FT263

I lived and worked in Papua New Guinea (PNG) from 2003 to 2008. For the first three years, I was working at the University of PNG (UPNG) on a large rural estate about 5km north-west of the capital, Port Moresby. PNG has many old traditional beliefs about the supernatural – sanguma (sorcery) and puri puri (magic) – and I heard many tales of the power of both and many strange things happening. The sad thing is that some of these beliefs are so strongly held that to this day there are regular beatings, tortures and murders of people accused of being witches. Just check out the two national newspapers – the Post Courier and The National – for such reports.

At about 9pm one evening in March 2005, I was walking from my house to the university housing estate market when I saw a woman in a dark cape (maybe she had a bilum – traditional woven bag common in PNG – hanging from her head). She was standing under a streetlight and started walking towards me. Thinking it was maybe a friend or colleague, I turned towards her, but when she was about 10 metres away I realised that I could see the streetlight through her! Then she dissolved into nothing.

I wasn’t scared, just curious. I told the story to my friends at the market, and they told me that a woman had been murdered by jealous relatives at that exact same spot three years before, and several other people had seen her apparition.

One night a few weeks later, I woke up with a start and saw the same woman standing in the doorway to my bedroom. I shouted to her (thinking someone had broken in) and again she just disappeared. I told a pastor friend of mine and he came over and prayed with me to get rid of this ‘bad’ or angry spirit. I never saw her again.

Later I heard that this woman was once a lecturer at the univers­ity and had just been told she had a scholarship to go overseas. Her husband’s family got very jealous about this (as they couldn’t go), and murdered her. Her lost and frustrated spirit has been wandering around the housing estate since then, but hopefully the past­or’s prayers have put her soul to rest.

Sanguma is a PNG Tok Pisin (Pidgen) word meaning traditional psychic power or sorcery, often exercised through plants, herbs and incantations. The origin source language is unclear; it may be from Tolai (New Britain language). It is a core feature of pre-Christian sham­anic beliefs in PNG. Although the vast majority of the population are professed and devout Christians, belief in the powers of sanguma are deep-rooted and pervasive.

I had an experience with a sanguma man; I will not use the term “witch doctor” as I believe this is derogatory. When I lived and worked in PNG, I had many friends from all provinces and greatly enjoyed the rich local traditions and marvellous cultures of this truly great country. I found the love of my life and we became engaged. However, some acquaintances become jealous of my partner – unfortunately this is a common thing in PNG – and sought to do us harm. One man in particular (a former boyfriend) did his best to take her away from me. He even found out my telephone number and started making increasingly threatening calls. I was determined not to give in to this intimidat­ion, and even employed some local friendly “rascals” to be my protectors and warn me of any approaches by him. Port Moresby is a dangerous place.

Things came to a head when he sent me death threats via text message – so I asked my partner’s relatives for their advice. They sugg­ested employing the service of a sanguma man they knew. He was well respected and regarded as very effective, so my partner and I agreed. He came to our house and explained that it would take some time, but he could place a “curse” on this man so he would forget about my partner. He asked if I wanted any harm to come to him – he offered a menu of options – I said no, just make him leave us alone. I paid him 100 kina (about £25) and the proceedings were underway.

First he needed some special leaves from a powerful sanguma plant, which were only available in one market in Port Moresby, as they come from Morobe province, so we sent someone off to buy some. When he had these leaves – and some local buai (betel nut), kumbung (lime), daka (mustard) and cigarettes – we were ready to proceed with the first part of the ceremony.

He started by praying, then crumbled the sanguma leaves, mixing them into a paste with his spit and rubbing this on our foreheads. He chanted in his language, chewed some buai with kumbung and daka, and sprinkled our heads with water while praying. He then placed his hands on our heads and offered some more prayers and incantations. After this he smoked a cigarette while blowing the smoke out the windows and again chanting some ritualistic words. This he explained would rid our minds of the influence of the offending man. He then prayed over us.

Part two involved getting a photo of the offending man. This took some doing, but we eventually conned him into meeting one of our friends – an attractive young woman – who convinced him that my partner wanted a photo of him to remember him by, so he gave her one. The sanguma man took the photo and again made a paste of the special leaves, rubbed this on the photo, tore it into pieces and buried it in the ground. He said that now the curse was complete and the target would no longer even be able to remember my partner.
We left PNG three weeks later, but during those three weeks there was no contact at all from the offending man, and my rascals, who had been tracking his movements, reported that he made no attempt to come near our house.

The reason I agreed to the cere­mony was not so much because I thought it might work, but because I knew that the others involved believed that it would, and this would make it effective. Maybe word of the ceremony got out to the target and he was scared off? Or did it work in the way it was thought to work?
I’ve asked for my real name to be withheld to protect the people involved, as in PNG you can be jailed for practising sorcery, or even tortured and murdered by the victim’s relatives.

Philip Garland  (pseudonym)
Australia

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