Black magic: Are African curses losing their sting?

Witch doctor displays his paraphernalia.

Among Africans, curses are believed to be dreadfully powerful and potent enough to kill, deafen, blind, jinx, mentally incapacitate, mute wombs and testicles and, in the case of Haiti, topple governments.

When former Coast Regional Coordinator Nelson Marwa threatened that the government would bomb Boni Forest and flush out al-Shabaab terrorists, a day later, elders warned him to leave their forest alone and threatened him with curses and other unspecified consequences.