Recently The Gospel Coalition launched their Africa site, where reformed theologians, pastors and elders from all over Africa contribute posts dealing with issues and concerns unique to this part of the world. Of course, not all the issues African Christians face are unique, but some definitely are. One of those issues is the fear/power dynamic. The traditional African worldview is one of fear, and African religion provides a means of gaining power over those sources of fear – the spirit world, ancestors, and other people. The most powerful people in African society are often the local witchdoctors, who (for a fee) promise all kinds of power to the fearful individual. Children are believed to be especially vulnerable to evil spirits (and the high rate of infant mortality, mostly from preventable causes, doesn’t help here).
But isn’t Chad majority Muslim?
Of course in Chad, and across the entire continent of Africa north of about the 10th Parallel (10⁰ North of the Equator), Islam is the dominant religion. But Islam, primarily spread by the sword, cannot deal with underlying heart issues. One becomes a Muslim by repeating the shahada, literally the “testimony” that there is no God but Allah and Mohammed is the messenger of Allah. Issues of the heart are secondary, at best, to the 5 “pillars” of Islam: the shahada, the 5 daily ritual prayers, the Ramadan fast, giving of alms, and the pilgrimage to Mecca. You can do all these “works”, with a heart full of fear, pride, lust, etc. and still be considered a good Muslim.
So, in Chad as in other African Muslim countries, you have Muslim parents visiting the local witchdoctor (who doubles as Muslim cleric) to buy charms to tie onto their children to protect them from all sorts of dangers – sickness, death, evil spirits, etc. etc. The witchdoctor writes verses from the Qur’an on pieces of paper and sews them up in a leather pouch to be worn around the neck or waist by the kids. I’ve seen toddlers with 6 or 8 of these small pouches hanging around their neck. But not just kids, often adults will visit the witchdoctor for help getting pregnant, or cure for sickness, or protection from specific enemies, or just general protection from the “Evil Eye.” It’s not unusual to see and young man with these amulets tied around his upper arm. I heard the story the other day of a certain type of person who can control the locusts and will sometimes come to a farmer to demand money with threats of sending the locusts to eat his crop. For this specific problem, the witchdoctor will write verses from the Qur’an on a wooden board and then wash them off with water into a bowl. This water is then put in a bottle and sprinkled over the farmer’s field to protect it from locusts.
To my Western mind, this all seems ridiculous. My initial response is to dismiss it as ignorant nonsense. But I am rebuked by the Word, especially the Word made flesh, who lived in a society and culture not so different from the one we find ourselves in here in Chad. And Jesus didn’t dismiss the spiritual realm as “nonsense” or “nothing to be afraid of” but demonstrated his absolute power over it. He commanded demons to come out and they came out, and they went where he allowed them to go. Jesus liberated people from spiritual bondage and destroyed the strongholds of Satan. Jesus defeated fear by His power, and he still offers the same deliverance today by the power of the Gospel.
Pray for Chad. This is not a problem only for Muslims, but it continues to be a problem for the church in Chad as well. Fear can be a great temptation even for Christians when they forget that Jesus, who commands them not to fear (Matt. 10:28), has given them the power of the Holy Spirit to obey that commandment (John 14:26-27).
Here’s the article that spurred this post:
https://africa.thegospelcoalition.org/article/spiritual-insecurity-fear-gospel/