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2024 Original Artwork by Alice Aida Ayers, Hand-Stitched Fabrics, Mixed Media, 26” X 33”
Near my home lived a family of a mother, three daughters, a son, and grandchildren. The middle daughter, Sharifa, was lively and outspoken.
In the evenings, we often walked the dusty, uneven roads of Mangapwani, a village of about 500 people where everyone knew each other’s
lives. Passing houses, Sharifa would recount stories of the families inside—many her relatives, as men often had multiple wives and children.
One evening, as the sky turned lavender and kerosene lamps flickered in the mud houses, Sharifa suddenly froze. Gripping my arm, she
whispered, “That is the house of the shetani. We must go.” Terrified, she explained the woman inside collected spirits, sending them out at
dusk. Villagers sought her to buy djinns—either to curse rivals or for protection. Sharifa told me of a young wife cursed by such a spirit,
unable to conceive. Desperate, she once asked me how to undo the spell, but I had no answers. In the end, she and her husband fled the
village, hoping to escape both the curse and the woman who cast i
2024 Original Artwork by Alice Aida Ayers, Hand-Stitched Fabrics, Mixed Media, 26” X 33”
Near my home lived a family of a mother, three daughters, a son, and grandchildren. The middle daughter, Sharifa, was lively and outspoken.
In the evenings, we often walked the dusty, uneven roads of Mangapwani, a village of about 500 people where everyone knew each other’s
lives. Passing houses, Sharifa would recount stories of the families inside—many her relatives, as men often had multiple wives and children.
One evening, as the sky turned lavender and kerosene lamps flickered in the mud houses, Sharifa suddenly froze. Gripping my arm, she
whispered, “That is the house of the shetani. We must go.” Terrified, she explained the woman inside collected spirits, sending them out at
dusk. Villagers sought her to buy djinns—either to curse rivals or for protection. Sharifa told me of a young wife cursed by such a spirit,
unable to conceive. Desperate, she once asked me how to undo the spell, but I had no answers. In the end, she and her husband fled the
village, hoping to escape both the curse and the woman who cast i