Fleeing an Ancient Darkness

Here's a bit of how the poorest live; it may spark your giving internationally as well as domestically:

Sitting in a home that doubles as a church building in rural Sierra Leone (one of the poorest countries in Africa, income $500/year average), 24- year-old Miracle Conteh was about to share secrets from her childhood that she knew could get her killed. But then, those who would kill her—members of a secret society to which she once belonged—were already pursuing her for leaving their ranks to follow Christ. For two years, Miracle, known as Sassa until coming to faith in Christ at age 14, performed ancient rituals that involved interacting with demons, casting spells, and performing bodily mutilations. She learned the rituals from her grandmother, who leads the secret society.

During those two years, Miracle said, she felt no fear of the evil spirits with which she interacted. In fact, she felt comfortable in their presence. ”Wherever I went, I sensed the presence of evil spirits all around me” Miracle said. “There was nothing in me that made me feel that I must come out of it, because I never sensed anything like God in me. I was just going forward more deeply into it.”

More than half of Sierra Leoneans are Muslims, and nearly 13% are Christians.  Most of the remaining population practice ethnic religions.

Despite this public adherence to religion, an estimated 90% are additionally aligned with secret societies that dominate all aspects of life in Sierra Leone. At about the age of puberty, boys are often initiated into the Poro society.

Leaders of these societies hold considerable local power, and national politicians even seek their endorsement, and promise to protect their rituals and customs. Most politicians approve of the rituals, with some supporting Poro and Bondo (for young women) houses financially to ensure that the rituals continue throughout Sierra Leone. They believe that the societies help create social order, and preserve cultural values.

Families that refuse to join or participate in the societies, including Christians, are treated as outcasts.  They are denied any decision-making roles in their village.

During the Poro initiation ceremonies, boys receive ritualistic cuts on their backs, signifying the teeth marks of a demonic spirit. Likewise, girls who enter Bondo suffer ritual genital mutilation as an initiation to womanhood. Nine of ten girls undergo this ritual in Sierra Leone, which has the highest rate of female genital mutilation in Africa. The women who administer these rites are revered, and are believed to hold supernatural powers.

Miracle was born into a Muslim family, and raised by her grandmother from a young age.  Her grandmother is a zowie, a Bondo leader for her village. When Miracle turned 12, her grandmother began preparing her to become a zowie as well. At the end of a school year, when the Bondo initiation rituals often take place, Miracle’s grandmother would send her into the forest to collect leaves for secret rituals. “Before she could send me to the forest to pick specific leaves, she would consult an evil demon spirit,” Miracle recalled. “Then I would be able to find the leaves that she needed.” The leaves are used to make a potion thought to prevent the girls from feeling pain during the ceremony. 

As the Bondo initiation starts, the girls have their faces painted with white clay, and are led deep into the forest by a demon.  The zowie, who embodies the devil, wears a wooden mask and a costume generally made of palm leaves. The devil typically uses an unsterilized razor or knife to mutilate the girls, who receive no form of anesthesia other than the leaf potion. The girls are often tied down, and their mouths are covered.

 

Following the ritual, the girls take an oath of secrecy, and are told that if they disclose the society’s secrets, they will be killed. Just discussing the ritual with a nonmember, including a doctor, could be considered breaking the oath.

As Miracle grew in her understanding the rituals, her grandmother allowed her to wear the devil costume and conduct the mutilations herself.  She was 13 at the time. “I was the one actually doing almost everything,” she recalled.  “At my young age, I initiated 35 girls into the secret society.”

Looking back on those two years of her childhood, Miracle said she felt as if she had lost control of her soul, invoking demons and seeking their guidance.  “In the secret society, you are assisted by an evil spirit to carry it out,” she said. “In most of my work, I operated alongside the evil spirits, and they directed me what to do.

In addition to teaching her the initiation rituals, Miracle’s grandmother taught her how to enter a spiritual realm through incantations, and by invoking demonic spirits. Then, Miracle said, she could interact with the demons to further learn the ways of the secret society, and to control people. Miracle ceremonially entered a witch’s coven. And in their presence, she said, she could physically control and harm people in ways similar to voodoo, which originated in the nearby West African country of Benin. “That attracted many young people to me because I gained power in the spirits,” Miracle said. When I am inside that witch’s coven, those in the physical realm, whatever I tell you, no matter how big you are, you listen to me and you do what I tell you to do.”

Miracle said that she and her grandmother even killed children by ritually kidnapping their souls.  The disturbing tales of these “killings” included figuratively “eating” their flesh and “drinking” their blood—all from the spiritual realm. Miracle said that later, in the physical world, parents would find their children’s bodies and have no idea what happened to them.

These shocking claims were corroborated by a Christian front-line worker who had escaped the Poro secret society as a young boy, and now helps former secret-society members like Miracle. He said stories like hers of demonic-influenced killings are common throughout the region. “A doctor can’t find any blood,” the worker said. “The child is plain white, and when you take them to the hospital, the doctor will tell you, ‘There is no blood in this child.’”

Reflecting on her time in the secret society, Miracle recalled limitations to the dark power she gained by invoking the support of demons and witches. Each time her power was limited, a Christian was involved. “There is something in the Christian that prevents you from taking that soul.” I want to tell you that it is not only because my grandmother said it, but I myself tried it and saw it with my naked eyes. I saw it in the children who became Christians; when we wanted to take them, it was difficult. Those children you cannot take. There is a force that fights you.”

One evening when Miracle’s grandmother was visiting another village, a Christian pastor arrived with a projector and a small screen.  He had come to the village to share the JESUS films. As she watched the life of Jesus projected on a portable screen that lit up the night, Miracle said she felt moved by Christ’s teachings and miracles. She also realized that she had encountered Jesus in the spiritual realm. He was the force that protected the Christians she and her grandmother had tried to control. “My heart was fixed to the Lord Jesus Christ,” she said. “I started yearning to give my life to Christ.”

At the conclusion of the film, the pastor asked if anyone wanted to place his or her faith in Jesus Christ. Miracle decided to walk forward.  “I made an attempt,” she said, “but it was like something held me back.” Although she didn’t walk forward at that moment, Miracle later joined the pastor and others at a church in a nearby village, where they prayed together. Miracle still hadn’t come to faith in Christ, but she said she felt at peace during the all-night prayer meeting.

When Miracle returned home the next morning, her grandmother, who was back from her visit, asked her where she had been. “The people who came, they had a church,” she answered. That was all her grandmother needed to hear.  “I have made you a leader in our society,” she shouted, “what are you doing with these…church people?”

Her grandmother gathered the elder Bondo women, and told them that Miracle had attended a church service. “Immediately, a decision was reached that for treading my foot in the church, I should be killed,” Miracle said.  “I had violated the law.” About 30 women took Miracle into the forest, made her take off her clothes and tied her down.

“They flogged me very seriously that night,” Miracle said, crying. “They said, ‘If you ever try to follow that pastor, the next time we will kill you.’”

Miracle headed for the pastor’s house as soon as she was untied, but the women realized where she was going and recaptured her. They beat her again, and one of the women rubbed a crushed hot pepper in her eyes and elsewhere on her body. Screaming, Miracle broke free from the women and continued running, eventually reaching the pastor’s home.

Realizing Miracle’s life was in danger, the pastor and his wife immediately let her in their home. When the women arrived at the house a short time later, they ceremonially cursed the area where the pastor showed the JESUS film and led worship services. Throughout the night and into the morning, they threw stones at the house and ordered the pastor to release Miracle so they could kill her. Eventually, the pastor was able to take Miracle to a church, where she stayed with another pastor for about a month.

While staying at the church, Miracle placed her faith in Christ. After her baptism, she took on the name “Miracle” to honor the way God had brought her out of darkness and into light.

Ten years after coming to faith in Christ, Miracle is part of a vibrant church and continues to grow in faith.

In December 2022, Miracle graduated from a three-year sewing program. She said she is grateful for her sewing machine and the training she received from the school; they are helping her provide for herself and have given her a place in society that doesn’t require keeping secrets. “I want whoever reads my story to be praying for me to stay in the Lord,” she said. “That is the most important thing, staying in Christ.”

Miracle’s grandmother is unable to attack her through the spiritual realm, but Miracle has heard that she is still pursuing her. Still, she doesn’t fear her grandmother or the others who wish her harm. She keeps her eye solely on Christ. “Until I go to glory,” she said, “I will be with the family of Jesus. My grandmother, I don’t think about her.”

Instead of the demons and witches she interacted with as a young girl, Miracle is now filled with the Holy Spirit and protected by the blood of Christ. She trusts God to continue lighting the path before her in a spiritually dark region of Africa. “What happened to me in the spirit realm, I didn’t understand,” Miracle said. “Today I can call on the name of Jesus and I am able to understand that dark realm and the Light of the world. I praise God that I am now in the light.”