Began more investment procedures today but
David had to keep going off to attend to various things such as deliveries,
hunters, visitors, etc.
Winnie later told me some stories about witchcraft
when l had told her that Baluku Sasio was from a long line of witch
doctors. She said she came from a
village where witch doctors were plentiful and was a place well known for it (in
Jinja). She grew up being superstitious
in this way although now being a Christian she doesn’t really believe these
things, although there seemed to be some doubt still left in her mind. The general perception is that witch doctors
are bad, as the Christian belief is to destroy false idols, be they objects or
values. She told me that one day they
had an American Evangelist come to talk and he told the people to bring
anything they might have from the witch doctor. So they did and all these items
were put into a drum, and because the speaker had to go he left the task of
burning the lot to the church in his absence.
However, by the next day all the objects had disappeared - basically they had been retrieved or stolen
over night which perhaps signifies their importance still according to
Winnie. She was very surprised.
She also told me that, one day a man who was
carrying a traditional Bakonjo basket could be a phantom of the witch doctor’s
and would follow a guilty person, perhaps he had stolen something, and when it
caught up with the bad man, it would beat him to death with the basket!!!
Another story concerned her classmate. She told me, that if someone is possessed by
a spirit, they might go mad, and start screaming, which one girl in her class
did and everyone thought the worst. It
turned out she did this on purpose, so that she could leave school and go to
her boyfriend!!!
Visitors later came to the foundry from lodges
and other places where tourists stay, so that they had an insight into the
experience the visitors might gain from visiting such attractions as the
foundry. Someone from UBC and NTV
interviewed me about how and why l was there, not that l realised this until
afterwards. One of the men knew Justin
Willis from BIEA who l met when l was doing my PhD research into the Giriama of
Kenya – I remember one of his papers was on the ‘palm wine drinking’ of the
Giriama!!!
Emmanuel was saying that they used human
faeces for road building when l mentioned that cow dung was used in Jetres’s
winnowing basket and thought it might not comply with H & S standards in
terms of food hygiene.
When l asked David to enquire of Buhoto
Richard whether he still had any witch doctor paraphernalia he told me had
burnt the lot. However, when we asked
whether he knew a witch doctor we could visit he said his sister’s husbands’s
brother was a witch doctor – so l am hoping to visit him one day next week. David talks about going to Ibanda for the
other interviews where we might find more graves of the traditional variety.
David’s daughter was sent home from school
today, as he couldn’t raise the school fees at the moment (£180 per term).
Eria is back – having endured a bus ride form
Kampala with people smelling of BO and urine and such like!
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