During the night, the child starts to shiver violently. Then she vomits! And her eyes roll upwards !
The father runs to the witch doctor..
“I see what it is about. A witch, one of your neighbours, wants to cast a spell on her.
Bring me a donkey’s horns and I will drive the curse away.”
“But where in earth can I find donkey’s horns ?”
“You cannot, but I can. Just give me some money and sacrifice two hens.”
The father gives money to the sorcerer. He returns home and sacrifices two of his hens. And then he goes to beat up his neighbour with a stick. His neighbours intervene and persuade him to go home. But the child is not cured.
Finally, in spite of the father’s protests, the mother brings their daughter to the Health Centre. The nurse gives her some medicine and sends her to the hospital.
When he gets back home, the father sees that his second wife has had a miscarriage. This time he agrees to have her brought directly to the Health Centre. When she gets there, she tells the nurse that she has been suffering from headache and that her belly has been painful for three days. “This is malaria,” says the nurse, “and malaria is the cause of the misscarriage. This would not have happened if you had attended the antenatal visits and taken preventive medication.” And the second wife is sent to the hospital, too.
And then we see the neighbours of our first family. They are behaving responsibly. The bednet is set and we see the young wife going to the antenatal visit and taking the preventive malaria medication. The nurse is very satisfied. This young woman is in good health and her foetus breathes perfectly well.
During this visit, the young wife learns that the child and the second wife of the first family had to be sent to the hospital. In the evening, seated under the bednet with her husband, she complains about the untidiness of their neighbours. Both decide to go and tell that family how to behave to avoid malaria.
They tell their parents, "It's not a sorcerer that is responsible for this sickness. It is brought by mosquitoes." Finally convinced, the neighbours start to clean the inside of the house and its surroundings. And the husband goes off to buy an insecticide treated bednet. All of the neighbourhood rejoices and starts to dance.