African Curses
A look at the newspaper…or news site
As I write this, I can hear the ocean crashing. It’s early morning in Kauai, and I only have two days before I head home from vacation. The research into this topic has not gone easy. African curses appear so much in the zeitgeist that I thought finding quality history about them would be simple. So far it hasn’t been.
The exception to that are some born again self-proclaimed ex-witches. The reason I haven’t dived into those deeply is that the only stories I’ve stumbled on are those that proselytize. I’m not opposed to telling those stories, but I selfishly wanted to discover a gem the likes of which I had never heard of. Unfortunately that hasn’t happened and my self-imposed deadline is here, so I may revisit some of those stories in future writings.
I did find something unexpected. African curses in the news. There are dozens of articles detailing African curses on soccer players (footballers to the rest of the world), a few claims of curses in European politics, and the tragic ordeal of Nigerian sex slaves who are held captive not through violence, but through the fear of a juju curse. It reiterated the reality that African curses are not some relic of the past. They are alive, and for those that believe in their power, they are working today.
But first, a voodoo story from a doctor1
The story of Vance Vanders was first told in Symptoms of Unknown Origin (Vanderbilt University Press 2005) and later in True Medical Detective Stores ( CreateSpace 2012). The story was shown and told in an episode on Australian Public Television and also on BBC’s Television Health Discovery Chanel.
It was the spring of 1938. Dr Drayton Doherty worked at a hospital in Louisiana. It was an old house on the edge of town that had been converted. There were only 15 beds available for patients. A sixty-year old black man named Vance Vanders came in with his wife. He was a farm hand, and was suffering from an unknown illness that had ravaged his body. He had lost nearly 50 pounds.
The doctor thought it could be tuberculosis or some type of cancer, and ordered x-rays and tests, but everything came back fine. He was given a feeding tube, but his condition continued to worsen. Every time the feeding tube was filled, he would vomit.
“I’m going to die, I’m going to die,” he could be heard murmuring in his bed.
When he reached a point of near unconsciousness, his wife spoke with the doctor.
“You have to promise not to say anything to anyone about what I’m going to tell you. Promise me.”
“Okay, I promise.”
“Four months ago, Vance had a run-in with a voodoo priest. The man asked him to meet him in a cemetery.”
“A cemetery? Why?”
She didn’t answer, but continued with her story.
“They got into an argument, and the priest pulled out a bottle of something. Vance doesn’t know what it was but it smelled foul. He waved it around his face and told him he had been voodoo’d. He said he was going to die soon and no one, not even medical doctors could stop it. When he came home he couldn’t eat. He hasn’t eaten for weeks.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“He told us that if we spoke to anyone, he would curse our children.”
The doctor thought the case over that night. He didn’t believe in curses, but was fascinated by the turn that Vance’s health had taken. This was a small town, and he knew the man and his wife personally. He wanted to help them.
The next day, he called for all of Vance’s family to gather around the bedside as he spoke to him.
“I know exactly what’s wrong with you. The priest told me.”
Vance didn’t look like he believed it for a moment.
“I went to the cemetery last night and met your priest. He didn’t want to tell me what he did, but I choked him until he was almost dead and he finally gave in.“
Vance and his entire family were wide-eyed.
“That voodoo priest rubbed some lizard eggs into your skin, and they climbed down into your real stomach and hatched out some small lizards. All but one of them died, leaving one large one, that is eating up all your food and the lining of your body. I will now get that lizard out of your system and cure you of this horrible curse.”
The doctor had prepared his nurse with an emetic that would induce vomiting. He gave it to Vance and left the room. A few minutes later the nurse told him that the patient was vomiting, and Dr Doherty returned to check on him. As Vance was wrenching, he dropped a green lizard from his medical bag into the basin.
“Vance! There it is! It’s come out of you. You’re cured Vance! The voodoo curse is lifted!”
Vance jumped back on the bed, eyes wide in surprise. He didn’t vomit anymore, but fell asleep for the next 12 hours. When he woke up the next day he was ravenous, gulping down eggs and milk and bread. He was discharged a day later, and his strength returned quickly. When he did die, it was ten years later from a heart attack.
The Juju Curse Trapping Nigerian Women In Human Trafficking2
Wealth was like a lot of other Nigerian women in her home town of Benin City. She was educated, had received a laboratory sciences degree from university, but was enable to find work in her city. Benin City is poor, an agriculture dependent region that has suffered from nutrient depleted soil and failed crops.
A friend’s tip offered to change all that. She knew of work in Italy. Wealth could help sell African trinkets and goods at markets there and earn enough to send money home to her family. There was only one condition: the sponsor would pay to get Wealth to Italy, but she would have to pay back the debt out of her earnings. Wealth agreed.
To ensure that she would pay the debt back and not go back on her agreement, Wealth was taken to a juju priest. There she made an oath to pay back her debt and never betray her new boss. She gave the priest fingernail clippings, menstrual blood, pubic hair and pieces of her underwear. He bound it into a bundle and placed it on a shrine.
“If you ever go back on your oath, you will be cursed. Your family will be cursed.”
When she got to Italy, her new boss informed her that her debt was $80,000, and she would be working in the red light district to pay it off. Wealth became one of thousands of young Nigerian women trapped in human trafficking because of a juju curse, a curse that is so feared that nearly none of the women will go back on their traffickers or the madams who run the operation.
NGO’s are working to persuade women to escape, but many that do are haunted by the fear that something is after them. One woman was set to testify against her traffickers, but when she got on the stand, she went into a fit and had to be carried out of the courtroom. Others have ended up in mental hospitals across Sicily.
In one hospital, many of the women refuse to eat or accept treatment. They are plagued by the fear that something bad is going to happen to them. Dr Argo Virgilio of the Vittorio Emanuele hospital in Catania says that the symptoms they observe are common to PTSD. Psychotic breaks, hallucinations, insomnia and panic attacks are among them. The women believe it is the result of breaking their vow. Many attempt to return to their traffickers to try and repay their debt. Even if it takes years, many of the women believe it will be worth it.
The Ghanian Witch Doctor Cursing Soccer Players
Nana Kwaku Bonsam. He is known as the “Devil of Wednesday” and is considered the Ghana’s most influential witch doctor…at least according to The Guardian.3
He earned attention after he claimed to be responsible for cursing Cristiano Ronaldo. The doctors, he claimed, would not be able to help with the injury because the source was a spiritual one. The reason? To prevent Ronaldo from playing in the World Cup in Brazil. Apparently the curse didn’t work. Or did it? Ronaldo played through his injuries, but the team lost to Germany 4-0. It was the worst World Cup loss in the country’s history.
The man has also cursed politicians, and claimed that he killed Pastor T.B. Joshua in a spiritual fight. When I looked up his cause of death on Wikipedia, it states the cause of death was unknown4.
If you’re curious you can watch an interview with him here:
Italian Deputy Senate Speaker Claims He Has Been Cursed5
In 2013, Roberto Calderoli insulted Italy’s first black minister, Congolese born Cecile Kyenge. He compared her to an orangutan. He was called out for his racist comments and apologized, but refused to resign. A video later surfaced of the woman’s father, 75-year-old Clement Kikoko Kyenge, performing a ceremony with a picture of Calderoli.
In it her father, a Congolese tribal leader, is seen observing as a photo of Calderoli is placed on an enclosed termite mound. According to Kyenge he was praying to God for Calderoli to repent.
After Calderoli saw it, his life took a turn for the worse. His health deteriorated over the next year, requiring 6 surgeries. He suffered from a fractures, and then his mother died. After all of that misfortune, he came home one day to find a snake in his kitchen. It was over 6 feet tall. He killed it, and is now considering requesting an exorcism from the pope, believing himself to be a victim of evil spirits due to an African curse.
As for Kyenge’s father, he only stated that the snake did seem like a bad omen.
“I’m not sure if killing it was the right thing to do.”
He thinks that as long as Calderoli’s apology was sincere he has nothing to worry about. Based on what’s happened so far, that’s a pretty big if.
How Do Curses Work
Throughout reading these stories, there seems to be one common component: belief. If you believe in the curse, then it affects you. It controls you. Wreaks havoc on your life. Can even kill you. The rest of the ceremony seems to be to induce fear. Sacrificing animals, holding a photograph, sending a red powder in the mail. All of them are catalysts. Something shocking to make you feel that the threat is real. To present it in flesh and blood. To burn into your mind the idea the image of power until you believe it. And then your fate is sealed.
On the power of fear
I was doing early morning curse reading yesterday at my Airbnb in Kauai and came across a Reddit thread. The person posting was asking for help after jujuing themselves. I was curious. Apparently they had been to Maui on a work vacation they won. On a hike they had found some volcanic rock and decided to take it home as a souvenir. Ever since they got back from the trip, life just hasn’t been right. Work is going poorly, their health has deteriorated.
They hadn’t thought about the rocks until someone asked them about it. Apparently Pele will curse you if you take anything from her. The advice on Reddit? Send the rocks back. The poster thanked everyone and updated to say he was putting them in the mail. I looked over at the table I was sitting at. A few black volcanic rocks sat in the center. I read the post again and decided it would be better to leave them here on the island. Just in case.
The story of Vance Vanders was first told in Symptoms of Unknown Origin (Vanderbilt University Press 2005) and later in True Medical Detective Stores ( CreateSpace 2012). The story was shown and told in an episode on Australian Public Television and also on BBC’s Television Health Discovery Channel.
On Cristiano Rivaldo’s knee injury.
Fascinating read. Great job, Shaina!