The so-called fortune tellers

It is baffling that so many people continue to believe in astrology which by no stretch of imagination can be called a science. Quite a few also read horoscopes in newspapers and many go to fortune tellers seeking solutions to their problems. If horoscopes are read the way cartoons are read in newspapers that could well be classified as a reading past-time but if these are read with a sense of belief, then something is seriously wrong because almost daily the horoscopes tell you of things, good and bad, that are often absolutely incorrect.

Fortune tellers in Dar es Salaam now reportedly operate under the umbrella of traditional healers and conduct their business openly. Some even advertise their business inviting people to have their problems solved, or expectations fulfilled. The fortune oriented adverts invite people towards quick success, quick recoveries from even terminal diseases while some so-called healers boast that they can even penalize enemies of their clients. 

One would expect that newspapers have a duty of care to their readers not to carry adverts that misguide or that the Tanzania Information Services (Maelezo) would issue some form of notice to publishers and media owners to stop carrying such adverts but this does not appear to have happened.

When people go to an astrologer to find out what is wrong in their life the normal reply would be that the sun and other stars are maleficent to him or her. They will tell you to perform a propitiatory ceremony, or have magic formulae chanted, or prayers said, or specific acts of charity done, for you or the distressed person to recover. Other so-called healers will tell you about traditional medicines, sacrificing animals or even doing some juju stuff under baobab trees. One strong believer advised me that the baobab tree near the Namanga Shopping area in Dar es Salaam is an example where one can seek redress to one’s problems and he said that even the Japanese contractors failed to bring it down when reconstructing the road a few years ago. These self-believing healers also often stress that the distressed could lose his or her life if something was not done fast.

The sun and other stars are inanimate things like the earth. They can do nothing but give light, heat, etc. How can one consider them to be conscious or to be related to human passions, of pleasure and anger, that when propitiated, bestow happiness on human beings?’ Astrologers claim that it is through the influence of stars that some people are rich and others poor, some are rulers, whilst others are their subjects and that there is an entire study on the science of stars. Personal achievements are the result of deeds, good or bad coupled with an element of luck and while we are asked to struggle for success in life, we are also told that our ultimate destiny remains with God and only God.

As for the science of stars, that part of it which comprises arithmetic, algebra, geometry, etc., and which goes by the name of astronomy is true; but the other part that covers the influence of stars on human beings and their actions and goes by the name of astrology is rather superficial.

When astrologers forecast wrongly they attribute this to a change in position of stars or to the maleficence of stars. During times when they tell their clients to perform certain acts to avoid a so-called imminent catastrophe they are witty enough to qualify their words as a precaution in case things do not work. Ironically at such times an astrologer would often say, “How could I help it? I cannot override the will of God. I did my utmost and so did you, but it was so ordained from the first for this to happen.”

As they themselves say, there is no soul living that can undo the law of God or evade the consequences of one’s deeds. People survive in consequence of their deeds, and according to the laws of God, and not through the help of astrologers or fortune tellers.