BARBADOS
Daily Nation
Tuesday 11, January-2005
by Roy R. Morris
There’s an old saying: Don’t judge a man ’til you’ve walked a mile in his shoes. Keep this in mind as you read this article.
Early last week I received a call from a woman who asked me to help her with a problem. I have to admit that while speaking to her I kept asking myself “how silly can a person get?”
But as I replayed the conversation in my mind over the week, it occurred to me that my judgement was particularly harsh. When I did a full interview, my disposition changed dramatically.
Andrea is 27 years old, but her level of reasoning suggests she is much younger. Her mother died when she was a baby. She attended secondary school until she was just 13 years old. She has not been to school anywhere since then. At the age of 14 she was raped. ...
That was when, she said, a girlfriend of her brother drew her attention to an ad in The Nation, with someone identifying himself as a high priest offering assistance with situations such as hers. For $1 000 he offered to cast out her evil spirits and “cleanse the house”.
Andrea said she begged and borrowed to come up with the money, after the “high priest” shuffled some cards at her introductory visit to his home near the Ministry of Public Works, invited her to pull three and they all pointed to her imminent death.
The problem was that none of the “cures” worked. He then determined that the demons had inherited her jewellery and they too had to be brought to him for cleansing. As time passed and neither relief nor her jewellery returned, Andrea said, she was told the four rings, three bracelets, two chains , earrings and anklet were so deeply possessed they had to be buried to “get rid of the spirits”.
Still she believed in the man.
With nothing changing, he apparently determined it was time for the heavy stuff. According to her, she was told a ritual would have to be performed on her body and it would involve intercourse. For the first time, she said, she questioned his course of action, and was told she should not see it as sex, but the casting out of demons.
Posted by kshaw at January 11, 2005 08:24 AM