Dark magic takes on Kalashnikovs
CAR fighters turn to a mystical weapon of defence, writes Stephan Hofstatter
SWARMS of bees that blacken the sky. Deadly snakes sent sweeping through the long tropical grass. A drop of water that plummets from the bough of a tree, turning into a deadly projectile that can bore a hole in your enemy’s skull.
These are the weapons conjured up by amulets known as gris-gris that Gbaya villagers in the Central African Republic have used for decades against nomadic Peuhls (Muslim pastoralists) who attack them.
After the coup on March 24 last year that cost 15 South African soldiers their lives, the mostly Muslim Seleka rebels swept to power.
Some of the Peuhls joined the Seleka, who armed them and other Muslim groups with pistols and Kalashnikovs.
This sparked a backlash in December by mostly Christian self-defence groups calling themselves anti-balaka that threatens to turn into a fullblown genocide against the Muslims who are still left in the country.
The anti-balaka — balaka means machete in Sango — believe their gris-gris makes them immune to machete blows and Kalashnikov bullets.
“You can’t get wounded. Your body becomes like a rock,” said gris-gris maker Jeanne Yabada in the lounge of a relative in Bangui. “Sometimes the grisgris will transfer your injury to a tree and the tree will die.”
Yabada, wearing a grubby shift and a colourful headscarf, hurled cowrie shells on the ground as she revealed the mystical arts of making gris-gris.
Gris-gris consist of pouches and horns — and sometimes hoofs and vials — containing special powders. They are strung along belts hung around the fighter’s neck or slung over his shoulder. The garland carries a padlock that must be unlocked when not in battle. “Otherwise the gris-gris causes discord. You will start fights with your family. Your car won’t be able to start,” said Yabada.
The hoof is a particularly dangerous weapon. “During a fight, it can turn you into a snake or the wind so your enemy can’t see you. It’s deadly,” said Yabada. Gris-gris also salves your conscience. “When you kill someone, the ghost of the person will not disturb you — the gris-gris will chase it away.”
Yabada became a medicine woman, known as nganga, when she was six months old. “My grandmother took me into the bush and dipped me in a stream for three days so that the ancestors would transfer this gift to my body.
“When I was eight, she advised me how to develop the arts. Four times a year, you must go into the forest to sacrifice a white chicken to the ancestors. Then the ancestors reply in your dreams and tell you what to do.”
To obtain the protective power of gris-gris, a fighter must go to the forest and purify his body. Then he anoints it with oil extracted from baraga bark. For three days the anointed fighter cannot shower and must eat a dish prepared by the grisgris maker.
There are strict taboos governing the use of gris-gris. Certain animals such as a pig, a snake called kota gibo, a fish known as gbigbi and the vegetables karakandji and dadawd cannot be eaten.
“You must remain faithful to your wife and never have sex with another woman, who will transfer her bad energy to you and cause you to lose all your powers,” said Yabada.
Her cowrie shells help her to divine the future of the Central African Republic. They tell her interim President Catherine Samba-Panza is an impediment to peace. Bangui’s former mayor, she took over from Seleka leader Michel Djotodia when he fled the country in January. Now she presides over a failed state prevented from lurching into complete chaos by the presence of thousands of foreign peacekeepers.
We step out of Yabada’s lounge, filled with dark tales of magic and death, into bright tropical sunshine. Yesterday, this neighbourhood reverberated with gunfire, forcing Yabada to flee for her life. Today, all is quiet. In the dusty yard, children are playing with clay Kalashnikovs. The future of this country looks bleak.