Daily Topic for February 24, 2012
In today’s prayer entry you read about members of the Manya Malinke people who perform animal sacrifices and chew on razor blades among other things. Their practices clearly fall under the category that Ezekiel calls “wicked” in this passage. But the good news is that they can turn from their ways, follow the Lord of Lords, and be forgiven. Who will lead them from the ways of wicked spirits to the ways of the Savior?
Pray for Manya people to hear and respond to the true Word of God.
by LR
Hanging around his neck, the gris-gris (a small bag containing a verse from the Qur’an) felt weightless, but powerful to the village marabout. This Muslim holy man also plays the role of a shaman. He didn’t understand the text—nobody in the village did—but it didn’t matter; the very words on the scroll “protected” him as he chewed on razor blades to show the villagers his spiritual strength. After dancing in the center of the family-centric living compound, he would sacrifice a chicken to the village spirit. The grio singer plucked his kora – a 21-stringed instrument – as the villagers hoped in earnest that this ritual might spare them from the locust plague.
The Malinke people’s fascinating culture has spread throughout West Africa from their expansion in the 13th century. It is now the most widespread tribe in West Africa with many subtribes, such as the Manya, the people group we are praying for today. They converted to Islam many centuries ago. At that time they added Muslim teachings about Allah as a distant creator to their own cosmology. Like many Malinke peoples, the Manya believe in different kinds of spirits and the use of magic. Today more than 99 percent of the Manya people are folk Sunni Muslims.
Pray that God will draw workers to produce and disseminate existing material to Manya villages. Pray that the Manya Malinke people will hunger to understand God’s Word. Their salvation depends on it!