Saturday, June 18th

Although most people in the Usambara mountains identify as muslim or christian, the old traditions, or, in Said’s words, “witchcraft, ” still hold a lot of importance.  In many ways, the old traditions are still dominant, even to the most devout followers of the new faiths.  

The local people believe owls are bad news.  An owl’s visit to your home portends death to a family member, and the people of the Usambara region will try to keep the birds away by throwing hot coals from the fire at them.   (I’m not really sure how they would do this; sounds dangerous.)  Said recounted a recent story about the nuns from the Rangwi convent.  The nuns were in great distress about a group of owls who like to perch on the cross at the top of their church.  Said, a muslim, questioned why they were superstitious about the owls.  Wasn’t their faith in their god stronger than this primitive belief of their ancestors?  When he passed through the convent on his next trek, he asked the head sister (what do you call the senior nun?) about the situation with the owls.  She smiled and replied enthusiastically, “We have killed five of them!”

We saw more evidence of people practicing the old religions when we summited the mountain above Rangwi.  We found a half-buried goat next to a large rock near the top of the mountain, a recent sign of a sacrifice.  There was also a weird stick and string structure with ashes sprinkled on the ground at the base.  A man emerged from bushes around where we sat at the top eating our lunch and enjoying the view.   He was collecting medicinal plants and said it was common for sick people to climb to the top for help with their afflictions.  Seemed like cruel medicine to make an ill person make such an arduous climb, but the idea was that they would be closer to the healing power of the gods at the top of the mountain.