Dec. 19, 2005 - Ama

I knew of Ama from the numerous stories that were connected to her being.  I knew of her as of a preacher and a witch doctor. 

She was a mystery among Chinese - a beautiful black young woman who carried the name of the Goddess herself and who knew how to read stars, understood secrets of herbs, and they believed even knew how to talk to ghosts and animals.  People would go to her to discover their destiny, to get healed or just sit around the fire with her and listen to her stories.  The ones who admired her talked about her as of a guide and the ones who were scared of her were unnaturally polite to her, afraid of her curses, the ones who did not understand her accused her of the witchcraft.  She was loved and hated by many. 

Her unusual background, her figure, her voice, her manners, all of her, just couldn?t pass unnoticed.  If she was born in any other Christian country she would have been marked as a saint or a heretic or as a witch burnt on stake, but in Macao, she became what she was - A-Ma, a walking legend. 

Ama was a daughter of an African slave and her skin was dark.  She lived in the house of Ottavio de Nobili who has never denied to be her father and who has always treated her as one of his children.  The legends that have been created around his and her life, say that Ottavio de Nobili was in love with her mother and that he granted Ama freedom soon after her mother's death.