Football and Witchcraft

Last year there was one main football team in Nacaroa that played against teams from other districts. At the end of the year the man who sponsored the team got angry and took away their equipment and uniforms. At the beginning of this year he decided that he wanted to sponsor them again. Most of the players said they didn’t want to play for him anymore, and formed the Workers Football Club. They contribute money each month to pay for equipment, uniforms, and traveling costs. Some players went back to play for this man, and he recruited some other people to form a team called the Mambas. The Mambas charge people to watch their games, which was previously unheard of here. They make a big to-do at the beginning of their games by driving the players on to the field in a truck.

Needless to say, the Workers and the Mambas are rivals, and this rivalry has created a lot drama in Nacaroa. One Mamba who was renting a house from a Worker was kicked out. Another Mamba who works for the Worker coach was told that if he wanted to keep his job he couldn’t be a Mamba. A Mamba stole a Worker’s cleat so he wouldn’t be able to practice. The Mamba’s sponsor threatened various Workers when they formed their new team, saying that he was a very important man in Nacaroa and that they didn’t want to be on his bad side. And so on and so forth. The two teams did various things to sabotage the other.

But sabotage in Africa includes an element that doesn’t exist in the US: witchcraft. When the Mamba’s got in a small car accident on the way to a game, it was because the Workers went to the witch doctor to put a curse on them. When the Mamba’s goalie had stomach aches and let in an easy goal, it was because the Workers put a curse on him to make them lose. Luckily, there are ways to protect yourself against such curses. Because of this, the witch doctor has become an important element for both teams, even traveling with the Mambas to away games to provide the necessary protection. Ironically, since the two teams that exist this year are composed of players that all played together for the same team last year, they both use the same witch doctor. Talk about a conflict of interests and violating the Hippocratic Oath.

The witch doctor has many ways to protect the team. First, he may instruct the players whether they should or should not have sex the day before/day of the game. Second, he may instruct the players about certain foods they should or should not eat the day before/day of the game. Third, he participates in a pre-game ritual with the players that may include painting the feet with charcoal, washing the head with water prepared a certain way, putting a paste of various herbs on the heart, or various other rituals that will protect the players. And fourth, he inspects the field and the goals to make sure the other team (either from Nacaroa or the opposing district) hasn’t put any sort of cursed object.

If you disobey the instructions of the witch doctor, your ancestors will punish you. When the Mamba’s goalie let in that easy goal, they were quick to accuse the Workers of having cursed him. But a few trips to the witch doctor and a small investigation revealed that he had taken a bite from the forbidden apple, and had stomach aches because his ancestors were punishing him for not obeying the witch doctor’s dietary guidelines.

On a final note, unrelated to football, but continuing with witchcraft, there has been a huge problem lately with people bewitching animals to go steal things from their neighbors. For example, you can take your cat to the witch doctor who will give it powers to be able to go into your neighbor’s house and swallow all their money. Then it will come home and spit out the money for you. In fact, just yesterday, this happened. Two neighbors sent their bewitched cats to go steal from the neighboring house at the same time. The cats each went into the other house and stole money. But on their way back to their owner’s houses they ran into each other, and knew what the other one was up to. The bigger cat swallowed the smaller cat, and went back to his owner. When the owner of the smaller cat realized what happened, he got some neighbors with him to go confront the owner of the bigger cat. When they got to this house and knocked on the door, they discovered that the owner of this cat was actually a snake. I’m not exactly sure how it ended, but there are several eye witnesses of the one cat swallowing the other, and no one in Nacaroa (except for me) doubts that this happened. I can’t emphasize enough that people here REALLY BELIEVE THIS SORT OF THING EXISTS, AND ARE LEGITIMATELY WORRIED ABOUT THINGS LIKE THIS HAPPENING TO THEM.