How the devil killed Idrissa’s dad

When devil emerges from forest, everybody runs

“Quand le diable sort de la forêt, tout le monde court. C’est très dangerous de lui rencontrer, car Il faut faire ce qu’il dit. Si tu luttes contre lui, tu vais mourir”

[When the devil emerges from the forest, everybody runs. It is dangerous to meet him. You need to obey his orders. If you try to fight, you die.]

I meet Idrissa in Mbour, Senegal. Only after a longer time in town, I realized one girl from the neighborhood was a foreigner, from a distant rainforest village. I asked her why she came. In response, I got this shocking story. I will continue her story in English. My comments in brackets.

“When the devil places a sacred object in your door, you have to go in the forest. Everybody has to go: small children or adults, boys and girls. If you never went, one day you must go. There you stay 3 or 4 months. There they cut you with blood between your legs. [They perform forced circumcision of boys and girls]

“When you ask them why, they say: ‘c’est la coutume’ [that’s the custom]

“The devil came for me when I was already grown up, and I even had a baby. I had to go in the forest, because I never went. My father said to the devil: ‘No. I refuse. I don’t like circumcision. My children won’t go.

“Some time later I was working on the field with my baby on my back. When I came back home, my father was vomiting with blood. He said someone gave him water which was poisoned. He sat down and said to my mum that his eyes stop working and his vision blurs. He sat for a while. Then he died in his chair.

“People said he died because he offended the devil. We know it is not true. We know who poisoned him. But we cannot do anything. They are too powerful.

“Later, the devil came again for me. He said I had to go in the forest. I said no. I packed and left the village. I sent my daughter to my sister in town. I asked all my friends for some money and everybody gave me some. I bought bus ticket and went abroad, so I can earn some money and sent to my daughter. This is why I am here.

We will never go back to the village.

The story ends here. Regarding the “devil” she speaks of, I am convinced it is exactly this: a devil, in the true sense of the word. Physically, it takes a form a person disguised as a demon. It may be one of the villagers, who disguises in a hidden place so the others don’t know his or her personality. Whether it is a human or not, it does not matter. Most people believe he is a true demon, with evil intentions and black magic power. And there are enough people, associated in secret societies, to help the black magic take its toll.