Superstitions in Malawi: Zooming in on Siku owner saga

Wednesday, July 6, 2009: A man drives to Blantyre’s Bangwe Township and is mobbed by residents for having three dead chickens on him. Within hours, talk is common around town- not only about the man, but the company vehicle he was allegedly using.
From nowhere, the word Siku becomes synonymous with dead chickens in Bangwe. The way the issue has been blown out of proportion smacks of something more than meets the eye. There has to be some invisible hand from somewhere, possibly people who would love Siku, and some of its directors’ reputation, thrown in the mud.
It serves, sadly once again, as a reminder of how as a nation we are so much affiliated to jealousy and its ugly machinations. No wonder our wonderful National Anthem throws a chord over the issue of jealousy.
The truth of the matter is that there is no fuss around the issue of rituals. Rituals are as old as life itself, practiced all over the world. It has always been an integral part of the history and cultural heritage of many people around the world. In Latin America, Asia, Africa, Europe and elsewhere, rituals are common place.
In Southeast Asia, for example- with its heavy seasonal rains, the diversity of flora and the abundance of metal ores, agricultural communities have had their rituals since the 4th Millennium BC.
Archaeological and cultural records from Java, known for its favourite geological conditions, have proved beyond reasonable doubt that rituals, religious and cultural beliefs sustained the people there, and gave them some common heritage. Not only in Asia has this happened, elsewhere, too.
Abundant archaeological and cultural evidence from as many as six continents indicates, clearly, that what has come to be known as modern life is merely a combination of immerging trends and our ritualistic past- a past so full of invaluable traits and life colours. This overwhelming evidence, whose force of truth became more powerful in the Late Pleistocene period, and mainly from sites