The Jinn Bicycle Thief

Yes, only in Zanzibar can you take off on a beautiful bike ride through fields and villages, featuring a stop for fresh coconuts and blood oranges along the way - and still find time to visit not one but two Muslim holy men. I'll have more to stay about the stop for fresh fruit later, and I've already posted about our trip bare-footed to the back of the dark, slick, bat-filled cave. We were supposed to visit a female mganga, but at the last minute that fell through, so instead we dropped by to see Mr. Mahomet.  Fortunately when we arrived he was seeing a patient, who was possessed by a troublesome jinn.  To remove the jinn Mr. Mahomet had to bring an even more powerful jinn into his body, and this included some guttural growls and painful contortions, and in the end the young man was cured.  Obviously, the ceremony was carried out in Swahili, but we were able to receive brief translations along the way. In my faith we're told to believe in the seen and the unseen, and this includes jinn.  They are supposed to have been created from smokeless fire.  Some are good and some are bad, and apparently I have a very demanding jinn (according to another mganga) that requires the annual sacrifice of a camel (but more on that later). All of these visits with wganga are fascinating to me, and it shows the syncretic nature of Islam; clearly, this is not the form of the faith that would be practiced in Saudi Arabia (although even there belief in jinn is very common).

It was a beautiful day for a bike ride, with the only incident was yours truly sliding out of control in mud puddle and crashing, but somehow finding the only patch of soft land in the midst of jagged rocks.  By all rights I should have ended up with a broken arm, but I only received a bruised ego.

Mr. Mahomet examining the young man to determined what sort of jinn was possessing him, which would determine the level of treatment.

Mr. Mahomet exhausted at the end of the ceremony.  I don't know why I like this picture so much, but I do and I suspect it will end up on the wall of my office.

After the possession ceremony we were invited to go into the next room and participate in the ceremony.

Mr. Mahomet's office.

 There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, that are dreamt of in your philosphy.