For millennia, people have believed in the power of sorcerers, shamans, priests, and others, considering them to possess a force beyond the reach of ordinary individuals.
Over time, historians have uncovered some of the secrets of sorcerers, finding that they often used trance induction and hallucinogenic substances in their rituals, causing people to see anything from horrifying monsters to flights in the sky.
However, some things still defy logical explanations. Among them is the mystery of human body invulnerability to fire, sharp blades, or firearms. There are rumors that sorcerers can somehow “charm” individuals to be immune to bullets or knives.
In 1995, a journalist from National Geographic witnessed a secret voodoo ceremony in Togo, West Africa. During this ceremony, a group of people danced in ecstasy and inflicted various bodily wounds on themselves, yet miraculously their bodies remained unharmed.
“It seemed like the celebrants in Kokuzan were pushing the boundaries of pain: one woman splashed sand into her open eyes, while a man cut his abdomen with shards of glass, but he didn’t bleed. Another swallowed fire…” described the journalist.
In a rare book called “Swords in the Desert,” released by Americans in 1944 for missionaries working in Africa, there is an intriguing story that took place in Nigeria.
It tells how a missionary named Raymond J. Davis (temporarily adopting the name Mai-nasara) worked among the Hausa tribe in northern Nigeria, which mostly adhered to Islam. They had been converted to Islam only in the 18th century and still retained many pre-Islamic rituals and traditions, including a belief in magic that made the body invulnerable.
One evening, Mai-nasara went out and saw a crowd gathered in the square, surrounding musicians and several people energetically dancing to the loud beat of drums. They wore only loincloths.
Suddenly, one of them, whom Mai-nasara recognized as a local young man named Mahaukachi, who had helped him several times before, jumped into the center of the dancers, seemingly in a trance. His whole body trembled, and his eyes glazed over.
He pulled out a sharp knife from his waist and screamed before forcefully stabbing himself in the abdomen. But there was not even a scratch left from the blow! He struck himself again with even greater force, but his skin remained unbroken, and not a scratch appeared. Instead, the knife’s blade bent as if hitting a granite stone before breaking into two pieces and falling to the ground.
The watching crowd went wild upon seeing this. They had been dancing along, watching the dancers, and now they began jumping wildly in excitement. Then Mahaukachi collapsed on the ground, seemingly exhausted, and people started placing small coins and cola nuts next to him.
Later, an old man appeared in the square. He sat down, took a very sharp ax, placed a bunch of grass on his bare leg, and… started chopping the grass with the ax, chopping it into small pieces without injuring his leg at all!
“These people can also take a knife in their teeth and snap off small pieces from it as if it were dry wood,” said Mai-nasara.
About a month later, Mai-nasara visited Mahaukachi and casually asked him about what had happened that evening in the square. Mahaukachi showed him his broken knife. Mai-nasara examined the pieces and acknowledged that it was a very ordinary knife with a quite hard blade.
Mahaukachi didn’t want to reveal the details of his invulnerability, but Mai-nasara begged him, and eventually, he told him what had happened:
“Mai-nasara, you are my friend. If I reveal the secret of this strange power to you, you must promise never to tell another black person about it. We don’t even tell our fellow tribesmen about it because it would destroy the magical spells.
This strange power is passed down from generation to generation by those who possess it. At a certain time of year, when the moon is in the right phase, deep in the night, we go to the wildest part of the forest. It’s a scary place, and if we didn’t take amulets and fetishes with us, we would never return alive to our homes.”
“What are these spells, Mahaukachi, and where do you get them?” asked Mai-nasara. “Some mullahs make them for us,” Mahaukachi continued.
“When we reach the designated place in complete silence, we sacrifice a white chick and, uttering a few words, smear our bodies and knives with its blood. We also drink a potion prepared according to a secret recipe. Then we return home before dawn, and, as you saw for yourself, our bodies become hardened from this, turning into iron.”
“Mahaukachi, when you go to this place and perform these rituals, do you feel the presence of spirits or unseen things?” asked Mai-nasara with concern.
“Yes, and I can tell you that this power does not come from God. It is the power of Shaytan (Satan). When through drumbeats and singing certain songs, these spirits enter our bodies, only then can we perform these actions… I speak the truth.”
