Thursday, November 26, 2009

Another witch story

On this day when Americans eat turkey, I am reminded of the expression "to eat crow"...perhaps because I don't eat birds of any kind.

To eat crow means that you made a mistake and have to acknowledge it humbly.

When a crow dies it shrivels up and even insects won't eat it. And in Ghana where people eat cat, dog,and large rodents they don't eat crow because they believe that crows are witches in disguise.

I do know for a fact that Ghanaian crows are large, extremely noisy and easy to spot because they look like they are wearing white T shirts.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

from 37 to Medina


After the previous post, I owe you something less serious.
If you've been to Africa you'll find this very funny.

BTW: an Obroni is a white person. The driver is saying that the mate is good for business and when he doesn't show up for work the passengers are unhappy.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Pastors in Nigeria denounce children as witches

This headline is over a story in the Boston Globe that tells about a father who poured acid down his sons throat after the pastor accused the boy of being a witch.

The boy is dead.

It's not just in Nigeria. In Africa if you don't like someone just accuse them of being a witch. That pretty much finishes them. They may not die, but they are shunned and that can be just as bad. When I asked why one of my neighbors in Ghana was a witch, the proof was that she didn't cry when her husband died.
This is the husband who mistreated her and disappeared, leaving her with 10 children to support.

In the States halloween was celebrated last week. There were lots of little witches wandering around and everyone said they were so cute. Even a dog was dressed in a pointed hat. Can you imagine what an African would say about that?

There were houses decorated with witches and ghosts. Ghosts? My, my...we don't even talk about ghosts in Africa.

In Salem, not far from Boston, witches were burned at the stake. There was a frenzy in the community and many "witches" were put to death. The story goes that slaves told stories to children and the children started to see witches.

My fascination is with cultural differences, and this one is a doozy. It might even be funny if so many corpses hadn't piled up.

The Boston Globe article goes on to say that in the past month alone, 3 Nigerian children accused of witchcraft have been killed and another 3 were set on fire.

All this in the name of religion.