Uchawi

Last week Wednesday, I had one of the most interesting conversations with my headmaster over chai.  He was filling me in on the latest details about one of our fellow teachers, and I’m going to recount this as best as I understood. While my headmaster speaks very good English, there’s still the possibility some of this was lost in translation. To begin, this teacher has recently been involved in negative “school politics,” supposedly pitting students against another teacher. Then during the night on Tuesday, some items from the teacher’s duka (shop) were stolen. It was unclear if the political involvement caused the theft, but regardless, the teacher apparently went to the local witch doctor to find out who stole from him. Getting an answer, he went to the man declared thief by the witch doctor, and demanded all of his items be returned, otherwise the witch doctor will kill him with his medicines. At this point, my headmaster told me that he warned the teacher that he must back down and drop the claims from the witch doctor. He is worried that the villagers, afraid of the teacher’s involvement in witchcraft, will attack him and possibly kill him. 

I was so in shock while he was telling me this story. I didn’t realize the presence of witchcraft, witch doctors and medicine men in this part of Tanzania. I asked if these are common beliefs, or if witch doctors are often still found in the villages, and he told me that it is because of our proximity to Burundi. Being only 10 km from the border, he said that their beliefs and traditions strongly influence people here, but at the same time there are many people who are trying to rid beliefs in witchcraft. It seems that education is the dividing factor among people who are still influenced by witchcraft. If you have an education, especially from the university, chances are you have more modern beliefs compared to villagers who may not be as well educated and who still might follow tribal traditions. At least, this is what I was able to gather in our brief 20-minute chai break.

Interestingly enough, Marisa also had a witchcraft discussion at her school on Wednesday morning. The details were much foggier from Muyenzi, but I do know the teachers were telling the students they were receiving an education so they should not believe in witchcraft. Check out her blog (tanzania365.com) for more stories!

I’ll be sure to keep you updated with more stories from the bush, and as of Friday there was no more news of witchcraft to report. Hopefully this situation will blow over with only minor effects on all parties involved, but life here is what it is. No more, no less.