There are many customs and traditions here in Lesotho. Now, please hear me: there are many traditions and customs that are good…we have many in the U.S. There are many here that are good, but many are no more than superstition. For example: if a woman walks in front of the opening of the kraal (the rock pen where the cattle, sheep, goats, and horses are kept at night), the fertility of the livestock will be negatively affected. If your children eat eggs, they will mature too quickly, and a girl may even become pregnant. Who knows how these customs and traditions started.
Just as traditions and customs can veer off course, so can the understanding of God. Many Basotho understand that there is a supreme and powerful God that created them, they just think He is uncaring and cannot be known. They do not believe that we can have access to Him without a mediator. That part is right of course, and the mediator’s name is Jesus, but here is where their beliefs take a whole different turn. The mediation of people to God must be done by the ancestors, and here is the problem: they spend all their time trying to appease the ancestors. According to their beliefs, only the ancestors have access to God, so only they can know what God wants. So, who has access to the ancestors? The sangomas (witch doctors). They will consult with the ancestors to see what you need to do. Many families here still have a yearly encounter with the sangoma. He or she comes to their house, and performs rituals to “protect” the family. Of course they must pay for this service. If there is a problem in the village, the sangoma has the answer as to what is causing the problem. If your cow dies, or crops don’t grow, the sangoma will consult with the ancestors and they will tell who it is that is the cause of your problems. Just the other day, Teresa and I were in a village, and a lady had a “sangoma bottle” around her neck. You see many people wearing these. They are bought from the sangoma for varying protection from sickness, lightening, death, spells, and about anything else you can think of. She was asking for “Li pillis.” (Pron.= dee-pill-ees) Translation: “The pills” for pain. Teresa asked about the bottle hanging from her neck. She said the sangoma gave it to her. Teresa told her that the pills would relieve her pain temporarily, but that only Jesus could give healing. Then she started ranting and raving, raising her hands and proclaiming Jesus as God and glorifying Molimo (Pron.=Moe-dee-mo), which is Sesotho for God. Let me remind you that she had this bottle from the sangoma around her neck. Teresa said if she really believed that about God, wouldn’t she give the bottle to her? The lady started laughing and said she couldn’t do that. Next question: “Why not?” The sangoma would beat her. I said, “Give the bottle to me, and send the sangoma to me. I don’t think he will beat me.” She clutched the bottle and refused to give it up. Why? Confusion. To her, God is powerful, but the access to Him must come through some other means than the sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. To her, there just has to be something else needed. She finds that “something else” in a bottle purchased for 10 rand (about a dollar and a half) from a sangoma. I wonder, if for her, Jesus is just another one of the ancestors… just one on which she can place a name.
Her story is like the story of 1000’s of others. Romans 1: 21 says, “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, and became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” v. 25 says, “For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” (NASB) Those verses describe the spiritual landscape here in Lesotho. The ancestors, called “balimo” (ba-dee-moe), are merely creatures who are being served by those who have become futile in their speculations. As a result, confusion abounds. Romans 10: 17 says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” (NASB) These beliefs will not change because we have traveled many miles to be here. They will not change because I gave up a nice salary in a nice church to be here. They will not change because you are nice people that read this blog. They will only change as the Word of God is proclaimed. Pray that we are faithful to that task.
Until ALL have heard, Jim