Malawian Belief Systems

Yesterday we had a soccer game between teachers and students. After the first half I had to be substituted by another player, because I got blisters on my feet. My European feet couldn’t handle the friction of the sand that entered my shoe. Incredible that some of the students played 90 minutes without any shoes at all!

This is what happens...

After the soccer game we had a house warming party at our house. It was the teachers’ idea and it was really nice. The cook came and put on a barbecue, we had some meat along with a chicken feet (needless to say that I ate one). It was really nice to get to know the teachers better and chat with them about various things.

One of the things we talked about was religion. In Malawi, there are two main belief systems in Malawi that the vast majority believes in: Christianity and witchcraft. Maybe it is strange that they believe in both of these, as it seems to be contradictory.

The belief in witchcraft has a long tradition in Malawi. All of the teachers at the school believe in it. They said “of course you don’t believe in it, but in Malawi witchcraft works!” The headmaster expressed his disappointment that you couldn’t legally prosecute a witch or a wizard even if they admit it, because there was no law against it. He says that this is only still because of the British. A rich person is quickly called a witch or a wizard in Malawi, if they don’t know where the money comes from. If you marry someone that the uncle and family haven’t arranged for you they will likely bewitch you. Fortunately, however, it is really difficult to bewitch a white person.

In Malawi there is also a mountain called Mount Mulanje. It is the highest mountain in Malawi. When I asked Henry if he ever climbed it he explained that you cannot climb this mountain, because you will disappear. He even cited a case of a Dutch tourist that once disappeared trying to climb the mountain. So it is a similar place as the Bermuda triangle. But in the lower part of the mountain you will sometimes find food lying there. If you do you should just sit down and eat. Don’t tell your friends because then the food will disappear. So remember that the next time you travel Malawi.

The headmaster already told us about the Gule Wamkulu (see picture). These are not humans, but animals when they are dressed like that. They don’t talk. About 5 % of the population in central region are a part of this ‘religion’. You shouldn’t try to undress them and reveal their secret otherwise they will kill you. In earlier times people were very afraid of them and ran away when they saw one. Today they are harmless, especially towards mzungus. Unfortunately I haven’t seen any of them yet, the picture is from a postcard that I bought.

Besides magic, there is a really strong belief in Christianity. The first time that I noticed this was during the assembly on Monday morning, where the headmaster told the kids: “cleanliness is next to godliness, and I’m sure that none of you would like to go to hell.” There was also a prayer during the assembly. In Malawi everybody belongs to a church. There is virtually nobody saying that he is an atheist. If they would, they would likely not have any friends. “What church do you belong to?” is a question that you hear quite often and quite quickly in Malawi. Sometimes people are surprised if you answer that you don’t belong to any. One of the teachers explained it like this:

“In Europe, you don’t really need religion, because you already have everything. But we

Africans we need religion. It is the opium of the poor. Take Ebola for example: Western

countries prepare themselves by research and trying to find a cure, implementing safety

measurements. All that’s left for Malawians is to pray.”

This kind of strong belief in the impact of prayer also leads to fatalism in Malawi. According to the teachers you will find many people believing that if they just pray hard enough, God will give them a house, or a car, or whatever it is they desire. This let’s you be quite lazy. People just pray, but don’t do anything themselves to try to change their situation. People need to believe that tomorrow they might be doing better. If they don’t they think they just need to pray harder. Often there are stories on the radio or during church service of people who could improve their lives a lot, only by praying. This kind of belief system can also be one of the reasons that the country is only slowly developing. If people believe that they are making their own luck, they might be more motivated to work hard.

Magic is also often the scapegoat for the tragedy of HIV. Because of the lack of knowledge about HIV and how to protect oneself people often thought they had been bewitched and went to a witch doctor, which they thought could cure them. People also visit witch doctors for other serious illnesses, which has led to many senseless deaths in Malawi (see Kamkwamba, 230). With respect to HIV, however, things are changing in Malawi. In earlier times, there was such a big stigma attached to it that people would not even dare to seek help. Now there are many programs and information campaigns about it (remember I talked about Coris who works for such a program).

The problem of people going to witch doctors instead of hospitals can also be seen in Liberia and Sierra Leone at the moment, where people often distrust western medicine that is still seen as something coming from white people. This enables and facilitates the spread of Ebola in these countries.

The teachers also talked about Hyenas. In Malawi, after you are married you are expected to have children within 6 months; otherwise people (especially parents) will start asking questions and whether you need help. If the man is impotent, a hyena is called, whose job of a Hyena is to come in the night, impregnate a woman, and leave again in the night (hence hyena), so nobody knows that the child comes from another man. This used to happen quite often, but nowadays not so much anymore, because of the problem with aids. The following pictures also document the efforts to battle HIV:

The belief in magic is generally slowly starting to fade out, though. When I asked my kids in class if they believe in magic, most of them said no, some were even giggling. But here we are in a city, in the countryside I think it is still very prevalent.