Animism Within The Gambia, Part 2

 The following is a continuation of my previous post on the role of Animism here in The Gambia (http://dawn4publichealth.blogspot.com/2011/03/animism-root-of-gambias-faith.html):

I don't know how I get into these conversations. No other volunteer has had the opportunity to learn as much as I about Animism in The Gambia. But there I was, sitting with my counterpart, Omar, under a large tree in the middle of a neighboring village, when the opportunity for information presented itself. As usual, I made the most of the opportunity, longing to understand the underlying traditional beliefs of this West African country. The conversation went something like this:

"Last night I stayed up very late looking at the internet on my phone. I had to convince the other men in my compound to stay up with me so I wasn't sitting alone outside."

"Why didn't you want to stay outside by yourself?"

"You never know what you will encounter at night here in these rural villages."

"What type of things are you afraid of?"

"Well, there's one man in the village that knows how to change into a monkey. He's been seen sitting on the bantaba (communal sitting area in the center of the village) as a monkey in the middle of the night. One shopkeeper actually left the village because this man/monkey was trying to break into his house and kill him!"

"Oh my gosh! And this man lives in OUR village?"

"Yes"

"Has he been seen in his monkey form recently?"

"Yeah, well, he's old now, so maybe he doesn't have the abilities to change into a monkey anymore."

"Oh...Are there other things you're worried about running into at night?"

"Well, each village has witches."

"There are witches in OUR village?"

"Yes"

"What do they do?"

"They kill people."

"Oh" 

"How do they kill people?"

"They eat them."

"Oh"

*awkward silence

"Should I be afraid that I'm going to be eaten?"

"As long as you don't have a witch as a relative then you're safe."

"Why would that be?"

"Because witches only eat each others' relatives."

"How do they determine which relative they're going to eat?"

"They take turns, going from family to family."

"So...how do witches exactly kill a person?"

"They eat the person from the inside, so from the outside the person looks like nothing's wrong. And I heard a story about a police force in Kombo that faced a witch-caused death and because the law doesn't address spiritual warfare, the police asked a witch to explain how this is possible. The witch told the 4 police to find a ripe papaya and place it on a table while he sat across the room, in a chair against the wall. As the police sat there, in front of the papaya, the man was seen chewing on something across the room...but nothing was seen going into his mouth. After a few minutes, the man told the police to touch the papaya. When they touched it, it crumbled to pieces, as all that was left was the skin. Its insides were gone. The police were shocked and looked to the witch across the room who said, 'That's how we eat people; we eat their insides.'"

I was in shock, thinking about the multiple deaths that I've heard of that have been attributed to something spiritual. "So, every death that's said to be caused by spiritual things is caused by a witch?"

"No, some people go to maribouts (Islamic-trained psychic-type) who put a curse on people."

I sat there, pondering what I had just learned. How could it be that people were being killed by others and totally get away with it? How was the police force supposed to handle this? And how is a Peace Corps Volunteer supposed to respond to such activity going on among his/her community members? Before I could complete processing all this, I was alarmed by a final story:

"I heard of a woman who married a man that she really loved. She was a witch. It was determined at a witch gathering that her husband would have to be the one eaten. But if she chose to spare his life, it would be her life in his place. In order to save them both, she approached her husband with a proposition. He was to sleep with the light on that night, with a fly swatter by his head. In the middle of the night he would see 3 flies enter the room. The one on the left was her father, the one on the right was her mother, and she was in the middle. He was to get up, kill the fly to the left, then the fly to the right, but leave the one in the middle as that is his loved wife. That night he lay sleepless, waiting for the unexplainable to happen. When he saw 3 flies enter the room he freaked out. He grabbed the fan and out of fear for his life he killed all 3 flies. The next morning the village was alarmed with the bizarre news of a woman and her parents all dying the same night! The man was so shaken up by all this, knowing he caused the death of his loved wife, that he didn't tell anyone the story of what really happened for 3 years."

The first thing I thought of is that these stories sound like fairy tales, Disney movie-type material, or even similar to "Twilight". But this is all very real. The people are convinced that there are spiritual forces at work around them. While some believe reciting the Qua ran will keep them safe, others believe the best way is to go to the maribout and have a juju made (a charm) that could be worn to bring protection.  So, back to the question of what a Peace Corps Volunteer's role should be in all this? What would you do?