comical ones, my reaction is, "You know you're Western when . . . you're the only one in the room with a smirk." But, I believe in questioning judgments and when I thought about it, realized that our Western minds have room for our own brand of ghosts and witchcraft. I imagine that in any room of Americans the percentage of people who may, albeit hesitantly, share stories of ghosts seen or personal unexplained spiritual experiences probably approximates the percentage of Malawians who believe in witchcraft. The difference seems to be that in Malawi this world of spirits is mostly dark and that there is an entire subpopulatiopurporttches who perport to be able to control and/or sell services of this other darker world.

For those who would avidly deny the possibility of any unscientific phenomena, I can say that belief is powerful on both sides (for the believers and unbelievers) and denial is possible in both camps. I remember years ago watching a television program in my aunt's house about the human mind. The narrator was talking about how when we see something that only deviates slightly from what we expect, our mind interprets said item or event to be the expected item or event. In order to illustrate this, a series of playing cards was flashed quickly across the screen and the viewer was asked to say the face of each card. Eight of Diamonds, Six of Spades, Seven of Clubs and so on. The same series was repeated slower and slower but it wasn't until each card remained for a full second or longer that I realized that the Eight of Diamonds was really a red Eight of Spades and that the Seven of Clubs was really a black Seven of Hearts, etc. Doesn't that little test allow for the possibility that we see and experience things that, "should not be," and so we quickly and subconsciously rationalize events and file them away as "normal." That test really stuck with me and every once in a when it comes to mind, it helps me question to my personal truth, whether in regard to how I perceive an individual's personality or a broader more abstract concept such as witchcraft.

Along the same lines, in our developed world so much of our accepted reality is as well understood as magic. I know that if I really wanted to, I could discover how a telephone works. I don't really care to know, but the knowledge that this information exists is enough for me to believe and accept the telephone as a non-magical technology. Although, when I think of speaking to my parents on the other side of the Earth with only a fraction of a second lag-time, it is just as magical as flying in a wicker basket across Africa. During the time of Colombus the physical potential for a telephone existed, science just had to catch up to enable the reality. Could it not be possible that science just has to evolve a bit more to encapsulate and prove the phenomenon of black magic? Could it not be possible that black magic developed from a different path that is actually longer but just as linear and true as western science?

It is difficult to step aside from our way of thinking as the only way or the best way. Most of us, myself included, see our way as the best way, at least subconsciously. Most of the time I walk through life believing I have an open mind but I have to laugh at myself when I smack up against the hard borders of that openness. Who erected that border? With what assumptions? Can it be redrawn? . . . Just thoughts.