Sarah in Uganda

Last Thursday, the much talked about tree ceremony occurred. We have been hearing about the ceremony for many months now so I was excited when a taxi full of people suddenly showed up signaling that today was the day for the much awaited ceremony. There are two large trees, one to the side of the clinic and another down the road, that are said to have special powers. The trees are considered twins and are named: Nalongo and Salongo or mother and father of twins, respectively. The worshippers dress in full white gowns with colorful fabric sashes around the middle while placing pots full of banana beer and other sacrifices at the trunk of the tree. Then they sing, bang drums, dance and chant obscenities in order to give respect and worship the tree. Originally I thought the person explaining the ceremony was calling them obscenities because they offended her Christian religious beliefs but turns out that no, they were actually curse words despite the large contingent of children involved in the ceremony. Many of the worshippers had come from as far away as Kampala (more or less 3 and a half hours along bumpy dusty roads away) just for the ceremony to worship these particular twin trees on this one particular day of the year. The ceremony ended as all Ugandan ceremonies do: with a huge feast and many drinks.

Another popular myth we’ve heard much about are the “night dancers”. They are much like the boogey men of American childhood nightmares. They only come out at night and dance through villages naked (hence night dancers). Recently I’ve learned that there are a number of different kinds of night dancers. There are the ones that just like to scare their victims by chasing them all over the village over and over again but never harm them other than instilling fear in their victims. The second type are the ones who eat dead bodies of villagers, these are the most common type according to the legend. Then the scariest species of all are those that lurk in the bush waiting for an unsuspecting villager to walk by before pouncing and devouring the villager as their evening snack. It may sound ridiculous but grown men and women won’t walk alone at night for fear of being attacked by a night dancer (hence the practice of escorting each other home).

Then there are the ghosts who live in trees. I’m not totally clear on their powers since every time we ask we’re told not to worry because they don’t chase mzungus.

Witch doctors and herbal medicines are still very prominent here and that is often the first line of health care treatment for many, many people in villages. Often a patient will come in only after the witch doctor has failed to cure them of their illness. The use of therapeutic scarring on the abdomen to rid the demons or other bad spirits infecting the body are often seen on patients.  Or a patient with mild anaphylactic shock from a bee sting insisting that it was a curse set upon her by an enemy. Who knew such myths were so alive and well.