The human experience is what separates us from our beastly counterparts. Although the desire to want what you can’t have isn’t an entirely humanistic trait, humans are the only species that seek help. Everything from Psychiatrists, to healers and witch doctors, all in the name of love, we’re asking if other worldly methods really work.
In African families, being fed strange potions for ailments was as accepted as it was taboo. Unlike those born in strong Christian families, and were never enchanted by so called ‘black magic’.
Carolin Muhindo remembers her struggles and begins to cry. “Our great grandma, a very traditional and pure hearted woman, would offer us potions whenever we were faced with illness or a life problem.
In my young mind, I always saw these concoctions as things that would benefit me, while my brother would politely turn them down.
Even though we knew my great grandma as an earth angel who called upon her ‘divine spirits’ to heal us, she also warned about looming evil spirits.
When I got married to my first husband, I thought I had it all, but problems started when I found out that he had another woman with children. I had not yet given birth so I left him for another man who, I later caught cheating. I did not want to believe that there was something wrong with me but my neighbour advised me to visit a prominent female witch doctor in Kampala.
As much as I wanted to believe in the idea that someone could have all their answers met by making a sacrifice or performing a ritual, could these people really perform miracles, or were they feeding off the enthusiasm of their customers?
I decided to try because I was very tired and frustrated. On the first visit, I was asked to first to drop Shs 500,000 in a basket before entering some dark room where the witch doctor was seated. My friend had advised me to go with over Shs 700,000, so I had got my savings from the family savings group. The female witch doctor told me that there was a bad spirit on me that always chased away men and that I needed to fight it or else I would never settle with a man.
I was given local herbs to bathe and the rest to sew on my clothes. To be sincere, I thought I had found a solution to my problems. She also told me that in 3 months, I would start seeing a lot of men approaching me but I did not see anything, so I sold my 3 goats which I had in the village and went back. She told me that probably I did not follow instructions properly, this time, she gave me herbs to mix in my bathing water and that I would even get married that year, But look at me now, It has been 3 years and am still alone even after spending my money”
The old saying goes, “If you want something bad enough, you’ll find a way to get it.” And just like Caroline, women have wasted their fortune on witch doctors looking for marriage partners and others children for those in childless marriages. Do witch doctors work, or do the customers just believe they do because the reality of the situation seems to have no worldly explanation.
While we can’t dismiss people’s claims black magic has worked for them, scammers often feed off the unfortunate circumstances of customers using a variety of tactics.
Cold reading is how a majority of magicians perform their ” abilities” by throwing out a series of generic questions, then tuning in on body language to see which question you subconsciously respond to.
I don’t want to lose my sense of mystery for the world I choose to believe that there are people who can change the outcomes of things, even bring people to the love of their life – Maybe these gifted people aren’t the ones that saturate our TV’s or post signs on light poles, they are the once in a lifetime people we interact with every day.