![]() ![]() “He said you cannot take his picture because you do not believe in his magic.” Hans jumps to my defense with a retort that makes the crowd laugh and the phony doctor fume. The “witch doctor” sees my camera and starts screaming at me. ![]() “He’s going to let the snake bite him?” I ask hopefully, reaching for my camera. He has a snake in there to prove his stones work.” They only gather around to see the snake.” “What about everybody else here? Will they buy any?” According to Hans, the man is selling “magic stones, good for extracting the poison from a snakebite.” A crowd of about fifty people watches curiously. He is in the middle of a passionate speech, which he delivers in Swahili from atop what appears to be a shoeshine box. Hans and I meet our first self-proclaimed witch doctor near the clock tower in nearby Moshi. He has a fair grasp of English and a normally serious countenance, though at times he is prone to break into choking fits of laughter. He’s tall with a smooth, dark complexion and a chipped front tooth. Once he is out of earshot, one of his students approaches and says to me in a low voice, “Tomorrow I will take you to a real witch doctor.” “I would advise against it.” Then he marches away. The missionary purses his lips and shakes his head. “Both the mother and the baby,” he replies solemnly. “She was ordered to the hospital, but the women escorting her decided it would be better to take her to the witch doctor. She was only seven months pregnant,” he explains, suddenly affecting a grim tone. But in the surrounding village the people remain steeped in tradition and still rely on witch doctors to solve problems. Nestled among a thousand acres of banana trees in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, the Lutheran compound is a haven of modern conveniences. “They are dangerous people.” He has a strong German accent and a lisp as a result, I can’t take anything he says seriously. “I would seriously advise staying away from the witch doctors,” the Bavarian missionary tells me. ![]() He also found time to study the methods of the area’s traditional health practitioners: the witch doctors. There, he translated training manuals for health clinics, working closely with Christian missionaries. Since then, he has traveled to Tanzania, Africa, as part of his work with the Institute for Development Training. Last year, The Sun published Stephen Ausherman’s account of his trip to India. ![]()
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