Okay, so you know how you always see on the TV or hear in crazy songs about the African witch doctors, and how you think that stuff doesn't really happen. There is no way that people believe this stuff, well let me say, that it does happen and and witch doctor ceremonies are real.
I have this friend in Namaacha, who teaches English in one of the primary schools. He told me that his aunt is going to hold a witch doctor ceremony. Apparently she was being trained to become a witch doctor. Why was she being trained to be a witch doctor as a profession? Well one day her house mysteriously burnt to the ground. She was able to survive the fire, only to rebuild the home, and watch that home burn to the ground. She thought this was weird and that something was behind this, not someone, something. So she did what she thought was best, she went to a traditional witch doctor???? The witch doctor told her that the gods had placed in her destiny to become a witch doctor. She had denied the gods this, so the gods were trying to kill her. The witch doctor said, she must become a witch doctor or eventually the gods would succeed and she would die. So, she packed all her things, moved in with a witch doctor and went through a one year witch doctor training. This was how the story was told to me.
After the training, she was to hold 4 ceremonies for the gods. I was invited to the fourth and final ceremony . Now, when I say that I was invited to a witch doctor ceremony, I don't mean some fake ceremony put on for a bunch of white tourists. I mean my roommate and I were the only two white people there. This was as real as it gets.
So the first 20 minutes of the ceremony, was the witch doctors in this small round hut. No one apparently knows what goes on in there. But someone did say that they are summoning the gods. After that, the witch doctors come out, with full gear. They had a tone of necklaces, mostly with wood carvings on them. They had feather head dresses. They started dancing, and they kept dancing. Someone explained to me, that it wasn't them dancing that it was the gods dancing. That they could dance that like for hours and never get tired, because the gods were controlling their bodies.
They started chanting in Zulu. Someone explained to me, that none of the witch doctors spoke Zulu, but the gods spoke Zulu, so that was the gods speaking to the people.
They danced to the heavy drum beat for about thirty minutes, before they went back into the hut. Apparently this time, they were seeing what the gods demanded of them, and what presents should be presented to the gods.
They came back out, danced and spoke more Zulu, or I should be correct in saying the gods danced and spoke Zulu. They started to dance around the crowd of people, before taking a seat. As the three witch doctors sat their, their bodies started to shake uncontrollable. The beat of the drums got louder and louder. They started to yell in Zulu, their voices only drained by the beat of the drum.
After about 10 minutes of shaking and chanting, a goat was brought forward. It was tackled to the ground, and the three witch doctors and two other men surrounded the goat, so no one in the audience could see. They surrounded the goat for about five minutes, and when they rose to the feet, the slitted goat lay their lifeless, and the witch doctor stood with a glass of blood, which she drank.
They danced their way back into the hut, and the then reappeared after 10 minutes, back to their normal talk and swagger, and not able to remember what had just taken place.
Believe in that stuff or not, that is what happened.
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