Witches and the Bewitched

So other than those last 4 stories/news items, it's been since January that I've really updated on my life here in Lesotho.  Obviously that means there's a lot to catch up on. Lots of good days, lots of bad days. Lots of crazy times in the village. Lots of unexpected encounters while hitchhiking. Lots of kids doing silly things. Lots of training for the half marathon. And lots of... witches?

Well, that's what they say, at least. We here at Thuto-Ke-Leseli High School are battling a witch epidemic. It's been going on since the first week of school back in January. Witches only attack girls.

On the 2nd or 3rd day of school, we had a sort of opening mass to christen the new school year. There, a sweet young orphan girl from my village named Mamotseare gave a long speech. She was re-taking Form A after failing last year. She spoke about why she had failed. Sounds like it should be inspiring, right? Well, turns out she had become possessed by witches during finals. Her soul was taken captive and brought to a cave, where she was beaten and fed pig food for a month or so. Her body continued to persist as usual, so she was able to take her exams, but this caused her to fail. But as of the time of her speech, her soul had returned and she was ready to take on Form A again.

Naturally, I was not convinced.

A few days later, I entered the staff room to see a new student screaming and writhing on the ground. As she shouted things I did not understand, teachers and students stood around her, trying to hold her steady and calm her down. I watched on in bewilderment as they yelled alternately in English and Sesotho, things like "Out, in the name of Jesus!" and "Fire and the holy spirit!" This went on about 30 minutes until the girl regained full consciousness. She described, once again, caves and pig food. She returned to class, but came back a few hours later with the same problem. This time, I helped steady her head so she wouldn't slam it against the tile floor as she convulsed. Despite my obvious skepticism, it was disturbing. I can now say I've taken part in an exorcism.

Over the next few weeks, the same thing happened to a few other girls. Being possessed seems to manifest in slightly different ways each time - sometimes screaming and pain, sometimes loss of coordination, other times a state resembling a coma. But there are always caves, and always pig food.

One morning we called in a local pastor to help us fight the witches. He gave a sermon that (judging by students' reactions) was very compelling. It culminated in him putting his hand on each student's forehead as a kind of cleansing. Sometimes he would "see" something in a student's eyes. He would focus more on that student. The student would promptly collapse. There were, at one point, 6 students laying on the foyer of our staff building, shouting/twitching/falling over, with the rest of the student body watching in horror. They were some of my favorite kids - I was especially shocked to see it happen to Thato, one of the brightest, happiest girls I know.

Another student, a very nice quiet girl, was one day accused of being one of the witches behind all this. No word on any evidence behind the accusation, but nevertheless, she was taken to jail. Jail! Then she was released, and she returned to school. Teachers considered her to be in danger of violence, as our village blamed her for all the witchcraft. I'm not sure what happened since then, but she stopped coming to school.

These days, the problem has not gone away. One of my students, Mamoliehi, experiences a sort of coma every week or two. She just goes unconscious in the middle of class. She then gets carried to our staff room where she sits for a few hours, her eyes very slightly open. She does not respond to any stimuli whatsoever (even when I squeeze her pinky nail as a test for pain response). After a while, people come in and pray for her, then she wakes up. It's almost a routine.

So, what to make of all this? EVERYONE at school believes it's real witches. People disregard my Western ideas. Lately I've been pushing for Mamoliehi to go to a hospital, but no one cares. I can't get myself to believe there's any truth to the witchcraft. But it's not so easy to just dismiss it, either. I know it's easy to shrug off when you hear stories like this. But believe me when I say, it's totally different to watch students I care about suffer from it (and they really are suffering). Still, in the end, I don't buy it. In America, we stopped believing this stuff 200+ years ago. And above all, I'm a scientist.

I'm leaning towards a theory along the lines of: These girls are paranoid schizophrenic, and their paranoid delusions take the shape that their society tells them it should. The more people around them tell them they are possessed by witches, the more they believe it and act it out. But then, is it really possible for such delusions to manifest so physically and so violently? (Maybe.) And also, is it really plausible for this to happen to so many girls? What percent of people experience this kind of paranoia in their lifetime? My school is small, and I'm talking now about ~5-10% of our female students over a 4 month period. I welcome any ideas from people reading this. Are there certain triggers for a psychosocial epidemic of this nature? Are there precedents elsewhere?

At the very least, this whole experience has gotten me interested in the neurology behind religious/spiritual experiences. I'm reading some books now. I'll update if they help me reach any new theories.

Four Items

Here are some random but noteworthy events that have taken place in 2011 (can't believe I'm so backed up here...):

1. Sometime mid-January, I was walking to my school with friends. As we reached the mountaintop, clouds suddenly turned dark and it started to rain. In an instant, I heard the loudest sound/saw the brightest light I've ever seen. Though, I didn't process it right away. The first thing I noticed, before registering the sound or light, was that I was on my hands and knees. Turns out, lightning had struck a few yards away, and the force had thrown me to the ground. We ran into the nearest building, and after collecting ourselves, realized we were totally fine. Lesson learned: Don't walk on the summit of a mountain in a storm.

Then, one night a week later, I was sitting in my house watching Lost on my computer (watching entire TV series that you missed while in America, on your laptop alone in the dark, is a favorite PCV pasttime). The computer battery was running low so I plugged into my solar panel (which sits on my roof) through a car battery (which sits in my house). As I continued watching, it started to rain, which was so noisy on my tin roof that I couldn't hear the show. I plugged in headphones. The second I touched the headphones to my ears, I am not exactly sure but I think lightning struck my roof. It was very loud. And I think the electric current flowed through the panel, through the car battery, through the computer, and out the headphones, because a massive spark flew out from my ear, big enough that I could see it with my peripheral vision. My heart pounded and my head ached for about 30 minutes. My nerves were all the more racked after the events of the week before.

I'll confess I've been a little scared of lightning since that day. But I don't totally understand how this is possible, because I think if it really happened this way, my computer should have been fried (it's not) and/or I should be dead (I'm not). I welcome any phsyics/electrical engineering/meteorology experts who can make sense of it. Lesson learned: don't plug your head into your tin roof during a storm.

2. My mother's friend/neighbor, Ellen, donated enough money to sponsor a bunch of my best and most needy students! So far, the money has been used to keep 6 of my brightest students in school. There is enough still for a few more. Thank you, Ellen! Their thank you letters are on the way to Baltimore.

3. One day I gave a maths test in Form A (8th grade) which ended early. I gave kids the option to pass the extra time by telling them to "Write a funny story." Here's a very revealing but seriously disturbing one from a young boy named Moteri:

"Funny Story

Now we are happy because we have parents. My parents buy me anything that I like and the love me and also I love them because is my parents. All day they meet me also I meet because is my parents they shy me whe a make noti in somewhere.

My parents die because they burn at night and a cry for them because the died now we are lonnly We are funny."

On a lighter note, here's another one from a very smart young girl named Mokhantso:

"A man without senses

there was a man without head some boy dicided to found his head they touch him under the armpits they heard his head laughing under the rock and he was been stuck by a rock and run away them left his head!!!!"

4. My mom visited in April! She loved Lesotho, and Lesotho loved her. We had a great time touring the country, and especially visiting my school. There she received a very warm welcome from my coworkers and especially my students. They were in awe. Makhooa have parents, too. Thanks, mom!

We also went to Cape Town, which is a truly amazing city. Even better than advertised. Aside from a lot of really good quality mother-son bonding (aw), the highlight was probably my successful running of the Two Oceans Half Marathon. I finished in around 2:10 (the website says 2:15 but it lies!). Considering I never ran much before, it felt pretty good. And I was stunned to find that the race itself was actually a blast.

OK, more soon! Actually, I already wrote what will become the next post. I'll post it separately so it looks like I'm working harder (JM I hope you're happy :D).