Bokito has been full of magical happenings in the past few months. Recent gossip indicated a certain successful store owner has been "buying" children to force their undead corpses to work for him.
Last Monday a student at the CETIC died of malaria ("il n'avait plus de sang dans le corps" according to Pascaline, meaning "he didn't have any blood left in his body") and on Tuesday his family buried him in a traditional tomb, without a coffin. Speculation immediately began that he had been "sold" and wasn't really, really dead. As he died his last word was the name of a prominent man in town. Was he accusing the sorcerer who bought him?
Sorcerers buy "undead" corpses to send them abroad to earn money, hence the need for the body to be buried without a coffin. To keep this from happening to your family members, remove their stomach after death and fill it with salt. That way, their new employers will recognize the body as a zombie and will have difficulty finding work. The sorcerer will eventually give up and bring them home to rest peacefully in their tomb.
Traditional tombs are dug out in the family's front yard or living room. A mansized hole is opened, then a catacomb is hollowed out underground. The body is passed through the hole and laid to rest in a room under the house.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
Le Corbeau Magique
As I left Bokito on Friday my quartier did not have power. We hadn't had power since Tuesday afternoon when a mysterious crow caused the power outage. The story, as reported to me:
All the crows of Bokito live in one baobob tree near the Sous-Prefecture, overlooking the transformer which provides power to the sous-prefet, lycee, mayor's office, gendarmerie, etc. On this particular day a magical crow landed on the transformer and electrocuted itself. It fell to the ground, dead, and a small fire began in the transformer. Since then the power's been out and AES-Sonel does not seem inclined to replace the faulty parts.
To say the crow is magical is to accuse a person, a sorcerer, of having sent the crow to blow up the transformer. This is because a few years ago the mayor's office sold Bokito's sacred forest (where the crows used to live) to a private enterpreneur, who cut down all the trees. Ever since the quartier has had numerous problems with the same transformer.
Just goes to show, don't sell off your sacred forest.
All the crows of Bokito live in one baobob tree near the Sous-Prefecture, overlooking the transformer which provides power to the sous-prefet, lycee, mayor's office, gendarmerie, etc. On this particular day a magical crow landed on the transformer and electrocuted itself. It fell to the ground, dead, and a small fire began in the transformer. Since then the power's been out and AES-Sonel does not seem inclined to replace the faulty parts.
To say the crow is magical is to accuse a person, a sorcerer, of having sent the crow to blow up the transformer. This is because a few years ago the mayor's office sold Bokito's sacred forest (where the crows used to live) to a private enterpreneur, who cut down all the trees. Ever since the quartier has had numerous problems with the same transformer.
Just goes to show, don't sell off your sacred forest.
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