So, witch craft is the driving force in this village among the Himba and Hakawona and the longer we stick around to observe these people, the more juicy the witch craft stories get. They call it "omiti".
Our second week here, a Himba woman died and so we attended the week+ long festivities at their homestead. We missed the burial for that one because nobody knows how to relay details or plans because most people don't even know what day, month, or time it is. Basically there are three hours of the day: Sun rise, sun in middle of sky, and sunset. No such thing as "plans" here!
Well, our third week had a Hakawona woman die. As we had learned previously, nobody just dies of natural causes here. It is always because of a curse that somebody else had put on them. Then begins the fun of finding out who the jealous witch is that killed them! (I find myself incredibly frustrated over here because innocent people are blamed and beaten over a belief that omiti is real). A diviner is called upon (a witch doctor that can magically reveal who the person is that cursed the dead person) and witch doctors are visited to get more answers.
We went to the 7am funeral of this woman and sat and observed. There was a choir of young men and women who sang beautiful songs in Otchi-Herrero and there were 2 men who gave sermons from the bible. It's a funny mix of Christianity and Witch Craft here. The family sat around the coffin and after men stood up to deliver speeches about the woman, the old grannies got up. They would become possessed one by one and do some movin' and a shakin' as they draped necklaces on the coffin. Remember, the women here do not wear shirts or bras of any kind so these saggy old women were close to giving themselves black eyes with their boobs flinging in every direction. It was super funny when my favorite Himba lady, Karekatjo (the village midwife), got up and started shaking and dancing. She's got some moves! Apparently they were possessed with spirits of their dead ancestors. Pretty soon the grannies pulled out liters of beer and started drinking. We were told that it was the spirits who were thirsty-- not the actual people. They would never want to drink on their own accord! Mmhmm.
So they moved off to the side and started giving drinks of beer to the children and babies which floored me. These old women were still hungover form the night before when their pension money arrived form the government.
Some men came and picked up the coffin and began wandering around. The whole crowd stood up and looked really on-edge so we asked what was going on. Our translators, Hartley, Betty, and Anita, explained that the woman's spirit was now guiding the coffin around in search of the person that killed them. So basically, them men carrying the coffin could convict another person and really take the village drama to the next level. They wandered around in circles and zig zags for a solid hour as people ran to get out of their line of fire. Finally they dragged the poor lady whom they have convicted as the witch to blame, out of her hut so the coffin could find her and rest in peace.
Unfortunately, we wandered fo a long time after that following the coffin towards the burial ground because this spirit was just so angry and refused to get in the bed of the truck. Funny how that works. They kept having to switch out the pallbearers because they would get so tired.
Finally we reached the cemetery where they put the coffin n the ground and the family put a handful of dirt in the hole. By that time, it was three hours later and we were hungry and hot so we left.
News arrived two days later that ANOTHER woman died in the same homestead! The story just gets more and more dramatic but that'll have to be for another post.
Our second week here, a Himba woman died and so we attended the week+ long festivities at their homestead. We missed the burial for that one because nobody knows how to relay details or plans because most people don't even know what day, month, or time it is. Basically there are three hours of the day: Sun rise, sun in middle of sky, and sunset. No such thing as "plans" here!
Well, our third week had a Hakawona woman die. As we had learned previously, nobody just dies of natural causes here. It is always because of a curse that somebody else had put on them. Then begins the fun of finding out who the jealous witch is that killed them! (I find myself incredibly frustrated over here because innocent people are blamed and beaten over a belief that omiti is real). A diviner is called upon (a witch doctor that can magically reveal who the person is that cursed the dead person) and witch doctors are visited to get more answers.
We went to the 7am funeral of this woman and sat and observed. There was a choir of young men and women who sang beautiful songs in Otchi-Herrero and there were 2 men who gave sermons from the bible. It's a funny mix of Christianity and Witch Craft here. The family sat around the coffin and after men stood up to deliver speeches about the woman, the old grannies got up. They would become possessed one by one and do some movin' and a shakin' as they draped necklaces on the coffin. Remember, the women here do not wear shirts or bras of any kind so these saggy old women were close to giving themselves black eyes with their boobs flinging in every direction. It was super funny when my favorite Himba lady, Karekatjo (the village midwife), got up and started shaking and dancing. She's got some moves! Apparently they were possessed with spirits of their dead ancestors. Pretty soon the grannies pulled out liters of beer and started drinking. We were told that it was the spirits who were thirsty-- not the actual people. They would never want to drink on their own accord! Mmhmm.
So they moved off to the side and started giving drinks of beer to the children and babies which floored me. These old women were still hungover form the night before when their pension money arrived form the government.
Some men came and picked up the coffin and began wandering around. The whole crowd stood up and looked really on-edge so we asked what was going on. Our translators, Hartley, Betty, and Anita, explained that the woman's spirit was now guiding the coffin around in search of the person that killed them. So basically, them men carrying the coffin could convict another person and really take the village drama to the next level. They wandered around in circles and zig zags for a solid hour as people ran to get out of their line of fire. Finally they dragged the poor lady whom they have convicted as the witch to blame, out of her hut so the coffin could find her and rest in peace.
Unfortunately, we wandered fo a long time after that following the coffin towards the burial ground because this spirit was just so angry and refused to get in the bed of the truck. Funny how that works. They kept having to switch out the pallbearers because they would get so tired.
Finally we reached the cemetery where they put the coffin n the ground and the family put a handful of dirt in the hole. By that time, it was three hours later and we were hungry and hot so we left.
News arrived two days later that ANOTHER woman died in the same homestead! The story just gets more and more dramatic but that'll have to be for another post.
Comments
Post a Comment