« I love blinking, I do | Main | Tamasheq words you may not know »
March 04, 2005
Blood of bat and toe of frog
In Djibo market sits Al Hadji Amadou, the medicine-man. There are various different sorts of medicine-men in Djibo. There are Western-style doctors in Western-style clinics, including the great Australian surgeon Ken Elliot, famous throughout West Africa for his philanthropy and skill. There are also hawkers of 'street-medicine', mostly young men with sacks of coloured pills in unmarked sachets - they are the reluctant subjects of a current radio and billboard campaign 'Medicaments de la rue - ca tue!' And there is Al Hadji Amadou, who does a roaring trade in blood of bat and toe of frog and skin of spitting cobra. His products are interesting, expensive and occultic.
In the market on Wednesday Al Hadji called me over and engaged me in a debate about his wares. I said we shouldn't need a snake skin in our pocket to protect us and solve our financial worries - that we should trust in God, who knows what we need even before we ask it. Al Hadji countered that it was God who had helped him to catch and kill the snake, so that people could buy bits of its skin. I said that God doesn't like us putting our hope in bits of wood and cloth and bone and skin. He said, 'This stuff is powerful - whose power is it, if not God's?'
'What are the most powerful things here?'
'This falcon foot here and that bush-rat skin over there.'
'What would happen to me if I burned the bush-rat skin?'
'If you burned the bush-rat skin, you would not be able to find your way home - you'd just wander around the market here for ever and ever.'
'What would happen to me if I burned the falcon foot?'
'You'd turn into a falcon and fly away.'
'Do you have fire?'
'Are you serious?'
'I want to show you that God's power is greater than the power of these things.'
'I refuse to be responsible for what happens to you if you burn them.'
'You are not responsible.'
'Okay - (turning to a child nearby) Bring me some hot coals from the brazier.'
By this time quite a crowd had gathered around for the show, some laughing, some visibly frightened, all craning their necks to see what would happen to me. The child returned with the coals. I burned the falcon foot and the bush-rat skin (what a smell) and said briefly to the people gathered that God's power is greater than all other powers in heaven and on earth. After that I chatted with Al Hadji for a while, gave him some money to compensate him for the two items and went home. Carl and Shar prayed for me later that morning for protection from any occult power in those objects.
I have nothing against Al Hadji personally, or against traditional medicines per se (some of which are tried and tested natural products). But when it comes to the use of 'power objects' (a falcon's foot in the pocket or a bush-rat skin under the hat), I am convinced that God himself is much more worthy of our faith and trust.
I will publish your comments on this post if you email them to sahelsteve{at}voiceinthedesert{dot}org{dot}uk.
Update: I went out to Monde So last night (my colleague Mark Gibson was doing an SIM grain distribution there) and found people in the village already talking about the above incident - news here travels incredibly quickly. One child there told me that after I had left, Al Hadji rescued the remains of the falcon's foot from the fire and put it back on his stall. Thirty all.
Posted by sahelsteve at March 4, 2005 09:34 PM