Buduh Square

Katanga remains a primeval mystery to me. Oh, you can set foot there, travel through it, and yet the depth of its reality never ceases to fascinate me. Tucked in a wallet, neatly folded in equal squares was an intriguing shape, with words and sentences. A good luck charm. A talisman of some sort. The writing is clearly Arabic, the sentences organised in a prayer wheel.

The square instantly reminded of the Necronomicon: HP Lovecraft, of Cult of Cthulhu fame, had been using vague descriptions of Arabic magics in his horror fiction in the early 20^th, to add a whiff of exotic mystery to it. For example his Book of the Dead was supposedly written by the “mad” Abdul El Azret. As an aside, this pastiche, the Necronomicon, reveals secrets “humanity is not supposed to know” – of course. (Spoiler alert: we are secretly governed by amphibians that crawled out of the sea, which anyone with a television or access to the right internet forums already knows).

A quick search online confirmed that the square is an Arabic trade charm, a talisman for good luck. Possibly in commercial negotiations, as it references currency at its centre. Its technical name is a Buduh square, a surah magic square. A Buduh square is an alchemical and magical talisman that is found across Europe, the Middle East, East Africa… At its heart, number magics. I put the original picture and translated text below.

Now, I do carry in my wallet – maybe as you do – fetishes and ex-votos: Saint Antoine against loss, votive pictures given by my grandmother, a Singapore dollar bill to get me back there one day, and my proof of insurance, because, who knows? Nothing too esoteric nor interesting in that direction per se then.

Where did this Buduh square come from? Who bought it? It could have been bought in East Africa, in Zanzibar, in Dar Es Salam, in Smyrne/Izmir, in Tangier, or Cairo. It may have been a cherished gift or good luck charm preciously kept. Or just forgotten there. Who knows? I don’t. Whatever its history, it is here on my desk. Now. Nothing much to do about it except theory-crafting. Another dead-end.

But it does speak to me of the Desert.

The desert whispers, twists and shoves you. It speaks since millennia of spirits and spells, demons and curses. God. It is also the realm of Azazel, the great Demon of Forbidden Knowledge, murmuring in the ears of Muslims, Jews and Christians since creation. It is the home of efreeti, djinns and shaitans, the spirits of air and fire.

That is what this square truly evokes.

Trade across space and time. And the historical misconception of an empty Africa. For millennia, Congo has been criss-crossed by wandering groups, traders, caravans, for good and for ill. West to East, North to South. The fact that this is near impossible today is just a temporary setback.

That is what the square shows me.

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