Walking along the streets of Gamboula is a feast for the eyes. From the bright coloured outfits of the women, half-naked children running about, goats and sheep lying across the road and houses in all states of repair. However, if you look really close, you might notice the pineapple top hanging from someone's orange tree or the wad of rolled up leaves sitting above the door of someone's house. A village form of decoration you might think to yourself. But no, actually, this is the lock and key to your house, your protection against thieves stealing your ripening oranges. How can a rolled up wad of leaves possibly protect your garden, your fields, your home or your possessions from thieves? Because the belief is that the curse on those leaves is so strong that anyone stealing will drop dead as a result in no time at all. The point was driven home for Darren the other day when he went fishing with his friend Bruce. When they arrived at the river they came to two canoes sitting side by side. One, belonging to a missionary, was chained and locked to a tree. The other, belonging to Bruce, had a wad leaves sitting on the bow. This, Bruce pointed out, was his lock and key for his canoe, and a fundamental difference between Western and Central African thinking that affects every aspect of how we live and work here. Bruce, a church member, went on to explain that while he himself does not belief in the magic behind the leaves, everyone else does and so that keeps his boat safe which took many hours of hard work to make.
This belief is not just something from the old animist religious ways. In fact it is alive and well in the Christian church. Not so much that Christians here practice using leaves but they remain in the fear of those leaves. You see, while you can put leaves out to protect your things from thievery, the leaves can also be used as a means of thievery. My good friends sister, Anne, is a prime example. Anne is an active member of the Catholic church west of here but she recently came to Gamboula because of bandits in her village. She asked around for a piece of land to farm and was given some to which she promptly set to work clearing and turning over the soil. At about the time she was ready to plant the field, she arrived one day to find the garden littered with wads of leaves--medicine. The result being that she completely abandoned the garden and moved on to a field somewhere else. Why? Because the fear is that if she continue to farm that field harm would come to her and her children. The person to put the leaves in the field was likely the original owner who thought he could profit from someone else's labour, and he was right. The next field that Anne got resulted in the same thing and she is, to this day, without a garden. When I proposed that the church elders go to her garden and pray over it, thereby cleaning it of the evil curse on it, the idea was rejected. They will only come back and put more medicine in it.
Not surprisingly, this kind of thing only happens to Christians and in my view forms a kind of religious persecution here. If she had put a wad of leaves in her new garden at the start, no one would have dared counterattack with their own cursed leaves. Only Christians refrain from using this type of medicine and so they are prime targets for theft of all kinds. I am not a theologian and so have little comment as to what to do about the problem except to write things as I see them. It is however, a frustrating aspect of our work here and affects us as well. We have a lot of thievery problems in the nutrition garden that could easily be solved by hanging leaf wads around our fences. Not that I am suggesting this is what we do! Nor am I genuinely surprised that this is the way Satan is working against the church here. Reading the New Testament it is clear that we are to face trials of many kinds and things that test our faith and convictions. That doesn't mean that I am not angered when it happens in my neighbourhood and against my friends, many of whom work very hard only to have the fruits of their labour stolen from under them. My question is, how do I counsel them?
The other day we had an early morning call from one of the sentries who was unlocking the mission gates. One of the locks was stuffed with leaves and he was asking for bolt cutters to cut it off. Darren told him to just dig the leaves out to which he responded absolutely no way could he do that. When Darren arrived on scene he was informed that it was stuffed with medicine (cursed leaves) and so they couldn't touch it. Darren had to dig every last bit of leaves out of the lock before the sentry would put his key into the lock to unlock it, so powerful was the belief that he would die from touching the leaves. Darren, however, is alive and well and a testimony to the power of God.
I can neither deny nor agree with the power of such medicine. I can say that in many cases, fear can cause illness in and of itself. We have seen it at the hospital here many times where people come in very ill even though medically, there is nothing wrong with them. They are paralysed and diseased by their own fear. Can this be enough to kill someone, or can an evil curse on a pineapple top be enough to kill someone? I suppose if you believe in something strong enough it can do just that. Our witness is that the Holy Spirit is stronger and more powerful than any curse in heaven or on earth, including the death curse on the wad of leaves I picked up and threw away yesterday!
In other news, we are alive and well and working hard. The rainy season has been blessing us with wonderful rain and things are growing like weeds, including the weeds. The bean trial looks great, minus the soy beans which apparently are a favourite of goats. A side effect of our thievery problem in the garden is that people keep stealing the metal wire used to tie the pieces of woven fence matting together. This makes ample opportunity for goats to sneak into the garden where they find a restaurant menu of things for them to eat. The fight against goats is one that we will never win, but small victories would be nice. We plan on being in Bayanga June and July and I will try and be better at sending updates. Until next time, your thoughts are welcome and your prayers appreciated.
Angela
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