Witchdoctor
Talking about witchcraft, a few years ago a very good friend
developed a rash on his body. Then the soft parts of the skin became infected
by some unknown ailment. His eyelids started to swell and got very soft. All
this time he had been in and out of hospital and even went to the skin specialist
in Tamavua. After each consultancy the ailment would abate and then reappear.
In his desperation he decided to go to faith healers and he
almost completed the rounds going to all the religious denominations in Fiji.
Being a non-Christian he went from church, to temple, to mosque and lean-to
makeshift prayer houses. He was prayed over and even screamed upon, nothing
happened, the ailment got worse.
Then in his desperation he decided to visit a witch doctor.
He was advised to take a packet of cigarettes and $5 yaqona. The witchdoctor
performed his rites and the ailment went away. The rites were repeated four
times and after the fourth ceremony his body was clean. He had been cured.
He bought groceries and went to visit the witchdoctor and
his family. When he got to the home the family greeted him and he was told that
the very last day of the rites the witchdoctor had died.
Shocking coincident? Or sacrificial? But it made us
wonder as to how the ailment had afflicted him and if the witchdoctor had
really cured him.
My friend has returned to his faith.
Lockington's Everyday Fiji ... Life Goes On
Allen Lockington is a self-employed customs agent and business consultant who has regular articles published in Fiji. I thank Allen for permission to reprint some of them in this political blog. They remind us that life goes on, whatever the political situation. And it's good to know that.
1 comment:
When people get desperate, they may go outside the conventional ways of addressing health issues. There isn't a shortage of alternative medicines and therapies out there to cater for the post-moderns of today. At a price. Much of it is unregulated and so the risk is entirely the seeker's.
But if one is afflicted with an ailment that conventional medicine cannot do anything about like terminal cancer then it is easy to see why people turn to other forms of treatment. Depending on their religious beliefs, the stricken person will turn to their church, mosque or temple as their first port of call. Then to other places if that fails. No matter how modern a person may be and how much insignificance they assign to spiritual matters, a crisis such as health problems can turn them.
As to the withdoctor's sudden demise, who knows? what that the price to be paid for getting rid of a skin disease? And if he knew before hand would he have taken on the job? Was the work too stressful,coupled with smoking and drinking yaqona that had been offered as payment?
Post a Comment