“The evil eye penetrates through the back. That's why so many mothers insist that their children never take off their shirts while playing in the street. Or they hide them at home when they spot a feiticeiro in the distance.
—And how do you know that a person is a witch?
– It's not easy to know. But it is said that they are usually elderly people who live alone, usually in the mato (jungle), and have been abandoned by their families simply because they are witches.
The conversation takes place in front of António Dias' house in Ferreira Governo, a small town not far from the capital of São Tomé and Príncipe. There are cases here where older people are accused of witchcraft or the ability to do evil, usually when they suffer from an illness, and they are ostracized. A harmful superstition that is also common in other African countries, but represents an exception to the traditional respect that older people enjoy in most cultures on the continent.
However, elders accused of witchcraft in São Tomé and Príncipe are sometimes abandoned by their closest relatives. When they are driven out of the family home, they have no choice but to retreat to remote areas, usually in the middle of the jungle, where they have difficulty surviving. And when they approach the villages, they create fear, which is why they are insulted and asked to leave the inhabited areas. “It is a pretty inhumane treatment that these people receive most of the time,” says Valencian Maria Montroy, who is taking part in a project to change the perception of these elderly people who are accused of being feticeiros (sorcerers).
Sitting in a room made of green-painted zinc sheets in front of the family's house, Dias says that things weren't like that as a child. “When you passed an old man, you always put your hand on your chest and did a small squat as a sign of respect.” In order to regain the appreciation of older people and put an end to superstition, Dias is working with the Montroy Initiative , which aims to bring children and older people closer together through joint activities that break down prejudices. One of their tools is the teaching of Forro, the native Creole language of the island of São Tomé, which is in danger of extinction.
Elderly people suffering from degenerative diseases in São Tomé and Príncipe are regularly accused of witchcraft and thus condemned to exclusion.
Montroy arrived in the country in 2016 as part of an initiative aimed at teaching local tour guides basic English skills. He immediately noticed that very few young people spoke Forro. “I am interested in all minority languages because I speak one, Valencian. Here they referred to the food as 'old man's language' and from there I started my research,” he elaborates. After graduating in translation and interpreting from the Jaume I University of Castellón, she decided to focus her doctoral thesis on this language. She is now continuing her research as a Margarita Salas Scholarship (a grant awarded by her university in collaboration with the UNESCO Chair in Linguistic Heritage at the University of the Basque Country). Through workshops, it seeks to contribute to the revitalization of the Forro while bringing together older and young people in the community. The former use Creole to speak among themselves; and the latter Portuguese. This not only creates a linguistic and intergenerational distance, but also poses the risk of the local language dying out as it is not passed on to new generations.
To carry out his project, Montroy collaborated with the NGO Cooperación Bierzo-Sur, which has been present in the country since 2011. This organization launched an intergenerational initiative to change perceptions of older people. The ending was usual.
In the meantime, the promotion of lining has become another activity of the project in addition to the activities already carried out by the association. This includes showing the community that what is generally considered witchcraft or spirit possession is nothing more than a condition typical of the age. “Cognitive, degenerative or neurological diseases (e.g. dementia, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, osteoarthritis or diabetic retinopathy) are viewed here as witchcraft; and they are a reason to exclude people who suffer from it from the community because they are believed to infect children or with some other pretext,” explains Carmen Álvarez, president of the NGO and a nurse.
When she was very young, Sateria came from Cape Verde and had to work on the cocoa and coffee plantations of São Tomé. Despite his age, he continues to work in a cocoa dryer and participates in the theater workshop that brings together children and the elderly to break stereotypes and teach the forro.Chema Caballero
The Escuteiros (scout groups), which will be established in all the cities of the archipelago, are the key to the intergenerational project. They are the ones who detect cases of abandoned elderly people, locate them in their new settlements and guarantee them help and support. They were founded by the members of Cooperación Bierzo-Sur and have acquired the skills to work with them. In addition, they carry out activities and workshops where older people come into contact with the little ones and are interested in speaking and passing on the language. Without them, Montroy's initiative and the NGO would not be viable.
In addition to raising awareness among families, the intergenerational project also organizes activities with both groups. Older people are encouraged to tell stories and folk tales that will enchant the little ones. They are invited to visit older people and do simple work with them.
The initiators of this initiative even organized a synchronous workshop for older people with the support of the local station Radio Lobata. Thanks to this training, children's cartoons have been translated into the cover and plays are performed with Portuguese interspersed on the cover. This project also restores traditional recipes that have been lost. The women teach them to the younger ones while speaking to them in Creole.
An initiative has translated children's cartoons into the cover and launched plays with Portuguese interspersed on the cover.
Those responsible say that the results achieved so far are satisfactory. “We may not be able to change the situation of neglect of many older people today, but we are laying the foundations so that this will no longer be the case in the future,” says Álvarez.
The conversation with Mr. Dias continues.
“Ke nomi bo e?” (“What’s your name?”) invites you to repeat it.
“Nomi mu sa Chema (“My name is Chema”), replies the person being questioned.
The children present laugh. They know some common phrases or expressions in Spanish, but do not use this language in their daily life. They communicate in Portuguese with each other and also with their parents, some of whom consider it backwards to speak to their children in the local language. Creole is neither taught in schools nor is there an institution that promotes it. Only some poets occasionally use it in their verses. However, two of the most famous Santo Tomense music groups with international exposure, Calema and Familia Forte, use it in their songs from time to time and are very successful. “It’s also funny to see how proud people are to have the food. Although at the same time they don't teach it to the little ones. Maybe that’s why they support us in such activities and want their children to learn the language,” says Montroy.
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