Santeria Battle in Adams Morgan/Mount Pleasant?

IT'S NOT EVERY DAY you come across a statement like this:

Those dirty white doves lying by the curb alongside three little samurai hats made of coconut, their car-flattened heads some distance away — they're not just some sick coincidence, a bored metalhead's idea of art or a Hot Topic teen's notebook dream rendered real. According to my neighbor, they're part of a spell meant to discredit him in the DC Santeria community and rob him of some of his prominence and prestige.

That's from Jeff Simmermon, the local blogger behind And I Am Not Lying, For Real, who lives in the borderlands of Adams Morgan and Mount Pleasant. It all started last week when Simmermon and a friend stumbled upon "two decapitated doves, tied together at the feet" in the street. So Simmermon asked his neighbor, who happens to practice Santeria, what that might symbolize. And now, it seems that he's "living in the crossfire of an escalating epic battle between two Latin voodoo priests."

The truth, it seems in this case, is stranger than fiction. If you're not offended by some mild profanity and photos of decapitated doves, you should study up on the situation. Eleggua, the Santeria trickster-god, is now somehow involved, and there's no telling what could happen next. Says the blogger:

My friend will retaliate, and nothing's going to stop him. He's not telling how or when, only that "a shield is built and the divination said that the situation is 'an eye for an eye.'"

This writer isn't an expert on Santeria, but this situation digs up memories of an odd Animal Watch item buried in The Post's District Weekly from 2004. It details what might have been a similar situation in the woods of Fort Totten.

From Animal Watch:

Police reported that a male lamb had been found in the woods, in a small crate soiled with feces. A Humane Society officer found the animal and a group of men. A candle, a bottle of liquor and a bottle of barbecue sauce were also at the scene, and a knife was confiscated from one man. The lamb was impounded at the society shelter, then taken to an animal sanctuary.

Any experts out there want to enlighten us? We're all ears in comments.

» "Brujeria: Son of the Pirate Witch Queen" [AIANLFR]
» "When the Doves Die" [AIANLFR]
» "Lamb Rescued in Woods" [WaPo, sixth item]

Photo courtesy Jeff Simmermon

Posted By Michael Grass at 12:28 PM on March 5, 2007 Tagged in Adams Morgan , Fort Totten , Free Ride , Mount Pleasant , The District

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