Possessed

I was more than halfway done with my first week of school; it was Thursday morning and I was in between classes. I walked into the staff room briefly to get something and saw a female student convulsing on the ground. She was surrounded by several other students who were standing around to help and the principal who was praying. I was worried that this was something serious (maybe a seizure?) but there were already a lot of people helping so I left and just hoped that the people there would know what to do and that the girl would be ok.

Later that afternoon while I was on break, another girl was carried into the staff room. Her eyes were closed and her body was shaking in all directions. After being completely dumbfounded for a few seconds, I realized (which was later confirmed by my coworkers) that she was, in fact, “possessed by the devil”.

From that day until now, the same two girls would sporadically drop to the ground, make strange noises, shake their bodies violently, roll on the ground, and whatever else you can imagine. I wanted to tell those girls that no one believes their stupid little charade, but unfortunately, that is not true. The principal of our school is very superstitious and would stop everything to help if it is a supernatural matter. The other teachers have expressed doubts about the girls’ outbursts and desire to send the girls home until they can behave, but there is a sense of hopelessness against not only the principal, but society. People in the surrounding villages are genuinely scared and concerned.

On Wednesday of the second week of school, I felt like I was completely brought back to the historical times of colonial North America and the Salem witch trials. The principal brought a priest to school for what I was told would be a short prayer and private counseling afterwards. Classes were to be cancelled to accommodate the priest starting at 11am when the school gathered to pray. This short prayer included over an hour of singing, reading the bible, a sermon, and praying – I wouldn’t consider myself an expert, but I’m pretty sure that was an entire church service. While I only understood a few words here and there, I could tell it was one of those “Burn in the fire-y gates of Hell” sermons that I’ve only heard about. The priest was so animated, I could see the spit coming from his mouth as he yelled. Afterwards, the priest went into (the room that will be) the library to talk to students, pray, and counsel students on whatever they request.

An hour or two later, the real madness began. From across the field in the staff room, I could hear screams coming from the library. Students crowded around the library windows to see what was happening. Upon closer inspection, I observed the two original girls plus three more girls were “possessed” – rolling around, getting up and falling down, moaning, screaming, yelling satanic phrases, waving their arms around, rolling their eyes and walking around with their eyes closed and more. Other students were in the library to restrain those girls. The priest and the principal were yelling prayers, yelling at the devil to get out, and asking the girls questions like what their names are, where they were, etc. With all of the commotion, the library filled with body heat and sweat moisture. I had to get out of there after a few minutes, but I could still hear screams and yelling for the next several hours.

School usually ends at 4pm, but the day was not over. The principal didn’t want to release students because many of them walk home together, including with girls who were possessed. The show continued; and the principal had to release the students at 5:30pm because it gets dark at around 7-8pm and some students have over an hour’s walk home. I was the first teacher to leave at 6pm because thunder and lightning was approaching. On Thursday morning, I found out that the fiasco didn’t end until around 9pm.

It baffles me that this could still happen in today’s world but it really highlights the hurdles that Lesotho needs to overcome. Living in a developing country, it was relatively easy to get a smart phone and access the internet. Popular music artists include Rihanna and Beyonce. Teenagers watch youTube videos and have facebook. But many people lack the critical thinking skills that would help them to question an “act of the devil” or any type of authority at all.

Religion in Lesotho is one of those authorities. It is a county that many missionaries came to, thus converting virtually the entire nation to some denomination of Christianity (mostly Anglican or Catholic, but there are many). It is common belief that if you don’t believe in God, then you must worship the devil. And similar to Christianity in America, there is a struggle between science and religion. This collection of one-sided arguments is the attitude of many Basotho that carries on beyond religion to many aspects of the culture here.

From a young age, children are trained to have blind obedience – they must think and do what they are told.  People are either right or wrong, clever or stupid. This even affects my work because students are told that they will fail maths so they do not even bother trying. This attitude continues through adulthood – the teachers at my school, who are educated and who really care about teaching, do not question the priest or the principal when they want to send the girls home for interrupting classes. But they also implement corporal punishment and are confident in asserting their hierarchy over students. So the black and white lines are unable to become grayed.

It took me a relatively long time to write this blog post because I am still learning more about the culture, and I was unsure about how I want to present my perceptions of life here so far. I wanted to be honest, but I also know that these are generalizations. There are many educated people who want to improve the quality of life. Even when I feel like the society is complacent and people do not care, I know that there is still hope – which is the reason why I am here.