Ever on the lookout for the curious news story, I read in yesterday’s Sudonline of a new outbreak of mass hysteria at a Dakar secondary school. The first occurrence had been last Friday when some 90 students had experienced “hysterical” symptoms of screaming, trembling and falling into a trance-like state. Of the group, 88 were girls.
In
Continue reading School sacrifice
I signed up with Sonatel last week and got a phone line installed. The broadband services are predictably very expensive, and I chose the cheapest one, which gives us just 512k downspeed … or that’s what I thought. In fact I had already warned the salesperson that, annual tied contract notwithstanding, if I didn’t get the
Continue reading Blistering bandwidth!
One of my first questions to my prospective landlord was whether there was a mosque in the neighbourhood. He laughed and said no.
On the first night in the house, empty except for two double foam mattresses on the floor, I woke at 4:30 am to the sound of the muezzin calling for the first prayer of
Continue reading Muezzin musing
did you ever find out what it meant?? I’d really like to know as well…. google was no help either…
We had a similar outbreak in a school here in Belize last year, and they attributed it to Obea, which is a catch all phrase for spirit posession or being under the influence of evil spirits. And it only effects girls, probably because the boys aren’t silly enough to believe in it. My husband says he likes it when people Obea him, it makes him more lucky. I, however, am silly enough to put a little stock in the idea that people can wish ill on you.