Pig Lice and Boils

There’s a big four-way intersection that I pass through on the way to work every day. Often there’s someone handing out promotional fliers here. It’s mostly ordinary stuff – gym memberships, storm shutters, restaurant openings, that sort of thing.

But the one I was handed this morning was way out of the ordinary. It advertises the Fish Hoek Herbal Medicine Centre, which promises to fix the “things that hold you and your progress back” and to help you “explore why you and your family are always in tears. Now you have the solutions to all your problems.”

The flier then goes on to list the various problems the clinic will fix: Everything from sore throats, coughing and skin problems to more serious matters, including, and I quote, “incurable diseases, broken relationships, bad luck, pig lice, witchcraft, looking for the right partner, people hate you, sentimental problems, owing cash loans, children with bad friends,” and last but not least, “boils.”

It’s tempting to laugh all this off as nonsense, but there’s an element of danger at work here. Many native Africans worship their ancestors and depend on ancient healing practices, even in an urban area like Cape Town. From a Biblical perspective, these practices stem from “the powers of this dark world” and “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” that Paul wrote about in Ephesians 6:12. Such things lead people away from God and into spiritual darkness. There’s good reason Africa is known as the Dark Continent.