Superstition? ..... NO " It is true " said J

" You must listen to Zodwa, she can 'see',  I think she will be a diviner in 4 years. But she makes a mistake. When she 'sees' she goes and tells tells the person. She must not do that. She must just keep quiet"..... It was "J", She knows Zodwa well. This all came about because I told her what Zodwa had said to me.

" Mr B", she had said, " see that butterfly there, near you, on the wall in the house?In my culture that is your late wife. She is visiting you. - Have I given you pain telling you that?"
" No" I said.

  " Yes. It is true"   said J. "What did the butterfly do?"

I told her." It was settled on the wall near me but later it moved into the lounge and settled there too."

"She was looking around" said J. "Sometimes it might be a bird" she said.

For Sbongile it was a bee.

" My grandmother visits me. Always she is a bee." he told me.

If I am going on a journey in my car, then there can be this bee in the car. If I gently lift it and put it out on the pavement on the side of the car and drive to Durban, then when I stop to get out in Durban, on the pavement there will be a bee. It's my grandmother. She is protecting me"

This was Sbongile's third story. The first was about a mole. The second about his transporting of his late mother as an ancestor from Kwa-Zulu Natal to Johannesburg, and now the bee. The mole had to be avoided desperately and diverted away from the house to avoid misfortune. The bee had to be protected. The one was misfortune. The other protection.

I can hear 'Superstition!, Superstition!" You may want to call it all superstition, half belief, unbiblical, irrational. But we are partly irrational. Some of our best achievements in Science, Philosophy , Religion and relationships have come out of irrationality> Even the word 'superstition' tells us of its' power for us. 'super' means 'above', 'state' means 'to stand'. It stands above or over us. But we are not talking about superstition.I  cannot walk under a ladder as it will bring me misfortune, but if I do then I'm not all that worried - it is a half belief.

But J said "It is true".

There is a true story told of a woman in a psychiatric hospital who refused to eat. All the experienced psychiatrists did all they could to but she wouldn't touch the food they brought her. I desperation they told a junior psychiatrist to see what he could do. Whe he saw the woman he said " I understand that you refuse the food". She said " Yes, they are trying to kill me.. They put poison in the food."

"It is true" he said " They are trying to kill you. But they are trying to starve you to death!".

The woman immediately started eating again.

It's simple really. We all know that what what we believe is what we hold to be true. Its not a superstition.. it is true.... just as J says.

That young psychiatrist walked in his patients shoes for just one moment. He looked at the world through her eyes and experienced her truth. He found her meaning for one moment and he was able to help her from there.

 There is a lesson in this for us in as child care workers in Africa.

 If the young people say say it's witchcraft, it is true. The portent is experienced and it does come true.  I perform the rite and my fortune changes.  My wife visited me. My grandmother protects me.

  It is all true.

We all know that the only practical, effective intervention for a child or young person is the intervention that is experienced by that child to be meaningful from the world view of that child. SO, in South Africa we have to step right into the African world, African experience, African spirituality, African meaning because therein lives the truth.. Only then can we be really helpful to to our children, young people and their families. It is the African way.

" Yes, it is true" said J.