With complete conviction, the crowd of men at the cemetery gates informed Lewis that the death and disease ravaging the villages and towns of Congo were the work of a wicked sorcerer waging some mysterious vendetta. Lewis unquestioningly accepted their words, conditioned to do so by his upbringing and intellectual capacity. The people had certainly heard tell of a mysterious virus, and those with a decent level of education had read out to others the warnings from the Ministry of Health, poorly printed on cheap paper. The radio was another source of information, now that the traditional and uplifting melodies of Draydo Lenoah, Suleiman Agho, Ali Farka Touré and Menelik Wossenachew were regularly interrupted by news bulletins about the virus. Despite this, the wicked sorcerer remained upper
