St Bridgid’s Day

I have been away for a long time. 

It is not as if I have not had any contact  with Europe at all of course- even when I lived in Mali for the twelve years at Hotel Djenne Djenno I had plenty of European (or western) interaction- after all I had a stream of interesting people staying at my little mud hotel, and there was never a moment of feeling lonely or bored- that is only something I have experienced in London...but nevertheless, the concerns that matter to life in Africa are so very different to the ones that people care about here that I often feel like an alien in my own culture now. An alien or some sort of dinosaur from another time and place...

Take just one little incident: an exhibition of eighty nine Irish women artists  at Jeremiah’s excellent Twelve Star Gallery – the exhibition space for the European Union in London, which will now shortly be closing alas... These artists  had all been given a poem as inspiration to create a painting  in celebration of St. Brigid’s Day.  She  is an Irish patron saint, along with St Patrick. She lived in the 7^th century and seems to have gained an  alternative possible existence as a Celtic fertility goddess. Lá Fhéile Bhríde, Saint Brigid's Feast Day is on the first of February and celebrates the beginning of spring.

The poem given as inspiration is by the Irish poet Leland Bardwell, called St. Brigid’s Day 1989. It is short and describes a vision of women gathering rushes to make St. Bridgid’s crosses. It ends:

‘I too will make a cross, for luck and irony.

Amongst the witches coven I will raise my glass

So that my children’s children’s children

Will gather rushes for her turning.’

The irish ambassador Adrian O’Neill was there, making a speech. Later I and some friends chatted to him – he said that when he spoke to people about St Bridgid’s Day  first of all the reaction was negative- ‘St Bridgid- that’s religious isn’t it ?’ but then he explained, reassuringly, that St. Bridgid was actually a Celtic fertility goddess, and therefore everyone felt it was OK to join in and celebrate. It is clear and understandable how the Irish has turned powerfully against the Catholic church of course, since there has been unforgiveable travesties perpetuated for too long with apparent impunity.

Nevertheless, I did not really feel happy about the line ‘ Amongst the witches coven I will raise my glass’ etc… which is an example of how feminists have sometimes taken the theme of witches’ covens to celebrate  ‘sisterhood’ and even ‘Das ewig Weibliche’.  Call me an old dinosaur, but to me witchcraft is not something positive. When I spoke to one of my closest female friends  she seemed put out by my being disturbed by this. ‘But Sophie, they burned women at the stake for just being single, not married !’ Yes, of course that should never have happened and there were many innocents that were put to death. But that doesn’t mean that witchcraft itself and witches covens is something to be celebrated .  Witches and witchcraft is not something jolly like Father Christmas, something that isn’t actually true. It is something quite alive, and there are plenty of people that get involved in this- in Europe and also in Africa of course, and I have spent twelve years observing the power of ‘maraboutage ‘ in West Africa. The occult, in my opinion is not something charming- it is powerful and can deeply harm people.  But that opinion is now not possible to express perhaps in the current climate here.

I do feel an alien.