AN AFRICAN “country doctor” is no ordinary doctor. I know because I was one of them.

Persons would come to me because they sought revenge on real or imagined enemies. I would determine the punishment and administer it by magical means. I specialized in divination and made “medicines” to protect one from “departed spirits” or those seeking to bring evil upon a person.

After three years, I was compelled to accompany my ailing guardian to the chief “medicine” town in my country. There I took a course in “country medicine.” This included the art of preparing and administering poisons made from the bark of trees, leaves or the gall of alligators. This knowledge was essential to the work of a “country doctor” whose patrons sought revenge on enemies.

Having heard a complaint, a “country doctor” determines if punishment is merited and to what degree. Learning how to become such a “doctor” did not bother my conscience, despite years of church attendance. I believed that God not only allowed the “country doctor” to do his work of administering revenge but also empowered him to do so.

Divining was another requirement in mastering my craft. Methods of divining included looking at the water in a pot or at a mirror. For protection against departed spirits or evil persons, I learned to concoct various “medicines.” Often such would be put in a bottle and buried in the threshold of a house, with just the top of the bottle showing.

One day all my possessions were burned up when fire gutted the village. My depression turned to astonishment when I was told that this was a sign from the spirits that I would receive more power. The next day the chief practitioner gave me a ring and confided to me: “If you put this on your finger and start rubbing it, you will be invisible to anyone standing by. Here are the laws of the ring: Don’t look at the sun when it is noon; don’t eat onion!”

The first time I tried rubbing the ring, people passed me by as if I were not there. But the second time I was greatly disappointed. My confidant explained: “It cannot work all the time, but it is a quick way of making money. I will show you how to do it.” Thereafter I would supply rings at a price to make one invisible, rings for ambitious men seeking power and position.

On one occasion, I made a ring for a clan chief, and he paid me $32, convinced that it had made him invisible and that he would be empowered as chief to time indefinite. But on an occasion when the ring did not seem to work for him, I simply told him that the spirit of the ring was temporarily visiting other parts of the earth.