Jocelyn (5:21)

It is a big village not very far from the city. The houses, they are mad houses. We usually have a main house, which is the big house. Then for the boys that have grown and have married, they build their houses around the main house in the compound. We have dogs, we have cats, we have chicken, we have goat. Besides that, there are these gardens where we plant spinach.

Narrator (5:59)

Jocelyn grew up in the village as the youngest of 20 children. Her family's house was small, with one bedroom for the boys, another for the girls, and a third for her dad and stepmom. Her own mother wasn't around.

Jocelyn (6:15)

My father cared for us. He would provide for us. He was loving, but it was hard love. I remember my brother, he says, I am tired of school. When he said that, my father, he told him, now that you're tired, I'm also tired of you in my house. Leave. Go and look for where to stay. I can't have uneducated people in my house. You do what he says or you go.

Narrator (6:56)

Jaslyn and her siblings obeyed their father mostly. Every once in a while, they found some trouble to get into. Especially around the holidays. When Jocelyn was a teenager.

Jocelyn (7:15)

It was Christmas time. My three brothers told me they were going out for disco. They're not supposed to go. Cause disco was for spoiled people. So yeah, they were sneaking out. They tell you, jocelyn, we are going out. You stay up and open for us. Do not sleep. Because our doors were wooden doors with a bolt. No king would wake up dad. When they come, they tap on the bedroom window. Then they promise you something they're going to buy for you. And you don't tell on them after. So I had to sit on my bed and wait all night long. Sitting, waiting. Then I heard footsteps. I thought it were my brothers that had come. So I sat and waited for them to dock on the window. But they were singing as they move around the house. I don't know what they're singing. And you know when someone is dancing, the sounds they make. That is when I realized it was a night dancer singing enchantments to get people sick sa.

Narrator (9:37)

In certain parts of Uganda, some people believe in a phenomenon called night dancing. A night dancer is an ordinary person who's been possessed by bad spirits. The spirits make the person do whatever they want. Horrible things like dig up corpses and eat their flesh. But the most common thing the spirit makes a night dancer do is take off their clothes and dance naked outside their neighbors homes after dark. While they dance, the spirits make them cast magic spells on their neighbours. Spells so powerful that they can cause physical illness.

Jocelyn (10:19)

I was scared. I'd heard about them from my sisters and brothers. I did go to the window. I got off the bed. I sat down on the floor. I kind of froze. I hear them pass the door. They go around. Then they come and pass again. Then they go around like that for like 15 minutes. Then it stops. They've gone to another house. But I kept thinking, maybe he's coming back. So I stayed in one position for over 30 minutes. Then my brothers tap on the bedroom window. The way they tap, know it is them. I told my brother, the night dancer has passed. I think tomorrow I'm going to fall ill. Then he said, you can't fall ill. If the possession was not for you, it could have been for someone else. We see tomorrow in the morning. My sister is the one that fell ill. She got a high fever and then threw up.

Narrator (11:45)

Jocelyn's sister got better eventually, but every four nights or so, that Night Dancer came back always after dark. Jocelyn and her family were too scared to go outside and see who was putting the curse on them. They had heard that bad things happen to people who confront night dancers. You might become one yourself. One night, months later, Jocelyn heard a sound outside. But this time the sound was different and it was coming from above her head.

Jocelyn (12:30)

I wake my system like someone is sweeping the roof. They make that sound of, shh, shh, shh. Leaves were falling off on the ground outside. When she tells me, that is the night dancer, I was like, how do they even get up there? What if they fall inside? We're all scared. We thought we were going to come face to face with a night dancer. What would you do? Would you run? He swept and swept and swept and swept. I just sat and held my head until when it stopped. The next morning, I asked my father, why would someone sweep our roof? He told me, when they sweep the roof, the illnesses are serious. The spirit, it wants to take blood.

Narrator (13:53)

That same morning, Jocelyn's brother Elvis started having trouble breathing. Elvis had asthma, so the family was used to his attacks. But this time was different.

Jocelyn (14:07)

His temperature was high and he was feverish and all that. He stayed sick for over a week. By the time they came to take him to the hospital, he died in the house. We lost him. Unfortunately.

Narrator (14:27)

Everyone in the family was devastated, especially Jocelyn's father.

Jocelyn (14:36)

He loved my brother. He was his favorite. He kept saying, this can't be. I have to know the person that took my son. So he set out on a mission. He kept saying, he's going to look for that Night Dancer. We have to know who it is. Other people started giving him a device.

Narrator (15:01)

The advice he got. If you are going to confront a night dancer, get a mortar and pistol and keep watch.

Jocelyn (15:12)

When the Night Dancer comes, you hit the motor with a pit up. The person is going to freeze until the next day. They don't talk. They don't move. They stay in the same position until morning. You also have to hold on it in the same position until morning. You don't remove your hands and no one else is supposed to come and help you. When you do that, the Night dancer stays outside until other people wake up. We all see him. You know who it is. Then he leaves our village. So he got the motor and the petal. My stepmother, she kept telling him, don't do it. We're all against it because you. You do not know whether it will go well or bad. But he tells you, I have to catch him. If I hear him, I'll come out of my bedroom and do the thing. We went to sleep. We left him sitting in the living room. He had a chair that he would sit and stay there and then sleep off. So we are optimistic. It is never going to happen. He will sleep there in the chair and it will pass. In the morning when we wake up, we find him still in the chair. We all sat down and looked at him. I greeted him. He was not answering me. He was just there, quiet. I'm like, what happened? What happened then? My sister tells me he was paralyzed. None of his body parts were moving. No words were coming out of him. I was like, this cannot be possible. We knew what had happened. The Night Dancer had him, and he cast a spell on him. The Night Dancer was stronger than him. Then my uncles came in. I remember my uncle kept saying, if you could tell us who did this, we're sure you saw the face. But he could not say anything. There was nothing like a doctor. They took him in the family shrine. The next morning, you ask mama, is Daddy okay? And she's like, no, nothing has changed. That was In February, March, April, May, June, July. Nothing kept changing. Now the naidasa kept coming. But no one was willing to to go and face him. Seeing what had happen. I was at school. My brother came and picked me at around lunchtime. He's kind of a playful guy, but he was not in his usual playful mode. I asked him, what is happening? He tells me, get in the camp. Then he tells me, tata has passed on. I just kept quiet and tears started coming from my eyes. When someone dies in the village, people gather very fast. So when I go to home, everyone is outside. Some woman asked, who is she? They told her, she's one of the orphans. They are calling me an orphan already. I was just crying. In my mind I'm like, this Night Dancer did this.

Narrator (20:22)

Jocelyn couldn't grieve her father privately. He had been an important man, a clan leader. And the whole village came to his funeral. Jocelyn and her family were expected to greet them all.

Jocelyn (20:36)

We have a family graveyard. It is just right behind the main house. That is where we buried him. The next day I was with my other two sisters to go and welcome the people. There were about 500 people at the moment of the burial. I had hatred in me for the people that were around me. Because when a person dies because of a night dancer, the night dancer also has to come and bury. He has to be on that barrier or the spirit of that dead person is going to come for him. The night dancer responsible for his death was with us that very night. That was the most stressful part, I think, of my life. They say it is a spirit. They are not responsible for the things happening to them. I'm like, but how can a spirit make you enjoy in someone's pain? I think that was the time I cried most. Then they did the final rituals for him.

Narrator (21:59)

After her father's death, Jocelyn had had enough. She decided to escape the Night Dancer by moving to the big city.

Jocelyn (22:09)

I had a brother who was in Kampala. I told him, I want to leave this village because it kept eating me up. How someone can kill you and come and be with your people. They greet you, they talk to you. But then in your head you're like, these people are evil. So since that time, I've not slept there again. I have a son. When I go to the village, I'm kind of protective. I only want him to mingle with my family. I just tell him, stay here.

Glenn Washington (23:06)

Thank you so much, Jocelyn, for sharing your story. A heart goes out to your family now. This story was narrated by Lulu Jemima was scored by Clay Xavier and was produced by Anne Ford. Now then, I don't know if you've noticed, but there's an awakening happening right now. Things that people were reluctant to utter just a few years ago, a few months ago, are now finding a receptive audience. Like we're starting to collectively realize that there exists far more than meets the eye. And if you have a story, an encounter, an ability that you think the world needs to know about, you are right. The world does need to know. We need to know. Let me know. Spookednampjudgment.org because there's nothing better than a spooked story from a spooked listener. We want to hear it. We want to share it with the spooked world. Spooked is brought to you by the team that loves to first warm their hands by the fire. Except for Mark Ristich. He likes to first warm his other side. There's Davey Kim, Zoe Ferrigno, Ann Ford, Eric Yanez, Teo Dicott, Marisa Dodge, Miles Lassie, Doug Stewart, Paulina Creaky, Elizabeth Z. Pardue, Aditya Matu, Lulu Jemima. The Spook theme song is by Pat Mesiti Miller. My name is Glenn Washington, and I went to yoga class and the beautiful yoga instructor told me to stand up straight, then reach down without bending my knees and put my hands under my feet. What? I'm lucky to touch my knees, much less my toes. And I felt hot shame as everyone looked at me and laughed. But I tried. And I tried again the next day and the next. And I noticed something. My toes aren't getting any closer now, but I look around and no one's laughing. Not my beautiful teacher, not the beautiful people know they're smiling. They never laugh. This is all in my head. Like when I stop drinking for a while and I think people will see and point and ask me what's wrong, what's going on? But people don't. Don't care. And if they do, they don't call me out. They give me love. Like the monster opened its maw and it grins. Blessings sometimes wear shadow as their disguise. And I wonder how many I've missed, how many blessings I've rejected. Because of my fear, I cannot afford to waste blessings anymore. So my strategy going forward from here on out, I will never, ever, ever, never, never ever, never ever, never ever turn out the lights.

Jocelyn (26:37)

It.