Witchcraft & Papayas

The baby was staring at me, his eyes bulging widely as if he had never seen a light-skinned person before. He otherwise looked undisturbed, sitting peacefully on his mother's lap in the back corner of the matatu. I had just climbed into the van, and found the last open seat just next to the mother and this child in the very back, and as I reached my seat and made eye contact with the mother I gave her a non-verbal greeting with a wave and an amicable grin. She smiled back kindly, and then turned her attention to her small child who was still fixated on me. Suddenly, the mother says to her small boy in Swahili, “Look at the witch,” pointing directly at me.
“Witch?” I replied to her, in a shocked tone. It was a grave accusation to call someone in the village a witch, and I truly was shocked to hear this lady speak of me that way to her child.
She looked at me with an expression similar to that of her child: eyes bulging and mouth gaping open. From her expression, she did not expect me to know Swahili.
“Hey, I am not a witch.” I replied. “I am just a human being, like you.” I then turned and faced the front, not giving any more attention to the mother and her child. Then I heard her tell her child, “Look at the human being.”

Witchcraft. This culture is inundated with fear and respect of it. Its existence is unquestioned and its power is unbounded. When I ask people about it they become all too solemn, as if they are reflecting about a time they were deeply affected by witchcraft's tainted powers. They are even afraid to know too much about the whole subject, some afraid of the very accusation that one could be a witch. They say that witchcraft leads to wealth and prosperity, but at the sake of one's sanity. They could go so far as to hunt albinos to be killed, experimented on, and used in spell-casting. And a witch's curse is not easily broken.

The most popular curse is the “fatal infatuation curse.” Men and women who are perhaps stricken by lust, love or infatuation with someone who does not return those feelings may find themselves seeking the aid of a witch. Through unintelligible mutterings, sacrifices, and specific rituals, they can curse that desired person into falling deeply infatuated as well. Experiential evidence has reported that friends whom have been inflicted with this particular curse are perfectly fine one day, but the next they are following someone around like a loyal dog follows an owner, desperate and unable to control their actions, and they continue to behave this way for extended periods of time. This behavior, they say, is undoubtedly the power of witchcraft.

Witches also have control of natural phenomena. It was reported that a witch was driven off from a village when all the surrounding villages received exceeding amounts of rain while the village the witch lived in did not get a single drop. The witch was accused of stopping the rain, or that his evil presence drove away the blessing of rainfall. Although, it was indeed a strange situation. For more than two months during the rainy season this village did not receive any rain while every other area, even just 2 kilometers on each side, was getting record amounts. To the alleged witch's credit, even after he was driven off, their still was no rain. (How terrible though, to be accused and driven off from your home and your land just by the speculations and superstitions of your neighbors).

There are methods to identify a true witch, though, so that accusations can be verified. My friend Carol gave me a detailed account of one of these ceremonies. It went like this: The villagers stood in a circle, and a few who were accused of practicing witchcraft were present among them. The leader of this ceremony explained the procedure which went like this: everyone must eat a piece of papaya for which the witch will be unable to swallow. The leader then pulled out a whole papaya and drew his knife, cutting equal pieces and passing the tray around. As each person took and swallowed his or her piece, they looked pensively around at one another, expecting..perhaps hoping..something would happen. Suddenly, he began to cough and his throat swelled to twice its normal size. This witch was identified.


I was skeptical, though. There always seems to be a reasonable explanation to strange phenomena. I bombarded her with questions or explanations:

Louis: He probably just choked.
Carol: No, he really couldn't swallow. He tried multiple times.
Louis: Maybe he was sick?
Carol: He looked just fine before eating.
Louis: Perhaps it was allergies?
Carol: He has eaten papaya before.
Louis: One slice of the papaya was poisoned or tampered with.
Carol: It was cut in front of them, all the same, with washed knives.

I paused, unable to think of another explanation, but knowing that their had to be. Then I asked, “What did they do to him?”
Carol: I don't know.

“Why papaya?” I asked, curiously.
She smiled at me, then replied, “Papaya is easy to swallow.”