...they can’t shoot me if they can’t find me!

When you travel, you learn about new about new cultures and new beliefs.

I came across a new phenomenon this week…the overwhelming belief in something called the “witch gun”.  I met a young man, Paul, who was in tears; he had just learnt that his younger brother had passed away at the age of 24.  He was trying to explain the events that lead to the death but I wasn’t following…the brother got ill…seen at a private hospital…went to a herbalist (natural healer)…diagnosed with witch gun…too late…died.  WTF?

One of the English speakers who was with us pulled me aside to explain: Paul’s brother had recently graduated nursing school and gotten a job.  Others were jealous of his success.  Someone would have gone to a traditional healer and stated that “they wanted to do bad on him”.  The traditional healer (or sorcerer) would have decided the best potion to use, and then loaded it into a ‘gun’.  He would then approach Paul’s brother, while in an invisible state, and shot the gun.  Most likely he would find pellets (sometimes lead or sugar or peppercorns) embedded in the skin but sometimes you just hear the noise and the magic is just sprinkled on the skin.  After being ‘shot’ he would have started to feel ill…Western medicine won’t help…sometimes seeing traditional healer might help.  The healers can cut out the pellets and the surrounding skin (to remove all the magic) but only if seen early enough.  Praying – either to Allah or God – will help more than any medicine.  The suspicion amongst the staff was that Paul’s brother likely didn’t pray hard enough.

I am not making this up.  Quite often it feels like I am on an episode of Punked or candid camera…so far no one has jumped out to say “just kidding!”

I did a little reading; apparently the blaming of unexplained deaths on paranormal events is normal practice in Guinea and Sierra Leone.  In a way I can understand it…there really is no ability to diagnose a lot of things here.  An 18 y.o. dies after a headache – back home a CT reveals a ruptured aneurysm in the brain, here…shot by a witch gun and inadequate praying.  A 22 y.o. dies after some shortness of breath – back home we discover a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lung), here…shot by a witch gun and inadequate praying.

I don’t know if anything I have done here would have upset anyone enough to resort to black magic but to be safe, I shall don my own cloak of invisibility when I am out and about…they can’t shoot me if they can’t find me!