Name: FANASIE KINYAMUNYU
Place: Ndughuthu, Kasese.
This witch doctor was related to Mautha
Richard, one of the founders who had formerly been a witch doctor, and his family before him. He is now a priest. These are the answers to the questionnaire.
People still come to him in spite of the
introduction of Christianity and the numbers have not dropped.
The people that come to him can be Christian
as well as believe in the spirits of the traditional Bakonjo religion.
The reasons they come to him are mainly
because they are ill or have mental health problems and others need fertility
treatment.
He says that large numbers of people come to
him as a large numbers get well and so that encourages more people to come.
For fertility treatment he uses an oil (from
the ‘Asyombono’ tree), which is put on the woman’s body and they conceive. They go and when they have the child they
come back with gifts such as a goat.
The white chicken feathers by the fire were
used to transfer the illness of the person to the chicken before it was killed
and tossed outside the hut. They kill it
inside the hut, the person is believed to have been attacked by a bad spirit of
the hills which causes the illness. If
the person cannot afford the chicken then eggs are used as a substitute, and
often mixed with herbs (depending on the illness) and then these are thrown out
of the hut which releases the bad spirit.
He had been a witch doctor for a long time and
his ancesters before him, so he has learnt a lot about the trees and plants and
their medicinal purposes.
The genet cat is his symbol and the one he
respects in their witchcraft.
You usually leave your shoes outside the hut
as a mark of respect to the spirits which David was not going to do as he was a
bit afraid and said that the witch doctor has more power and control over you
if you do that!!
He wears a civet pelt on the head and the
leopard skin on his body. He usually
wears bark cloth on his loin area. The
fire should always be burning which shows by the layer of black tar coating the
inside of the roof rushes.
For the beginning of the ritual he offers his
clients tobacco pipes, which traditionally the spirits ask for but he does not
smoke it himself, although the spirits try to tempt him. There are three spirits he invokes, Muhima,
Kitasamba, and his great grandfather. He
uses a basket of objects and has things in a pot he uses. The three penis shaped objects (made from the
blood of a goat) he holds in both hands and shakes backwards and forwards. The
drum he plays when he knows the clients are coming.
The medicines he keeps in several baskets –
the diseases he treats are all different and the contents are extracts from
plants and others are from the ‘spirits’!
As sacrifices he just uses goats and chickens
but not pig as the spirits don’t like them as they are considered unclean. They don’t use dogs either because of the
great hunter spirit, ‘Kalisya’, who lives wild in the forest. Hunters usually go with dogs with bells
around their necks.
In his hut he has three doors covered with
bark cloth and each door has an owner, from right to left, a) the great
grandfather b) the great grandmother and c) the forest spirit Kitasamba. The stool in the Kitasamba chamber is only
for him to sit on but the other two can be sat on by other people.
If he dies he does not think his son will do
it, but his grandson might. The people who left the traditional culture and
went to Christianity tended to suffer mental problems - go mad, as the spirits dislike this. He said he tried to leave but he felt better
going back to what he knows best.
He allows his family to go to church – he goes
once a year at Christmas on 25th.December. He gets some clients from church and a lot of
his clients complain to him and tell him he should not go to church.
The main age groups that go to him are 20
years and above. Most of them are old
and come from church. The family members
of these people know that they come to him.
When asked whether he does bad as well as good
he says that people who do not know witch doctors think that they are bad. However he says that he has finished doing
bad things since August this year and that he has never killed anyone. He thinks the Christians (missionaries) have
come to destroy their culture.
He told us that after having two children he
went ‘naked’ (meaning mad) and the elders solved the problem by telling him
that he should not reject his culture as it benefits him and he should accept
this in spite of what people told him to do.
He now feels more comfortable about this.
The only other job he has is digging
(farming), so he makes a good living out of being a witch doctor.
Hanging from his roof inside he has plants,
beeswax in honeycomb, and Mukuka. His
shelf that contained various vessels was for making the local brew made from
bananas and sorghum.
David said his grandfather on his mother’s
side was a witch doctor but all his grandfather’s sons died because of bad
spirits (believed that witch doctors are linked to Satan) and so his mother has
not got brothers.
He said about homosexuals – two of them
couldn’t have a baby with a woman until the witch doctor intervened. Apparently
if a woman is cursed it will only become evident when she tries to deliver a
baby, which will be difficult in some way.
If there is something in her past that she has not confessed to, she may
die or something bad will happen. At
childbirth the husband often stands on the roof and calls for her to give birth
and then she does – rather than going for a Caesarian section straightaway as they may do nowadays.
David said he felt uncomfortable in the hut as
he felt there were spirits there. His
mother’s father, who as a witch doctor, was a good rain-maker and that’s what he
was best known for. David’s brother to
his father (uncle) was also a witch doctor but he burnt all the paraphenelia. It also turns out that Musa’s (the security guard at the foundry) father is a
witch doctor and he thinks he is higher up than the one we saw today. Musa thinks that they can kill someone – it
seems to be by suggestion, as the power of belief in this respect still seems
to be very strong. Paid 20000/- to the witch doctor today.
Took some photos of brick kilns today too.
Finished the rubber mould today pouring both
sides, but after 6 hours the first side was still not really set and even later
tonight it was still a bit sticky. The second
side was poured about 5 pm – the first was poured about 11.30 am. The catalyst is ‘slow’, so maybe on a hot
warm day that would be OK but it was damp and misty today.
David said the witch doctors could protect
murderers and get them released from prison fairly easily. He said the witch doctor could only tell him,
as he was a man, but couldn’t tell me this, as l was a woman!
The witch doctor thought David was his brother
Jacob and he didn’t put him right – maybe deliberately, as he was afraid he
might be hexed himself!!! David’s wife
said he didn’t have to go with me!!!
Another bat in the sitting room tonight –
managed to chase it out.
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