The Awakening Coast: An Anthology of Moravian Writings from Mosquitia and Eastern Nicaragua, 1849-1899

20. Visions of the Prophet Wima, 1891

20 Visions of the Prophet Wima, 1891 Heinrich Ziock, [Station Report from Twappi, October 2, 1891], Missions-Blatt aus der Brüdergemeine (1891): 132–37. Heinrich Ziock, [Further Notes on the Prophet Wima], Missions-Blatt aus der Brüdergemeine (1893): 98–101. In these two articles published two years apart, Ziock describes the prophetic visions and behavior of Wima, a Miskito sukia and spirit uplika (spirit person). We readers are fortunate that the two articles were published immediately after Ziock experienced the events described. For had he written the first when he wrote the second, he would have described Wima as a sukia from the moment he encountered him. In contrast, Ziock attributes Wima’s initial visions to the effects of the Awakening, and he was not yet ready to pass a negative judgment on his actions. This changes as Wima begins to interpret his visions on his own. One could argue that Wima’s initial visions were in line with traditional sukia practice, but in this case Wima apparently did not know how to interpret them. By the second installment, it appears that Wima became more comfortable with the visions and began to assign meaning to them in ways that differed from Christian orthodoxy but resonated with Miskito culture at Sandy Bay. Ziock claims to have taken this usurpation of power to interpret God’s will in stride; as he put it, “To us missionaries, who have lived here throughout the Awakening, such utterances are familiar enough and are in no way surprising.” There are few better examples that explore how sukias and spirit people melded Christian ideas to their own worldviews. The example of Wima’s medicinal finger also illustrates that the Miskito ascribed divination and corporeal healing powers to the same person. Spirit people emerged 240 | Visions of the Prophet Wima at precisely the period when Moravian missionaries were seriously challenging sukias for this role in Miskito society. The Awakening, which for ten years swept over our Moskitoland like an enormous wave, seemed to have a certain degree of influence over neighboring Indian tribes within the region. Thus, within two years it showed its power by compelling the heathen Indians living on the banks of the Wanks River to send a call to Brother Smith in Yulu: “Come here and help us!” At this point we could now perceive at least a faint trail of the Awakening ’s influence among the heathen Moskito Indians who live along the Kruta River (which empties into the Caribbean Sea somewhat to the north of Cape Gracias a Dios). Here the people were startled by a succession of visions that a man by the Indian name of Kaila beheld in dreams, and which compelled this man travel to Twappi to seek instruction from us.1 In these pages I will attempt to provide an account of these dreams, following as carefully as possible the version I heard from the mouth of that man himself. These were dreams that vividly called to my mind the visions of Johannes King of Suriname.2 The Indians living beside the Kruta River in the Republic of Honduras are notorious for being exceptionally disorderly and criminal next to their own heathen countrymen.3 The other Indians call them Puisenkira, that is, “those with poison.”4 For it is they who prepare handmade deadly venoms, and who instruct their countrymen in the use of the same. Indeed, even in our Miskito Reserve there are individuals who furnish this diabolical substance, or who bury it as far in advance as possible, then demand payment for having discovered it or conjured it into existence. According to Kaila’s dreams, all these malicious tricks and doings were to be the first things punished. Specifically, in his sleep Kaila saw an entirely strange shape standing before his bed, an apparition that addressed him as follows: “I am the creator of all living creatures, and very soon I will destroy this country because of the terrible evil that prevails here. You murder your fellow man with poison —a horrible crime. Forsake your evil ways, the poisonings, and the drinking of mischla and other intoxicating beverages; and renounce fleshly desires!” Visions of the Prophet Wima | 241 That was the first message that Kaila received, but he paid it no attention, instead dismissing it as a trivial and meaningless dream. But after a few days he had yet another vision. The shape...