Stones in the Road

Special offering that will not be obvious to the uninitiated

Yesterday after dropping Sophia off at school with my brother-in-law, he suddenly stopped the car and reversed it a few yards. Since we were on the dirt back road short-cut I thought maybe something had gone wrong with the car, or maybe there was a new construction project to know about, as they seem to be popping up everywhere.

I never would have imagined what he was going to point out to me: a scattering of stones, a piece of paper and some other litter placed in the center of the intersection of three dirt roads. From my vantage point, the stones looked like mule dung or simply random stones, along with some litter– nothing unusual. But, upon closer view, these were all the same size,round, and placed in a definite pattern, exactly at the center of the junction. Alongside them was a letter, with other small items scattered among these.

We were witnessing an old West African custom. When someone has a particular dilemma, problem or question, they might go to the marabout (village holy man, thought to possibly have magic powers) who would prescribe a special remedy and an offering. The offerings typically take the form of what we saw, or they can get more elaborate, like demanding the bone of a particular animal, all to fulfill a long-cherished wish or solve a difficult problem. But with cars passing over them and kids playing in the road, the offering was gone by the next day. If Bozorg had just blinked or looked away at the moment we were passing, we would have missed this sighting completely.

These ancient customs continue alongside personal and community commitments to Islam (around 90% of the population) and to a smaller extent, Christianity, as well as modernization. It’s what reminds me that so many things can appear to be like the rest of the world (e.g., religion, globalization of consumer items), but here will always take on a special African quality that gives it a unique, almost magical flavor.