The Raped Amulet

Chapter Nine

62 Chapter Nine dutu provided the requirements and he and the traditional healer went to their village. He called his immediate family and explained to them what he had diagnosed and the treatment he had planned for their son. They all agreed that the village people were very jealous and they were capable of such evil. Such jealousy was the cause of the backwardness experienced there. They arranged that the rites would be performed the following day at the first cockcrow. The family went to bed keen on getting up as soon as they heard the first crows of the cocks. Ndutu himself was very tired and he was not sure that the cock’s crows would get him up and indeed they could not. When the time came, it was one of his cousins who stood over him and shook him vigorously to get up. He got up very reluctantly and staggered his way to the water pot. He took out a cup full of water, went outside and washed his face to drive away sleep. He then went and joined the rest of the family that was already sitting in a semi-circle under the plum tree in the middle of the yard. He was given a seat in front of every body. The healer, Akwanka was his name, then walked up to him and poured some black palm kernel oil on his head, which had earlier been laid bare of its hair. He rubbed it vigorously while reciting incantations, moving down to his face and then his chest. After the exercise he said he had cleansed Ndutu of all evil. He requested each member of the family to place N 63 their two palms on his head in turns, and pronounce the words barem ambaka ne woh, banki roh booh mek bananga ne woh. These words translated the gods be with you, they shouldn’t let earth’s children destroy you. After each of them had taken their turn, Akwanka led the group in a prayer that lasted thirty minutes. After the prayer, the white goat was slaughtered and some of the fresh blood that spurted out of the slashed neck was collected in a bowl. Akwanka drank from the bowl and passed it over to Ndutu. He entreated him to drink and he drank all of it. The goat was butchered and given out to be prepared along with the bunch of plantains. Before the day broke completely, the maize was grilled in grains and some of the sauce from the pot of goat meat, palm oil, some of the boiled plantains and the grains of maize were all mixed and taken to the family shrine at the foot of a mighty cotton tree. The food was left there for the ancestors and the living sat back under the plum tree and each had their own share of the food. They ate, drank palm wine and dispersed before the sun rose. This was the first part of Ndutu’s treatment. The healer was to go back to town with him and carry out the second phase, which had to do with different roots including fresh ginseng roots steeped in afofo, a locally brewed gin. Somehow Ndutu was getting better and stronger. As he kept improving, so did Akwanka’s idea that some of the jealous people in his village were after his life. He made up his mind to steer clear of them, even though it meant 64 losing his roots. After four months, Ndutu was able to go back to school and write the exams which qualified him for the fifth year. He was very grateful to Akwanka, who had convinced him that traditional medicine was complementary to medical science. However, six months after he thought he had been treated, he started feeling bad again. His headaches returned, persistent coughs and fever had returned fully. He went back to Akwanka, who did all he could to help him. He even kept him in his healing home and month after month, his condition was deteriorating. Finally, Ndutu realized that he was going no where as far as his health was concerned. He realized that it was ridiculous for him to be training as a medical doctor and dying from a medical problem. If Akwanka could treat headaches, fevers and coughs mysteriously put in him by jealous people, why should medical science not do the...