Teaching and Traditional Belief Systems.

It is amazing how a change of location and the passing of a couple of months can affect the ability to appreciate what is written on the printed page. And how, in turn, this it can influence the preparation for teaching in Salone.
“The Springs of Mende Belief and Conduct” was a book we examined in the library at The Queens Foundation, Birmingham last Autumn. I recall reading the following. “Tom Harris was one of the best missionaries I have ever known , and, I believe, one of the best missionaries there has ever been”. The writer was referring to Rev Tom Harris, who described himself as “Weslo-Catholic” and who, with his wife Daisy, had spent twenty seven years in Sierra Leone in the early part of the 20th C. This deeply committed service had resulted in a significant collection of material which became the source for much of the book that was subsequently written by Harry Sawyerr under the guidance of Andrew Walls. Sawyerr, a Salonean and Anglican Canon was in the mid 1980s, I have since discovered, the Principal of the college where teach. In the Autumn of 2009 I recall reading that Tom Harris’s health was “permanently impaired by blackwater fever” and that he died in 1959 within two years of returning to Britain. At the time I found those few words to be both chilling and humbling. Since then, the sentiment of gratitude has also been added.

Before we left Edinburgh, we had been able to send a few personal effects and a much larger quantity of book collected from Methodists in Scotland, for the benefit of the theological college library. After a few months in Freetown we discovered that the consignment of books had also included the Harris and Sawyerr title, which is hugely beneficial as we prepare teaching materials for a variety of courses, including principles of worship and pastoral theology.


A few weeks ago there was a report on the local radio of an incident which involved “paw paw guns”. The shape of individual papayas /‘paw paw’ fruit, offers varies little, but associating them with the image of a gun is not an obvious suggestion. The ‘gun’ element refers to the lethal impact of the wide range of items that have been seized by the police in what is reported as “a crackdown on Witch Doctors” by the Standard Times.

At the ‘Up-Gun roundabout’ in the eastern part of Freetown, the “weapons of terror” are on display to potential clients with the claim that they are agents of the devil and can wreak havoc on people wherever they find themselves. The newspaper reported that, “Relatives of the victims claim that the shots from these ‘paw paw guns’ have left their siblings with rare diseases, sometimes leading to their death.” One woman explained her ordeal and the death of her husband last January in a family dispute over land. Her husband was targeted by his uncle who enlisted the support of a Witch Doctor when he refused to part with some of the real estate bequeathed to him by his late father. Adding, “My husband was inflicted with a rare disease, we took him to all the hospitals in Freetown but with no success. But after his death, his uncle’s wife confessed about the involvement of Witch Doctors in his death.”

The Standard Times claims that in Salone “belief in traditional black magic and witchcraft remains widespread and ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts is rampant”. The newspaper claims that the business of black magic sorcerers, who inflict pain, has soared to an unprecedented degree, prompting the newspaper to protest at the decision of the government, to enlist the support of the Sierra Leone Traditional Healers Association to help them weed out these witch doctors. “How can you put a rat in charge of a grain yard? was the question asked.

When the population of Salone contains a significant percentage of people who adhere to traditional African religion, recognition must be given to the fact that those who adhere to the Christian or Islamic faith are also very aware of practices of traditional religion and animism. Therefore such world views influence the reception and practice of Islam and Christianity and the perception of health, well being, life and death. Such awareness goes to the heart of any course on pastoral studies, especially for those being trained as ministers in one of the many different denominations that are represented at SLTC & CTC.


Harris’s field work took place during his pastoral ministry in the most eastern part of the Mende region, which Sawyerr, working in Freetown, elaborated upon some two decades later, with the publishing of the book in 1968. The book contains only four photographs, one of them is of a Nomoli, a small soapstone piece of sculpture, that for the Mende, possesses the power to protect a field and crop against witchcraft, (see photograph). To do this, it must be placed on an ant hill during the preparation of the land and thereafter a white chicken is sacrificed and its entrails mixed with palm-oil and rice before being smeared over the nomoli. It is then buried in the ground where, hidden from view, its efficacy serves as a symbol of protection that is unearthed at harvest and thanksgiving is offered to the nomoli for its protection against hostile agencies.

It was in the city of Bo, the centre of the Mende region, where I first caught a glimpse of a nomoli. It was being offered for sale by an elderly man, who I met, but hesitated long enough for him to disappear from sight before we could initiate a trade. Now a few months later, having seen other crudely carved examples, a fine nomoli sits in a prominent place in our house. It serves not to protect against those who might be in possession of paw-paw guns but as a reminder when preparing classes, that the hidden value systems of the students’ world view, must be given serious consideration if the harvest of a good and appropriate theological education is to be realised.