TRV 004

4 Travel Weekend Edition December 3-4, 2005 smh.com.au/travel

The unfortunate little man wasstudded with nails from his neckto his groin. His mouth was wideopen and he had a mirror hang-

ing from his belly. I leant forward to havea closer look.

“Don’t touch that!” cried a young boywho leapt out of nowhere. I could see thewhites of his eyes as he threw himself be-tween me and the wooden statue. “Badvoodoo,” he said, wagging his finger.“Very bad voodoo.”

You don’t mess around with voodoo inthe Congo. We saw signs of black magicthroughout our trip: piles of ashes withscattered chicken feathers and unburntcandles, mutilated amulets around peo-ple’s necks.

I started to panic. I had definitelytouched one of the nails in the uppertorso. I was cursed. I was going to die. “Ijust touched a bit,” I begged of the littleboy. “That’s OK, isn’t it?”

He shook his head and sighed. “I don’tknow, madam. One hopes so.”

I hurried to join my companions, whowere lounging on the beach. The pristinecoastline stretched, calm and deserted, forhundreds of kilometres along the Atlantic.“This voodoo business,” I said as I satdown, “it’s not real or anything, is it?”

Victor, an education officer, looked at meas if I’d just asked if the Pope was Buddhist.“Well,” he said carefully, “voodoo origi-nates from the Fong Ewe tribe in Benin, butmany tribes in the Congo have been prac-tising for centuries, if not longer.”

“I just touched a voodoo doll,” I blurt-ed. “Does that mean I’m cursed?”

Ken, the manager of a chimpanzeesanctuary, whistled through his teeth.“You sure picked your place. You knowthere’s a slave port just over there. A lotof people died before they even made theboat. The locals say spirits linger, work-ing magic.”

Ken’s eyes were twinkling, but I wasn’tsure he was joking. The coastal area ofCongo was a big source of slaves for thetransatlantic trade. Thousands capturedin the interior were brought here and sawAfrica for the last time as they began theirperilous journey to the Americas.

The sun set gloriously on an otherwiseperfect day. We’d had breakfast in PointeNoire, a small town made rich by oil. A public holiday had been declared 12 hours before, for no other reason thanPresident Denis Sassou-Nguesso wasdropping by. We munched on croissantsat a French bakery that would have doneParis proud.

Driving north we stopped at an im-promptu-style restaurant plopped in themiddle of nowhere. We saw a fishermanhaggling with the cook over a fish as bigas our table. It was capitaine, a kind ofperch the Congolese still fish traditional-ly from the wild rapids of the River Congo.

Thirty minutes later the fish had beenfried in palm oil and hot pilli pilli peppers.I don’t like fish and had ordered somechips instead, but one bite of the capitainemelted in my mouth and I shovelled inone forkful after another until I was aspotbellied as a penguin.

We drove until sunset, stopping to ad-mire the blazing clouds over the waterand an odd assortment of voodoo dollsleaning against a fence.

From this stretch of the Atlantic, theRiver Congo winds like a snake into im-penetrable jungle. It separates the De-mocratic Republic of Congo from the

Congo we were in, the People’s Republic.As Africa’s most powerful river and themost voluminous river in the world, theCongo has a discharge of 450,000 litresof water a second. Treacherous currentsand rapids make it as impassable now aswhen Joseph Conrad set his Heart ofDarkness here in 1902.

The river and surrounding rainforestare legendary. More than half the coun-try (an area as big as Western Australia)is covered in a huge forest that is hometo wildlife that reads like Livingstone’sfantastic journal. Kopi, a kind of forest gi-raffe, are as rare as unicorns. Black hip-pos stay cool in the deep waters thatprotect them from the sun, while mana-tees swim from the brackish water nearthe sea to the swirling waters above thecataracts. Thirteen species of primatesswing through the trees, as well as count-less birds and small mammals.

Looking into the jungle, its magnificentcanopy stretching as far as the eye couldsee, it was clear the Congo is one of thelast places in the world that true adven-ture still exists. I had grandiose visions oftreading ground that had felt no humanfootprint for centuries. Of coming face-to-face with pygmies, or grasping the curl-ing trunk of a woodland elephant.

I was brought back to reality by the callof another famous Congo critter.

“Get in the car,” said Ken.“Oh!” I craned my neck excitedly

over the Land Rover. “Do you think we cansee them?”

“We want to see wild chimps about asmuch as hungry lions. Come on,” he said,seeing my disappointment, “there’s amuch safer way to see them.”

Jane Goodall’s Tchimpounga Chim-panzee Sanctuary sits on top of a hill inthe middle of a savanna. Small pockets offorest provide the chimps with a play-ground. The 117 chimps are orphans, res-cued from the illegal bush meat or pettrade. Congo has the world’s largest pop-ulation of chimpanzees and Tchimpoun-ga has more refugees than any otherAfrican sanctuary.

Being in the forest with them was like a scene from The Jungle Book.Laughing, they chased each other upand down trees. They tumbled on theground at our feet and pulled our hands,wanting us to join in.

Suddenly, the chimps bolted up thetrees and started pant-hooting andscreaming. The whole forest erupted inpanic. The keepers looked worried.

“Could be wild chimps.”I couldn’t help thinking of the

voodoo doll. Was this the end? Torn topieces by chimpanzees? One of the keep-ers, Sedgewick, went to investigate thepotential invaders. He came back, smil-ing broadly.

“I found the wild chimp,” he said andheld up a black plastic bag. He waved itaround for all the young chimps to seeand, looking surprisingly sheepish, theycrept down from the trees.

A little tired of looking over my shoul-der for the voodoo curse, I brought it upgingerly with Sedgewick on the way backfrom the forest. “Voodoo is very useful,”he said. “If you have a broken leg, thewitchdoctor can break the leg of a chick-en and yours will be fixed.”

“What if you had bad luck, or werecursed somehow?”

Sedgewick’s advice was to see a witch-doctor, who would sew some ashes and

blood in a linen sack, insert the sackunder my skin and sew it up again. Thecost, a mere 5000 francs ($133).

I was OK until he got to the part wherethe witchdoctor slit my skin open. Des-perate, I told him about the voodoo doll.He laughed. “The power is not in the stat-ue. The power is in hatred.”

It was like talking to Yoda from StarWars. “Someone must go to the witch-doctor who curses the statue. Have youdone anyone harm? Have you injured abody or wounded a spirit?”

I thought hard. Apart from a couple ofex-boyfriends, I couldn’t think of anyonewho would want to curse me. And theywere more likely to have another beerthan go to a witchdoctor.

Sedgewick smiled. “Then you havenothing to fear. Tread a good path, leadan honourable life, and do no harm.”

Relieved, I walked with him backthrough the savannah, the sun suspend-ed like a red moon over the Congo. Youcan be sure I’ll be treading very carefullyfrom now on.

Under theCongo’s spell

Vanessa Woods has a brushwith black magic and lives,

nervously, to tell the tale.

Jungle fever ...clockwise from far left, a familyrelaxes by the seaat the end of theday; the dreadedvoodoo doll; acanoe at the oldslave port nearPointe Noire;chimps at theTchimpoungasanctuary put on a show. Photos: Vanessa Woods

DEMOCRATICREPUBLICOF CONGO

(ZAIRE)

ANGOLA

GABON

CONGO

Brazzaville

Kinshasa

Luanda

Pointe Noire

500KM0

CO

NG

OR

AT

LAN

TIC

OC

EAN

Destination Republic Of Congo■ GETTING THEREThere are no direct flights from Australia to Pointe Noire, but Air France (www.airfrance.com/au) flies to Paris and then on toPointe Noire for $6438 return in high season. Make sure you bookthe Paris to Pointe Noire leg first, as Air France does this route onlythree or four times a week.

■ VISASA visa is required to enter the Republic of Congo. It can be obtainedfrom the Congolese embassy in London. Yellow fever and othervaccinations should also be up to date.

■ STAYING THEREMigitel, Boulevard du General de Gaulle, Pointe Noire. Phone (0011 242) 940 918. A basic hotel located near the city and beacheswith rooms from $90 a night. Air-conditioning and satellite TV.

Hotel Azur International, 54 Avenue N’teta Kouilou, Pointe Noire.Phone 942 771. Three-star hotel near the ocean from $100 a night.Air-conditioning and satellite TV.

Most hotels have a connection with a tourist agent if you wouldlike to be shown around. The Achilles Service tour agency operatesfrom Brazzaville, but can show you the sights of Pointe Noire. Askfor Odende Goma, who speaks English. Phone 824 553 or emailachilles_services@voila.fr.

■ SECURITYThe Republic of Congo has been peaceful for five years, althoughsporadic fighting does occur. The main danger in Pointe Noire istheft. Photographing military personnel, public buildings andbridges is illegal. See www.smarttraveller.gov.au.