BONN--What
on earth is the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) doing spending valuable donor
dollars on sacrificial cows? Avoiding a humanitarian
crisis, that's what.
The
two keynote speakers at the working group called "attracting
Earlier this year, when rumor spread through a refugee camp near Guinea's southern
border with Sierra Leone that there was an evil spirit
lurking in the river, UN officials became concerned.
Camp residents had stopped going down to the river
to bathe and were instead relying on a small number
of wells to draw water.
"We had some
water issues. They
started using that
(well) water to wash
their clothes," said
senior UN protection
officer Mohamed Toure.
Toure feared that
the rumor, which attributed
seven deaths to the
evil spirit, could
heighten tensions among
the 28,000-strong refugee
community living in
the camp.
Toure investigated
the seven deaths, which
occurred within a one-week
period, and found that
they were all unrelated.
Two people died of
malaria; a mother and
a baby died during
childbirth; two others
suffered from long-term
illnesses; and the
last one died of old
age. Toure was convinced
there was no foul play
on the part of a poltergeist.
"I said, 'why
don't you have me jump
into the water to show
them nothing will happen,'" he
said laughing.
But, instead of trying
to wage a futile fight
to dispel the rumor,
Toure decided that
the best way to get
people to use the river
again would be to give
in to their request
for a sacrifice.
"It
was the only way
to relieve the
tension and have people
go back to the river."
In West Africa, where
age-old traditions
are entwined with both
Muslim and Christian
rituals, people believe
that when you build
a new house, you have
to make a sacrifice.
The refugees pointed
out that this was never
done when they moved
into the new camp.
After consulting his
colleagues, Toure gave
the go ahead for the
UN to purchase two
cows at a cost of $500.
Community officials,
religious leaders and
camp residents then
gathered on the banks
of the river for the
ceremony. After the
slaughter, the cow
was dismembered and,
in tune with the local
custom, one of its
legs was brought to
a nearby town.
"We succeeded
in killing the spirit,
so the river was no
longer haunted," said
Toure.
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