THE SUFFERING BROUGHT ABOUT BY KIKONDO

The carriers of the coffin hit a man against the wall of his house

The fruits of darkness can be found at all times and everywhere in all cultures. Nobody can laugh at the others and stigmatise them. We are the same, and all of us are capable of evil. This evil can take possession of our hearts and blind our minds, making it difficult to see the evil in us. It is easy to point fingers at the others, and cover our own sins with a mantle of self-righteousness. 

As we celebrate the Holy Week, we remember that Jesus died in order to set us free. To be free, we must accept his lordship of love and reject the power of darkness that enslaves us. Jesus Christ is the one who can liberate us from the oppression of Satan and his agents. People are so afraid of witchcraft that they can hardly breath.

People do not accept suffering, misfortune and death as being normal to our human condition. People should be immortal, and if they die, it is because of the murderous hatred of someone - the witch.  That’s where KIKONDO - the moving coffin - comes in as an action to get vengeance on the dead and to get rid of the witch. In the area of the Catholic Diocese of Solwezi in Zambia, this is very common, causing great confusion in the villages. As the coffin is being carried to the cemetery, a commotion takes place, and the carriers move in a whirl until they hit someone, who is then punished as being the killer of the dead person.

In Kikondo, the same people are the accusers, the judges and the executioners, trampling upon the dignity of defenceless people. The mob fells upon them with insults, threats and beatings. And they do it as if they are the injured ones, claiming a right to redress the situation. They accuse an old defenceless man/ woman of witchcraft, forgetting that they are the ones committing a crime - a crime of defamation, assault and sometimes murder. They may demand for money, for which they did not work; they may grab property which belongs to the accused and may even destroy his house, leaving that old person homeless. In all this, who is the criminal? Who is the witch? Who performs actions of darkness?

We must proclaim our faith in the Risen Christ, who set us free, confessing that we belong to Jesus and the powers of darkness have no control over our lives.

If we examine ourselves, the society around us, and the world at large, we can find plenty of cases of suffering, injustice and oppression. Even if we are not  guilty of those crimes, can we say that our hands have not touched the blood of our brothers? We may not be like Judas, Caiaphas and Pilate, but we do like Peter who denied Jesus or like the other disciples who run away. Like them, we excuse ourselves and go into hiding, so that we do not get involved.

May this Holy Week helps to see Jesus Christ being jeered, beaten, arrested and killed in any of the innocent people who suffer violence.