The media houses were present when a container arrived in Mombasa from China destined for somewhere. A businessman or group, or company had decided to import what were to them ordinary, natural, usual products. These products were to be used, I guess, for services within the natural world.
The problem was that the container arrived at the port of Mombasa. Unfortunately in Mombasa, the cat is not a cat. In fact it is in Mombasa where a cat got stuck in a bucket and the people refused to remove it because they believed it was not an “ordinary” cat! This cat, they said was possessed by the devil.
My first encounter with the fear of the devil was when I accompanied my Seminary friend to his hometown in Vihiga. One of his relatives had died and he needed comfort therefore I decided to travel with him. I am not superstitious. You cannot grow up in a mission station like Kijabe and be superstitious. The mission imbues within you a concept of reality that affirms distinctions of the Kingdoms. My study of logic and philosophy has also guided me in the understanding that the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of the Devil, the Kingdom of Man, the universal Kingdom, and Death as a Kingdom stands distinct in function. That their interaction does not allow the consuming of one by the other, not until the end of times!
But in Vihiga, these kingdoms seem to walk about! While there, they told me about nightwalkers. People who wonder around the village at night. These are witch doctors and other “supernatural beings” that the villagers fear. My friend, though having studied theology, informed me that in order for him to be free of the curse of the dead, he had to be shaved. He shaved his head and joined the mourners. I never questioned his intention. In fact I did not question his faith. However, I have never forgotten, or gotten an answer as to the legitimacy of his fear. A philosopher like me believes that my house is the same whether in the light or darkness. The environment does not change into evil just because the sun goes down. I therefore walk into the house in the night as if I am entering in broad daylight. Not in Vihiga!
Back to the devil in Mombasa, one of the newspapers portrayed the super-natural state of the Kenyan mind. It proclaimed that the devil was in a container in Mombasa! People think that because an African has gone to the local university and gotten a degree, that the African believes and systems have evaporated. The Americans say, “you can get the man from the Ghetto but you cannot get the Ghetto out of the man.” Somehow, you can get an African from the village but you cannot get the village from the African. Therefore when the Villagers who happens to be police, customs officials, and other government officials at the port of Mombasa opened the Container, they did not see merchandise. They saw the devil! The plastic replicas of hands, feet, chest cavity, and skeletons were not plastic. They were the cats that roam around in Mombasa masquerading themselves as animals while in reality they are demons!
The case became a national issue and the reporters, who by way are also villagers from “Vihiga”, presented a scenario of doom! “The devil,“ they reported, “was in a container in Mombasa.” The whole country panicked.
The Kenyan constitution affirms that Kenyans are a God fearing people. But the case about he plastic products in Mombasa has reminded me that we still have a long way to go to actuate the scientific education into our daily lives. No wonder, I visited a church service and in front were women rolling on the ground screaming and crying. The pastor was shouting to the devil to get out of them. It did not matter that these people were born again believers possessed by the Spirit of God. The idea that God and the devil cannot dwell in the same person has not sunk in. The idea of the village “Night Walkers” is too powerful a tradition to be replaced by logic. No wonder the devil is in Mombasa, in a container masquerading himself as plastic products! I think we should go there and kanyaga shetani!
Teddy Njoroge Kamau (PhD), In Kijabe. IMANISHA. TTP-International. Listen to tnk on 91.1 5pm EST. Nairobi to Arusha via Mombasa. ATG Radio
