“WITCHCRAFT”—A TRADITIONAL CENTRAL AFRICA PERSPECTIVE

“WITCHCRAFT”—A TRADITIONAL CENTRAL AFRICA PERSPECTIVE The socio-religious implications of witchcraft and sorcery in a central African setting ABSTRACT: The present study is based on research carried out among the Chewa people of south-central Africa in the last century (1970-90s). It surveys the various beliefs and practices surrounding ufiti, which constitutes the principal traditional explanation of evil in most societies of this region. This indigenous theory of causation, which incorporates such notions as “witchcraft” and “sorcery,” is thoroughly anthropomorphic in nature and hence deeply rooted in the organization and operation of the social system, especially in times of crisis and calamity. The two principal pernicious roles associated under the generic concept of ufiti (i.e., “witch” and “sorcerer”) overlap in practice and must also be related to other human as well as supernatural agents and agencies that are prominent in the daily drama of life and death. It is inevitable, therefore, that the specific “diagnosis” of any case of misfortune will be greatly influenced by the prevailing local situational context and interpersonal setting. The tenets of this important ufiti complex naturally form a major component of the central belief system, or world-view, of a given ethnic group. To further explicate their pervading practical relevance, these popular convictions about good and evil are integrated within a wider framework of seven primary sociological dysfunctions as they are manifested in everyday life and with special reference to their underlying socio-religious significance. This study, which builds on the pioneering work done by Evans-Pritchard among the Azande, illustrates a functional outsider-insider approach for investigating the folk ideology of iniquity in a traditional African society. (Chapter 4 in Galu Wamkota, Zomba, Malawi: Kachere Press, 2007)

4.1 The origin of evil according to Chewa oral tradition In the well-known Chewa creation account, the so-called “Kaphirinthiwa Myth” (Schoffeleers and Roscoe 1985:19-20), Chauta (God) is portrayed as the benevolent, if rather otiose, originator of the human race. Along with the initial plant-producing rains, the first people, accompanied by all the animals, descended from the skies to earth where they began a life of harmony and happiness together with their Creator. But this primeval period of universal prosperity and peace did not last long. By accident a certain man discovered how to make fire and, disregarding the warnings of his animal friends, he proceeded to set the fertile virgin grasslands alight. A few animals, like the dog and the goat, ran to the man for protection from the destructive flames, but most creatures fled from him in fear and anger. Due to his advanced age, God himself almost got burned up in the blaze, but with the help of the spider who wove him a strong thread for a rope, God was able to escape by climbing high into the top of a tall tree, Then, in order to escape the thick smoke, he moved back up into the sky and vowed never to return to earth again because of human wickedness. For this reason, God punished people with death so that they, like he, would also have to leave this world one day. The original narrative, of which there are a number of variants, does not provide an explicit theological explanation of the origin of evil, but it does indicate that human beings are regarded as being responsible for the present adverse and conflict-ridden conditions in which they live. Central African oral tradition does not know of a “Satan” in the biblical sense of some superhuman diabolical being who initiated and continues to perpetrate all manner of wickedness in the world. Neither can “God” (Mulungu or Chauta) be blamed for the current predicament because he is quite generally regarded as a beneficent deity, despite the fact that he has removed himself from the earthly scene and from direct contact with his creation. Thus, the presence of misfortune in life is left primarily within the human sphere—the result of what people themselves have done and hence a problem which society alone has to face.

1

4.2 The centrality of ufiti in central African society Every human society devises a set of preferred ways of accounting for the various manifestations of evil that occur in its midst. It is their world view, or philosophy of life, that determines a people’s perception and conception of the universe—their fundamental presuppositions, beliefs, values, attitudes, and goals. This necessarily includes their idea of what constitutes “evil” or its opposite, the “good.” In many parts of the world, such notions are never considered in purely abstract terms. Rather, they are invariably personalized and evaluated in terms of concrete behavior or attributed to some positive or negative human motivation which manifests itself in the normal everyday affairs of society. Thus evil, a concept which in most south-central African languages has both a moral as well as an amoral component, is always associated with human mental or physical activity. This may be attributed either to a single person or, less often, to a larger group of people who display harmful or reprehensible characteristics and behavior according to customary social mores. Because the latter are believed to have been established by God and are upheld by him through the mediating operation of the ancestral spirits, the notion of evil has a definite religious connotation. While no supernatural “devil” is present in the local ontology of being, there is another personalized agency which is designated as being the instigator of most misfortune and wickedness in the world. Generally speaking, this refers to a certain malevolent, antisocial individual who has gained access to formidable powers or forces which other mortals, whether by choice or by chance, do not have. In the local languages this human epitome of evil is designated by an equivocal term which encompasses both the English witch and sorcerer. However, the referential and connotative correspondence here between language-cultures is only partial, and this divergence grows despite the resurgence of beliefs in witchcraft and sorcery in the modern Western world. One important difference concerns the assumed pervasive influence of such nefarious individuals in everyday African life. There is no such thing as a death, or even a serious illness, that may be explained purely in terms of physiological causes and effects. As a former Minister of Education in Zambia sums up the situation: Witchcraft is a complex belief and its existence must be taken for granted. People do not die of any natural causes: Every death is caused by witchcraft (Fwanyanga Mulikita, quoted in Simoko 1975).

Thus, a different “world” of reality is assumed to be operative in central Africa. This perspective on life, and death, is no less credible and valid to its constituency than that found anywhere else, for it enables people to make sense of their experience, that is, to contextualize, interpret, and evaluate it. An indigenous point of view must therefore also provide the necessary background for one’s attempt to understand how they perceive and deal with the problem of evil in their environment. This study is part of an ongoing investigation of the socioreligious aspects of central African cultures which has been carried out by the authors for over 30 years. It is based on hundreds of vernacular as well as English texts and commentary, collected both in writing and by tape recording during this period. The present essay focuses on one of the largest of the many Bantuspeaking ethnic groups of the region. The Chewa are a matrilineal, matrilocal people, most of whom are small-scale farmers largely dependent on annual crops of maize, cassava, groundnuts, and vegetables as well as on domestic animals such as goats and chickens. They inhabit much of the eastern province of Zambia, the southern and central regions of Malawi, and the west-central protrusion of Mozambique. Many Chewa are also found in the rapidly growing urban areas of southern Africa as a whole. But primary attention in the following description and functional analysis will be given to the beliefs and practices of the more culturally homogeneous and conservative rural folk. The emphasis will be on their customary and socially-determined approach to the problem of personal misfortune, which is normally attributed to the insidious activities of witches and 2

sorcerers. The dynamic, communal nature of this traditional means of accounting for and dealing with evil will be highlighted along with the important interpersonal implications which such a fundamental, all-embracing belief system has for affected individuals in particular as well as for the typical settlement-group at large. 4.3 Five possible explanations for misfortune According to indigenous Chewa thought, all evil has a personal cause or source, one that is discoverable if the correct process of divination (kuombeza) or deduction based on customary experience is pursued. First, only rarely will a certain death be attributed to an act of God (imfa ya Mulungu, “a death from God”). Usually this happens in the case of the passing of a very old person who slips away quietly and without suffering or someone who eventually succumbs to a traditionally recognized incurable disease, such as leprosy or tuberculosis. Second, there are those afflicted folk who are diagnosed as suffering from the wrath of the ancestral spirits, whether protective (mizimu) or vengeful (ziwanda). This could happen, for example, due to filial neglect (e.g., by failing to give the appropriate honor through a harvest offering or a naming ceremony) or as a result of some serious violation of social custom (e.g., rape or murder). In such instances, death does not normally result, but the affliction can only be removed by means of communal acts of confession, repentance, and propitiation. Third, violation of a specific sexually-related taboo (mpingu) pertaining to purity or pollution (e.g., wife-“cleansing” or incest) may lead to a deadly punishment in the form of what is popularly known as the “cutting” disease (mdulo). Such adversity typically strikes someone in the offender’s immediate family (e.g., child, spouse). Fourth, an individual may also fall prey to the defensive magic (mankhwala) of someone else, such as the charms which circumscribe and protect one’s person, property, or family (especially one’s spouse). Finally, and most commonly, a person suffers injury and often death when exposed to the malicious attack of a witch or sorcerer (mfiti). The nature and socioreligious significance of this last force for evil is the principal subject of consideration in the present paper. Nearly every case of misfortune, then, may be attributed to some human fault. People either provoke a just punishment by wicked behavior (i.e., impiety or impurity) or promote evil by exploiting and afflicting others (i.e., witchcraft and sorcery—ufiti). The latter is obviously quite distinct from the other occasions of personal calamity not only due to its relative frequency of occurrence, but also because of its sinister nature. Other types of affliction are almost accidental it seems. Victims bring trouble upon themselves (or a close relative) in the form of illness or adversity as a result of their own indiscriminate behavior. Had they foreseen or duly considered the consequences, they would not have broken the taboo, offended the ancestor, or risked the possibility of encountering someone else’s protective magic. Ufiti, on the other hand, is different. The malicious action of witchcraft or sorcery is practiced against another person—either involuntarily where a witch is concerned, due to a mysterious innate psychological necessity, or in the case of a sorcerer it is motivated by a deliberate intention to harm or deprive someone else. There are also much greater social implications which result from this sort of malevolent activity, for it normally happens that sooner or later families and even entire clans become embroiled in enmity when these cases arise. The witch or sorcerer thus becomes for virtually all traditionally-minded people the embodiment of evil both in the local community and in the world at large. For the average person, then, such a characteristically hostile individual, operating either alone or, less frequently, as part of a small intimate group, is the secret enemy who comes immediately to mind when trouble strikes. Therefore, one cannot adequately describe or evaluate the local socioreligious system without an accurate understanding of this preeminent aspect of the indigenous perspective on human experience.

3

4.4 The dynamic nature of ufiti The vital core of central African religion is constituted by the dynamic complex of spiritism, magic, witchcraft, and taboo. A closer examination of these distinct but related concepts within a wider context of the manifestation of good and evil in society may help to clarify their various interactions .and the particular way in which the crucial, but somewhat ambiguous, notion of ufiti fits into the total picture. The communally-oriented “person” (munthu, i.e., male or female) must relate to an allencompassing cosmos of forces which governs the entire scope of existence from before birth to well beyond the grave. This individual stands together with fellow clan members more or less (depending on social status) at the center of this kinetic system in a state of continual flux with respect to several available sources of power, both beneficial and detrimental. One’s goal is to try to maintain and even to enhance one’s own quality of life (which includes such personalized notions as “well-being” and “life-force’ in what is generally perceived as a potentially hostile environment. The four major concentrations of potency having the capacity to improve or impair one’s physical, emotional, social, or spiritual condition in the world are (1) spiritism, (2) taboo, (3) witchcraft, and (4) magic. Spiritism refers to the activity of the ancestors, helpful as well as harmful, known and unknown, who act as intermediaries for a transcendent, but generally benevolent, God. Taboo, on the other hand, is believed to operate more or less automatically on individuals in response to specific violations of the code of culture or the order of nature. Witchcraft relates to an inherent psychic power which is supposed to be possessed by certain persons who utilize it to satisfy their own ends, but in the process destabilize or even destroy the community by disrupting normal social relations. Magic, like taboo, is morally “neutral,” that is, it may be employed for either good or evil purposes. Its effects are triggered by means of the intentional manipulation of concrete symbolism, either analogous or associative, on the part of ritual specialists. In an African setting, however, it is always misleading to remain at an abstract level of description and evaluation. Power is invariably personalized in terms of certain primary agents that are normally associated with its use, whether for benevolent or malevolent ends. The forcefield of interacting potencies outlined above must therefore be related to the respective social roles with which they are connected in the typical, conflict-generating activities of everyday life. The sorcerer (mfiti wanyanga—‘witch of the horn’) is the primary agent or controller of evil magic in society, whether imitative (based on similarity) or contagious (based on conventional association). This individual, usually a male, differs from the witch in that he has deliberately chosen and consciously acquired his iniquitous occupation. He typically utilizes objects and actions believed to have a symbolic power (“black” magic) in order to enrich himself or to harm designated individuals in the community, either for personal reasons (e.g., greed, hatred, envy, jealousy) or on behalf of others so motivated against their enemies or rivals. Such damaging spells are effected through ritualized verbal and nonverbal action in a variety of ways depending on the particular result desired and the circumstances surrounding the intended victim. There are several generic types of magical substance, or “medicine” (mankhwala) available, each of which is activated by a specific set of instructions and technique: for example, odyetsa— “which is fed” (inserted in one’s food or drink); ochera “which ensnares” (hidden at a place where the victim is sure to step, such as along a line drawn across a path); oponyera—“which is cast” (applied by throwing, or uttering, it into the air which will mystically carry the curse into contact with its victim); and oyendera—“which travels” (i.e., by means of a small natural surrogate, usually some pest, like the mosquito or rat, but also via lightning). The more mysterious (usually) female counterpart of the sorcerer, or wizard, is the witch (mfiti). Due to her disgusting characteristics and behavior, this individual is regarded as the epitome of wickedness in African society, particularly within the matrilineage. No person or thing on earth is 4

more detested, hated, and feared. She is viewed as being the underlying cause of most accidents, sickness, and especially death within the family. Whereas the sorcerer depends on magic to do his dirty deeds, the witch possesses the innate psychic capacity to deprive others of their life-force directly. This she is believed to do out of physical need, namely, to sustain her own corrupted life and the perverted superhuman powers that she controls. The attributes and activities of the witch often merge with those of the sorcerer, however, especially in the confused sociological settings and uncertain situational circumstances of the modern age. In these cases it is only the dynamics of the total context which can specify, if need be, the particular antisocial role that applies in a given instance. The ancestral spirits (mizimu) are regarded as an incorporeal extension of the family who remain in close contact with the living. Although they function as revered guardians of the community, they are also frequently implicated, usually by divination but also through dreams, as being the cause of certain misfortunes that befall someone. Such cases are regarded either as chastisements intended to preserve the moral code and customs of the past, or as punishments, imposed against those who forget or disregard the expected responsibilities over against their fellow family members (those related by blood or by marriage), both present as well as departed, especially at the time of a death in the clan. Aggrieved spirits (ziwanda) represent a special category of ancestral shade which seek to exact vengeance on people (or their relatives) who committed some terrible offense, including murder, against them in life. Such unhappy spirits can be captured by sorcerers and then directed to carry out their evil purposes. There is no particular role or agency attached to the injurious manifestation of taboo transgressions. But those adversely affected may be termed “violators” (opalamula milandu, literally, “people who provoke a judicial case” [against tradition]). Such individuals either deliberately (i.e., disregarding the known harmful consequences of their impious actions), heedlessly (e.g., in a fit of rage or jealousy), or accidentally (i.e., in ignorance) transgress one of basic prohibitions of society. This type of offender may be punished directly and immediately with death, but more often an indirect judgment occurs whereby a close friend or family member is struck with a fatal illness such as epilepsy (traditionally) or AIDS (a common contemporary interpretation, i.e., befalling someone related to a person who engages in homosexual behavior). The punitive force of taboo is impersonal, though it is often associated with the overall moral jurisdiction of the ancestral spirits. Its supernatural power is automatically unleashed, as it were, by the prohibited behavior of the human violator. One more important personage needs to be added to the cast of characters which occupy center stage in the drama of life and death in the traditional Chewa community, namely, the medicineman or as he is more commonly, if rather misleadingly, known, the “witch doctor” (sing’anga). His (less frequently, her) medial position on Figure 1 suggests several things about the paramount importance of his role in society. First of all, he is viewed as being a representative of the common people, the specially-endowed mediator (e.g., through apprenticeship, past association with sorcery, or possession by a familiar spirit) whose primary task it is to protect clients, whether single individuals or a corporate group, from the various malevolent forces which may befall them— from the anger of the ancestors, the harmful effects of breaking a taboo, or the attacks of witches and wizards. Thus the medicine-man carries out his vital profession on behalf of others. Like the sorcerer, he knows how to manipulate the forces of natural symbolism, but he is generally considered to employ these for the benefit of society (i.e., “white” magic). He diagnoses their ills and provides a variety of medicines that are intended to harness the inherent power of natural (including human) substances on behalf of his clients. Such medicines in the form of charms, amulets, potions, and salves are designed either to defend people, as mentioned above, or to promote their general wellbeing and welfare in life (e.g., fertility, health, wealth, job promotion, and other forms of prosperity and success).

5

A schematization of the mutual interrelationships and dynamic interaction involving the principal sources and agents of power in the Chewa cosmos as outlined in the preceding discussion is shown on Figure 1 below. A circular figure was chosen to reflect the synthetic, holistic nature of the cosmos as conceptualized by most Chewa informants, as opposed to a Western analytical perspective. In this world there is no essential distinction between what the latter might term the “natural” and the “supernatural,” the “personal” and the “impersonal,” or the “religious” and the “secular” (cf. Wendland Sewero, chap. 4). A human being is the focal point of this anthropocentric, experience-oriented universe. But a person is only rarely considered alone as an individual; rather, he or she is normally viewed as being an integral part of a clan of related people. The vital mediatorial role of the “medicine-man” is suggested by his placement within the immediately surrounding sphere. Outside of this, but in immediate contact with it, are found the chief powers that influence human existence for good or evil—those either controlled by the spirits, sorcerers, and witches or unleashed by the violators of ancient taboos. On the periphery then stands a rather remote deity, the so called “High God,” who is the ultimate source of all life and power, but whose actual direct involvement in the affairs of human beings is minimal. The boundaries that separate these different forces, which are centripetally inclined, all except for that of the outer, rather inert, divine being, are not fixed. Instead they are characterized by fuzzy edges and indistinct borders of demarcation. This is depicted by the narrow lines that suggest the inevitability of unlimited interaction between and among the various levels. The result is paradoxically a decided affinity with the distinct sources and agents of potency to which people are ontologically related and yet at the same time a definite aversion for the ever-present threat of adversity and affliction which these same powers can occasion in their lives.

6

4.5 Ufiti as a focus of power in the drama of daily existence As the circular figure above suggests, there is a fluid pattern of interaction that links these different personages—and the respective forces which they control— with one another in the everyday affairs of the typical rural community in central Africa (and to a great extent also in the towns). Some of the more prominent aspects of this mutual influence, whether complementary or antagonistic, have already been indicated. It is important to recognize that for most people life is a vast religious drama in which everyone plays significant, though not necessarily a leading, part. The major roles are reserved for the prominent “power-brokers” of society as outlined above, especially the medicine-man who normally occupies the spotlight at the vital nucleus of the field of interworking forces. Life is “religious” because it involves various forms or acts of communication in terms of message transmission, reception, and feedback, which take place on many different sensory and psychic levels with a diversity of supernatural powers. These personal and impersonal powers are believed to control human destiny—past, present, and future—even as they determine the quality and quantity of the life one is living. Nevertheless, an individual’s current situation and future condition can be influenced either positively or negatively depending on the quality and quantity of power which he is able to gain access to through the mediators at his disposal, namely, his guardian spirit(s) or those specialists who can communicate with the powers that be, that is, the “healers” of various types (herbalists, rain-callers, witch-finders, medicine men, diviners, and so forth). Life is also a “drama” because it involves this concentration of overlapping and interrelated sets of forces in conflict, one either vying with or set against another in an effort to control both the nature and the direction of human life—and being. At stake are issues pertaining to both personal power (status) and solidarity (support) with respect to an individual in relation to the corporate body (clan) of which he or she is a vital participant, including the already departed and also the as yet unborn. Life is dramatic because one cannot always discern any clear-cut motivation or distinction between the good and the evil forces. There is thus a certain mystery to human experience. Many potentially polarizing social factors can intervene to complicate the picture, and the ambiguous nature of the principal roles of the sorcerer, the witch, and the medicine-man renders any given conflict or crisis, whether on the individual or the community level, uncertain at best and often quite unpredictable as to its ultimate outcome. There are no fixed scenarios or scripts in this vital drama, though certain patterns do emerge over the course of time within the context of a particular community (and “cast of characters’). The action may at times be regarded as “tragic” in the sense that key participants in the action are often ignorant of the harm which is secretly being worked against them. This then takes the form of an interpersonal “cancer” that continually eats away at the fabric of social relations and finally emerges full force to cut short their current state of prosperity or even their very existence. Often people also find out that even if they discover what is going on, they—or the protective agents and objects which they depend on—are unable to halt the power of evil that is seeking to destroy them, their clan, or the community at large. In many such cases nowadays, the once prominent role of the ancestors is being concurrently diminished and their influence reduced to the point where they appear to function merely as an ancient Greek chorus, that is, largely behind the scenes, but emerging every now and then to comment (via dreams, omens, individual afflictions, and possessions) on the malignant action taking place within society. The indigenous conception of this drama of life and death is being constantly modified due to the incorporation of many elements of Christian ideology and other forms of Western cultural influence. Frequently, however, such foreign pressure has not really altered the basic essence or importance of traditional religion, but has simply served to complicate the script and cast of characters and to intensify the tensions involved in the on-going conflict of ancient indigenous forces. In the opinion of many, Christianity functions only superficially as a more socially acceptable veneer over a basically unchanged customary religious belief system. For example, the 7

Scriptures have added a formidable agent of iniquity in the person of Satan, another set of taboos (“commandments”) to observe, the idea of a God or his angel spirits who will punish people if they are bad, and even a specific time, place, and kind of retribution—an eternal hellfire! The foundation of faith, however, remains largely intact. In order to better understand the dynamic and influential nature of the Central African notion of evil, it is necessary to examine in greater detail the focal role which the diabolical mfiti performs as the most feared, and for that reason also the dominant, member of the cast. 4.6 “Witchcraft” and/or “sorcery”: Is there a difference? Any description of the principal characteristics of ufiti in a central African setting must begin with a careful definition of the subject. Here one faces the usual problem of terminology in the literature, a variation in usage that masks a difficulty which pertains to the underlying concepts involved. Some writers designate the entire corpus of antisocial phenomena under discussion by the term sorcery (e.g., Marwick 1965); others group all such malevolent activities under witchcraft (e.g., Zvarevashi 1970); and several scholars follow Evans- Pritchard in clearly differentiating between witchcraft and sorcery with respect to the community which they are investigating (e.g., Harwood 1970). The question is: Are one or two distinct types of social deviance involved and what difference does it make? This matter is of considerable importance because our use of specialized terminology naturally affects the way in which the relevant notions are perceived, interpreted, and presented to others, whether members of the same cultural group or foreigners. Furthermore, our comprehension of the religious belief system, that is, how it is constituted and operates, both in the more traditional rural community and also in a modern urban environment, is bound to be affected by the accuracy of the basic terminology employed, or more precisely, by our understanding of the local terms that are used to describe these phenomena. The so-called “classical” distinction between witchcraft and sorcery was enunciated by EvansPritchard (1937) in his ground-breaking study of the Azande people of southeastern Sudan / northwestern Zaire. To summarize, witchcraft refers to an internal, psychic power which is usually inherited and often unconsciously employed by its practitioner. Sorcery, on the other hand, involves the motivated and deliberate use of the external power derived from magical rites, instruments, and substances by specialists who have consciously learned this black art. Since the time of Evans-Pritchard’s original research, a number of scholars investigating similar phenomena in other ethnic groups of Africa and elsewhere (e.g., Stephen 1987) have supported his differentiation. But there have also been quite a few who have dissented for one reason or another. Marwick (1965), for example, discusses at some length his reasons for not maintaining the difference, based on the fact that “evidence shows that Chewa usage of the term nfiti [sic., i.e., mfiti] is ambiguous.” Sometimes it is a generic term to cover both the types of mystical evildoer that they recognize; and sometimes, when they qualify it with yeni-yeni (“real,” plural, zeni-zeni), it is a specific term for those mystical evil-doers who are driven by addiction rather than [a] passing, and not necessarily characteristic, hatred or malice (Marwick 1965:82).

It would seem from the preceding quotation, however, that an underlying distinction is indeed operative in the minds of the people, and that this discrimination is more than being simply a matter of the generic-specific level of linguistic usage. As Marwick observes: Although Cewa habitually speak of all mystical evil-doers (and poisoners, too) as nfiti, they sometimes, if questioned about the motives of sorcerers [i.e., Marwick’s term], distinguish between two types. Firstly, there is the mphelanjilu (“killer-for-malice”), the person who, untrained and unskilled in the art of sorcery and motivated chiefly by hatred, begs or buys destructive magic or poison and kills his enemy; and secondly, the nfiti yeniyeni (“real nfiti”) who has been one from childhood, and who is

8

driven by “meat hunger” (nkhuli), and whose characteristic activity is “digging up people” (kufukula wanthu) (Marwick 1965:79).

Marwick further bases his choice for sorcery rather than witchcraft as a generic gloss for ufiti on the following evidence: because there is no trace in Cewa doctrine of the idea that ufiti is anything but socially (as opposed to biologically) inherited; and because there is every indication in both doctrine and case material that the average nfiti is believed to be a deliberate evil-doer (1965:82).

There are many, however, who would disagree with the strictness of these two limitations. As one informant from Malawi commented, “Some people learn witchcraft from other people, while others are either born with it, or they assimilate it from their parents.” But even if social inheritance is the norm for one category of mfiti, the qualification that such a nature can indeed be passed on from parents to child(ren) might argue for use of the alternative designation witchcraft as distinct from sorcery, for the latter is always learned or acquired much later in life. Marwick’s criterion of “deliberate evildoing” is not quite so categorical either. Some Chewa people speak about the “flesh-eating” witch as if she were almost driven to action by a physiological necessity, for example, in the words of one seminary student (personal correspondence): This type of witchcraft is being done mainly by old people who spend many months without eating meat. In this way it is easy for them to find meat, though it is human meat. One has to eat in order to live!

There are other examples in traditional or modern narrative, both fictitious tales and accounts that are allegedly true, which tell about this most detestable type of mfiti, namely, the kind that depends for its very existence on a mystical sort of cannibalism—yet which is sometimes practiced without a person even realizing it. Thus in the minds of most Chewa (and this would apply to many other Central African peoples as well), there appear to be two major categories of mfiti. This is a very flexible distinction, however, and one which is not always maintained lexically. The problem with attempting to organize a sociological analysis according to an indigenous (emic), largely oral classification is its tendency toward fluidity and fuzziness. The categories frequently vary from person to person, being based on both formal and functional criteria, and so does the terminology that is employed to refer to different constituents of the system. If there is no longer any functional purpose in society for maintaining the difference, then it is natural for a blurring of concepts and usage to occur. There is also the factor of local variation within each community which results from the disparate social, cultural, political, religious, and ecological backgrounds that form the contemporary context out of which the practice of ufiti arises and according to which it should always be perceived, defined, and evaluated. It is possible that the differentiation between the sorcerer and the witch was more sharply drawn by matrilineal Central African peoples in the past. As far as the Chewa are concerned, some of the original lines of demarcation may have been dropped, while the term mfiti has increased in complexity to function on several semantic levels, as will be shown below. Such changes probably occurred as part of the general modification which has taken place in traditional religious beliefs as well as in linguistic usage since the onset of the colonial age and the ensuing period of rapid social and cultural change, including the direct and indirect influence of Christian teaching. Nevertheless, it is useful to maintain the two separate categories as points of sociological orientation, for this distinction continues to have a significant basis in the dynamics of interpersonal and kinship relationships, especially in times of uncertainty, crisis, and conflict. Furthermore, there does seem to be a considerable common awareness of the difference, whether or not it happens to be reflected explicitly in popular speech. The distinctive terminology also helps 9

the cultural outsider to remain cognizant of the wide range of behavioral abnormalities that are masked, at least partially, by the many, frequently ambiguous references to ufiti— witchcraft/sorcery—in contemporary formal or informal discourse on the subject. 4.7 Physical versus psychological cases of witchcraft It may be helpful further to distinguish two different personal effects of the perceived practice of ufiti (sorcery or witchcraft) against an individual: (a) physical (external) and (b) psychological (internal). In the case of a physical witchcraft, one suspects that he (or she) is being bewitched by someone, but he does not have a guilty conscience accusing him of any great social crime (e.g., murder) or of committing a taboo (e.g., incest). Furthermore, the person may consider himself to be a helpful, righteous, even respected member of the community (male), or someone who has carefully observed all the necessary rituals regarding personal and domestic purity (female). Therefore, he is confident that he has a number of traditional lines of defense to turn to for help, namely, protective personal or familial ancestral spirits (mizimu, acting on behalf of God) or diviners (amaula) and/or medicine men (asing’anga), who can provide defensive magic or, if so desired, even offensive magic that will go and attack the enemy. These available means of security are believed powerful enough to take care of any surprise attacks by witches/sorcerers, and not surprisingly, they normally turn out to be successful. In the case of psychological (internal) witchcraft, on the other hand, the mind takes over and not only believes that he (or she) has been bewitched (kulozedwa) on a specific occasion, but that this attack, for whatever reason (fear, guilt, shame, etc.), has been successful. Consequently the person becomes convinced that he will soon become sick and probably die. In effect, then, one's mind becomes the witch’s agent and finally kills the person, usually within a relatively short period of time. The latter is of course the most dangerous kind of witchcraft because it is so often fatal, even when no serious physical or physiological symptoms can be detected or diagnosed by Western medical practitioners and techniques. Severe depression, illness, and death then occur despite any Western medical measures that are taken to prevent the case from getting worse. There follow several actual case studies that briefly illustrate the nature of internal, or psychological witchcraft. An elderly alcoholic man had the job of cooking for a number of dormitory students (all Zambians) who were attending a small Bible school. This cook was accustomed to getting drunk, especially on weekends, when he would often send his wife over to cook for the students. The problem was that often she too had been drinking with her husband and as a result did a poor job of filling in as his substitute. The students finally decided to complain about their cook to the school Principal, who was an American pastor and educator. The Principal went to talk to the cook and strongly warned him that if he got drunk again on campus, he would be sacked (fired). The cook of course knew who had told the Principal about his heavy drinking so he decided to teach the students a lesson—actually to frighten them into submission so that they would keep quiet in future. He did not say anything at all to the students, but he clearly demonstrated his intention one night by spilling some chicken blood all over the kitchen floor. This symbolized what was going to happen to any student who would “squeal” on him—he would apply his punitive sorcery against them. The students of course clearly “read” and understood this malicious intention. They took this matter to the Principal, but he simply told them to “forget about it— it is nothing!” Realizing that a Westerner would never be able to understand the situation from their perspective, the students “took the law into their own hands” and severely beat the cook. They warned him, in turn, that if he ever threatened them again with witchcraft, they would apply a bigger dose of the same medicine and put him in the hospital. The cook decided that his sorcery was not as strong as that, so he let them alone. In any case, the school Principal himself discovered the man in a drunken condition soon thereafter and fired him. Mrs. Jere, an educated lady with a well-paying job, suffered the loss of two husbands in pre-mature death. She then married a third husband and lived with him for three years before he too became very sick and died. This man’s mother naturally came to attend her son’s funeral. It is a common custom for

10

a Zambian woman to put on a black cloth headpiece (chitambala) to show that she is in mourning. One day, shortly after the funeral, Mrs. Jere went to work as usual but left her black chitambala at home. Her mother-in-law, who was still staying at the funeral home, noticed the chitambala, took it, and without a goodbye returned to her village. After discovering this loss, Mrs. Jere went to visit her pastor about this matter because she immediately suspected foul play. Her firm conviction was that her mother in-law wanted to use witchcraft against her. The pastor used the Word of God the best he knew how to combat this suspicion and take away her fear, but poor Mrs. Jere got sick and died only week later because, according to her mind, she had been witched by the mother-in-law for causing her son’s death. A circuit pastor went to visit his congregations in Zambia’s Southern Province. He spent a night at Kizito, a Catholic mission station, where he heard this story: A casual worker of one of the Catholic Sisters there was sick. The Sister happened to be a medical doctor. She examined the man and found that clinically there was nothing at all wrong with him. But she could see that he was very sick, close to death in fact. The Sister realized that medically she could do nothing more to help her worker, so she gave his relatives some money to go take him to a traditional healer (mung’anga). She later told the pastor, “Since this man believes he is witched, no medicine will remove what his mind is convinced of. If I don’t allow him go to a traditional doctor, he will most certainly die.” She thus saved his life because the man was healed by the local healer.

These case studies are considerably more complex than the preceding summaries would suggest. However, they do make the point that there is such a thing as “witchcraft”, which seriously influences everyday life in Africa—whether one has the presence of mind and means at hand to deal with it (external)—or not, and witchcraft captivates one’s mind (internal) to the point where it literally frightens or worries one to death. It is rather straightforward (though not always successful) for Christian pastors to minister to the former set of concepts and practices by means of some basic principles of Scripture. The psychological patient of witchcraft, however, presents an entirely different situation, and some very sophisticated counseling techniques need to be applied—or yet developed by and for the African church—in order to have any hope of success when trying to treat people who have been in effect “brain-washed” by their traditional religious beliefs and fears. 4.8 The two poles of ufiti—a summary of differences The pertinent distinctions, as reflected in the recorded texts of Chewa informants from all walks of life, may be enumerated in the form of a diagnostic summary description of the two principal (and related) varieties of malevolent behavior in the central African system of belief (see Table 1). This is done with reference to the primary attitudes and activities, involving both form and function, which are commonly and widely ascribed to or associated with each. An attempt has been made to begin by listing the more significant features, but it is not possible to indicate a strict order of importance due to the variability of popular opinion and also on account of the diversity and range of the sociocultural situations in which these criteria become relevant. It is possible that the term ufiti itself may be derived from the common verb root –fa “die” (in its causative form – fetsa, a “person who causes death” = mfetsi > mfiti). WITCH

SORCERER Linguistic Distinctions

mfiti yeniyeni: “real witch” mfiti yamafiti: “witch of witches” wophera nyama: “killer for meat” mfiti yamalaza: “witch of rattles” [i.e., a dance of bewitchment] mfiti: “witch(es)” [sg. or pl.] wolodza: “one who bewitches”

mpheranjiru: “one who kills out of malice or envy” wokhwima: “strong/mature one” wanyanga: “one of horn(s)” mbisalira: “one who lies in wait for [a witch!” mfiti: “sorcerer(s)” wolodza: “one who ensorcels”

11

Associated Attributes Motivated primarily by a lust (nkhuli) for “meat” which they satisfy by ingesting the bodies of those whom they bewitch after the victims have died and been buried.

Motivated by an “evil heart” (kuipa mtima), that is feelings of hostility, revenge, jealousy, lust, greed, and so forth which is directed against another person; they do not “eat” their victims.

Only attack “relatives” (acibale) that is, members of the matrilineage or those closely related by marriage; using an earthy local analogy, one person expressed this principle as follows: “If you want to kill livestock, you don’t go and kill that of other people; you kill your own” (Marwick 1965:79).

May attack anyone, especially those with whom they have had a conflict (and hence bear a grudge) or are in competition over some desired object or position; may harm or kill someone on behalf of a third party, who pays a fee to get the job done.

Source of their power to harm is psychic, though they often employ symbolic action as well, for example, as they carry out the act of bewitchment (-tamba “witches’ dance”) or perform miraculous deeds (matsenga “mysterious or magical tricks”); a real witch is also attributed with the capacity to harm or kill someone by merely uttering a malediction or by staring with an “evil eye.”

Source of their power is the manipulation of symbolism in the use of concrete physical substances, that is, “black” magic both imitative and contagious; they may also supply/administer poison for use in the food/drink of the intended victim; their “curses” (e.g., udzaona— “you will see” [i.e., adversity]), are accompanied by other forms of anti-personal symbolic action.

Tend to operate only at night, except for the most powerful individuals, the “experts,” who fear no (witch) doctor.

Usually practice their magic during the day, though some of its preparation may be carried out at night.

Form “guilds,” the members of which gather together at nocturnal meetings in order to participate in various forms of diabolical activity (e.g., playing football with the head of a corpse).

Normally work individually against their rivals or enemies, except in cases where one (the client) does not possess the power of sorcery, but must seek and obtain it from another.

Manifest many supernatural powers, for example, invisibility, flying through the air for long distances, ability to substitute a false corpse for the real one and to disinter a corpse without digging it up.

Do not evince such fantastic physical powers in their persons although they do control various magical forces to accomplish their wicked purposes.

Employ wild nocturnal familiars as messengers or servants (e.g., hyena, owl, leopard, nightjar, fox); these are used for transportation or to search and mark out a future victim, not to steal, because a witch is more interested in life sustaining “meat” than in money or other forms of wealth.

May use animals having a painful sting or bite in order to kill on his behalf (e.g., snake, ant, bee, scorpion), as well as mysterious surrogate creatures (gremlins— ndondocha) in order to carry out special villainous errands to rob a neighbor’s house or field at night.

Generally regarded to be female because women are believed to possess greater, more dangerous psychic powers!

Most sorcerers are considered to be men, just like their main adversaries, the (witch) doctors (asing’anga).

The capacity for witchcraft is usually inherited from a parent or grandparent either at birth or as a small child in order to “keep it in the family;” this power is sometimes thought to be concentrated in certain small physical substances within the body, that is, something that is symbolic of the activity of witchcraft (e.g., a cinder, long pin, animal horn, owl feather, maggot).

The power of sorcery is always acquired later in life from another sorcerer for selfish, personal reasons (e.g., to gain wealth, position, prestige, or protection); it may be learned, procured by magic, especially by incision with the appropriate medicine, or obtained through the mediating agency of a sympathetic ancestral spirit.

12

Innate or assimilated witchcraft is generally believed to be practiced in an unconscious, involuntary, or uncontrollable manner; on the other hand, the only way to get rid of witchcraft is to exorcise it or to eliminate the person who has been divined to have such a disposition.

Sorcery is always a conscious, deliberate, premeditated activity; a sorcerer may therefore also decide to forego the practice of black magic and take up the protecting, promoting work of a medicine-man (e.g., divining, “witch grabbing,” “grave guarding,” exorcism, etc.).

According to popular belief, a real witch will always bear specific physical features that give her away (e.g., red eyes, old age, disfigurement, tendency to stare, etc.); socially, too, the individual who is likely to be accused of witchcraft is deviant in certain definite respects (e.g., lives alone, non-talkative, unfriendly personality, ill-tempered, etc.).

Physically a sorcerer is felt to be indistinguishable from the rest of the community; however, he is thought to excel in other respects, especially in material wealth due to the magic that is working on his behalf and to the detriment of others in the area.

Witches are fond of attacking the weak and unprotected, especially those who are at or nearing a transitional stage in life (e.g., the young, sick, dying, initiates, and pregnant women).

A sorcerer can apply his magic against anyone, especially those whom he is jealous of; but the stronger the victim, the more potent his medicine will have to be in order to be effective.

Only rarely does one find, especially nowadays, that all of the criteria listed above with respect to either diabolical role can be applied to a given person who is accused of being a mfiti. Once the customary investigations, such as divination or ritual assessment, have been completed, one or another of the more specific designations may be used, but it is more likely that the generic term will simply be retained as the primary frame of reference. Thus as the details emerge, they will usually present a mixed pattern, with features from both the witch and the sorcerer columns of the taxonomy fitting into what is normally a rather complicated picture of certain individual faults or repressed desires set within a context of general social tension and conflict. How the outside investigator chooses to designate the “villain” in a given instance will then depend on both the quantity and the quality of the different characteristics which have come to the fore. Local participants, however, are usually not interested in splitting hairs. For them, any reference to the dreadful situation is easy; it is all a matter of ufiti. 13

Thus the neat structural polarities pertaining to evil and its effects normally collapse in the intricate web of interpersonal interaction which determines the “diagnosis” of any instance of either personal or corporate adversity. The point is that the ultimate cause is invariably found to be of human origin, and this has to be kept in mind whenever any resolution of the situation is attempted. The specific interpretation, as determined by the presiding traditional doctor (psychiatrist), as well as the remedy prescribed, will therefore depend on the particular circumstances that apply in the given social and situational setting. 4.9 A hypothetical basis for the distinction between “witch” and “sorcerer” In addition to the utility of having alternative explanations to account for the influence of differing sociological and situational settings on the manifestation of evil in the community, one might tentatively posit a more fundamental reason for this contrast. It has to do with the basic difference between the male and female roles in traditional matrilineal and matrilocal Chewa society. The sorcerer and the witch may represent social antitypes in an institutionalized caricature of the stereotyped male and female functions with respect to one another and also the kinship group as a whole. These roles are thus dramatized as a matter of life and death through the interpersonal tensions that inevitably manifest themselves in such typically close-knit and interrelated communities. This occurs particularly at a time of crisis or calamity, though such conflict is never very far removed from the horizon of everyday existence. Consider several of the prominent correspondences that would support such a hypothesis. There is first of all the strong tendency to identify the mfiti zenizeni (“witches” with women and the banyanga (“sorcerers” with men, both within a given community and beyond (for such infamous reputations spread far and wide). In a reversal, then, of her normal womanly role of preparing food for the family, a witch consumes food, namely, the flesh or meat of her victims (meat being a rare delicacy in most homes). Furthermore, instead of a life-giver, that is, through the production of children, she becomes a life-taker, especially of those who are at the vital stage of being initiated into a higher level of personhood in society (from birth to death). The sorcerer, on the other hand, utilizes implements, utensils, natural materials, recipes, and so forth within a house (normally the man remains outside, except at night) in order to prepare, or cook, the various potions and medicines which are demanded, either for his own selfish ends or those of his clients. Having no consanguineal ties within his wife’s village where he resides by custom, he injures and kills with no respect to relationship. Being an outsider or stranger with respect to kinship, he possesses the power to cross blood lines with impunity and destroy witches, who normally attack only those of the matrilineal stock to whom they are directly related and with whom they often co-exist competitively in the typical Chewa rural community. A witch, then, invariably leaves her “woman’s place” and time—that is, her home and daylight—to go out on nocturnal forays either to procure a fresh corpse from a graveyard or to “bewitch” some new victim with a fatal spell. Instead of performing her expected task of cultivating crops in the family field, a job that requires the expenditure of much physical energy, she extracts sustenance directly from the ground through mystical means and psychic power alone. Often she is believed to do this according to a rotation system as provision for her perverse family of fellow-witches. In contrast to her husband, who is generally quite mobile, a woman tends to remain localized within the village in which she was born. As a practicing witch, however, she is able to travel great distances, even to foreign countries, with jet-like speed. She is frequently described as flying aboard a worn-out sleeping mat or a winnowing basket, which symbolizes the home from which she is straying in order to participate in gross anti-familial activities. So much is the witch, as female, an integral part of the corporate body of her clan, she is thought to inherit her nefarious potency and even to utilize it unconsciously. The sorcerer does not have immediate access to such diverse, inherent power. Rather, he must augment the capacity of his own life-force (umoyo) through the skilled manipulation of a symbolic mode of communication which governs the forces that reside in natural objects and personal effects, that is, relating to any 14

individual whom he wishes to attack. A sorcerer, like the husband who must move to the village of the woman he marries, normally procures his conscious ability to control the dynamics of good and evil later in life, often through a period of apprenticeship with some elderly expert. In addition, a new son-in-law (mkamwini, meaning “one who belongs to someone else” is on trial for the first several years of his marriage to see how well he performs, that is, laboring on behalf of his in-laws, caring for his wife, producing children, and so on. Should he seriously fail with respect to any essential aspect of his domestic responsibility, the marriage will be broken up by the elders of his in-group, and he will have to return to his home in disgrace. The incompetent sorcerer-turned-doctor (sing’anga) suffers a similar shameful fate when, after a prolonged lack of success or any notable failure, he is forced to either give up his trade completely or to try to practice it again somewhere else. Further anthropological and sociological research must be carried out in order to substantiate whether or not the correspondences and contrasts outlined above can serve as a possible explanation for the ancient, but now implicit, distinction between the two chief types of ufiti character and behavior. Such study needs to be done not only among the Chewa, but the hypothesis should be extended also to a study of related peoples living in Central Africa, including the minority of patrilineal groups. It would be interesting to investigate, for example, the relative number of alleged witches in relation to sorcerers to determine whether there exists any correspondence between this figure and the condition of matri- as opposed to patrilocal residency. The results may reveal a prevailing pattern of interpersonal conflict which is manifested in the distinct prominence of one form of mfiti behavior against the other. It may be, however, that the relentless pressures of modern social change and intercultural contact have already blurred the pertinent factors to such an extent that no single hypothesis of origin and development can be supported. In any case, ufiti does serve, among other culturally focal Chewa customs and institutions (such as the male nyau secret society, the unamawali initiation rites, and the female cult of divine-spirit [Chisumphi] possession), to indirectly reflect on the serious social tensions and economic rivalries which tend to beset any closed, subsistence-level, traditionally conservative community. The likelihood of some disruption or dispute is naturally the greatest between blood relatives and their in-laws, but conflicts are also generated among the different competing factions within the matrilineage itself. These potential flash points simmer beneath the surface of the seemingly placid rural cycle of activities, just waiting for the inevitable spark of some provocative occasion or crisis which will cause one set of discordant interpersonal relations or another to erupt in an open accusation of witchcraft / sorcery. 4.10 A deprivation-propelled “wheel of misfortune” The crucial reasons, or motivations, for the antagonistic type of behavior that is manifested by mfiti are very closely related in people’s thinking. In the case of sorcery, whether practiced directly or by proxy, the motive happens to be more overt and demonstrable: a state of insufficiency or economic imbalance in the community (why do the fields of X produce so much more than mine?); an unexplainable instance of good fortune (why was Y chosen for this position instead of me?); an open condition of conflict that initiates a grudge (why did Z refuse to greet so-and-so yesterday?); or any other tension-provoking situation (why does my co-wife have more children than I?). There is thus a “reasonable cause”—jealousy, envy, greed, or pure spite—and therefore a sorcerer must have been at work. Witchcraft, on the other hand, would serve particularly well to account for the covert causes, those for which no other explanation is readily apparent. That being the case, it is natural to assume that the source of the problem would lie close at hand, among those who surround one in life, namely, one’s proximate relatives. Furthermore, an especially insidious and lethal power must be operating, for how else would someone living so near be able to carry out such a deadly business without being recognized or discovered by natural means? 15

The character of the witch is therefore described as manifesting the most detestable human attributes possible—physical, psychological, as well as those pertaining to the personality. If the sorcerer is anti-social in nature, with his unnatural desire to put self-interests before the welfare of the clan/community at large, then the witch is all of that and more: She is anti-culture. Thus, it is not really surprising to find that witches work (and play) at night, when normal folks are asleep; that they gather at graveyards, a place which no ordinary person would venture near; that they move about naked (a characteristic of the mentally deranged) and “dance” (kutamba) in order to destroy, rather than to unify, the community; that they consort with some of the most repulsive (e.g., owl), destructive (e.g., hyena), and/or dangerous (e.g., cobra) of wild creatures; that they can make themselves invisible in order to escape detection in a public society; and worst of all, that they could eat their own kin—their own flesh-and-blood—like wild game. Those are the primary stereotypes, to which there are, of course, many diverse local modifications, even as the personalized attributes of evil may vary greatly, according to the specific situation, in a long continuum of interpersonally-determined possibilities that ranges between the selfish sorcerer and the witless witch. In either case, one might liken the operation of ufiti in society to that of a wheel—a continually revolving “cycle of misfortune.” Two complementary phases, covert and overt, may be posited in this cycle, each with three consecutive and partially overlapping stages, as shown in idealized form in Figure 2 below. According to this model of ufiti belief and behavior, social conflict has both psychological as well as physical causes and consequences. A basic environmental deficiency or sociocultural disorder creates an institutional imbalance of an educational, economic, political, kinship-oriented, and/or religious nature. This results in a socially unsteady state (1) which generates a subsequent crisis in the community (refer to Figure 2 for parenthetical number). The developing interpersonal tension (2) is imperceptible at first, but this underlying stress gradually (or rapidly—depending on concomitant external conditions, such as a strong political push toward social change or multi-partyism) grows into a perceptible, if not actually expressed, state of hostility between two or more persons or groups within the community (3). At this stage it is normally just a matter of time before the hard feelings of jealousy, anger, or whatever burst forth in some overt action: an argument, quarrel, accusation, insult, beating, or worse. All it takes then is for some calamity to befall one or more of the antagonists (or a close relative), such as an accident, illness, death, business reversal, poor harvest, loss of property, or perhaps an actual crime (4). The essential causal link between the two halves of the chain has now been forged, and the subsequent course of events follows a predictable pattern. One or more divining sessions (as necessary) by lot, augury, or oracle will establish the fact that either witchcraft or sorcery must have been involved (5), and the offender—or rather, his offensive nature, that is, ufiti—will be dealt with in the appropriate manner as prescribed by the traditional doctor on call (6).

16

There will usually be some immediate, short-term relief for the community, at least on the surface of public life. But because in all likelihood the underlying personal, institutional (social), and/or environmental problem (I) has not really been resolved, it does not take long before the wheel of misfortune starts rotating once more and another mfiti strikes again. Indeed, these events may have already been set in motion by the disciplinary measures taken in (6), for instance, with a desire on the part of the accused villain or his family, to take revenge upon their opponents. Religion, too, forms an essential part of this basically pessimistic and cyclical view of life. Because Chewa society’s fundamental beliefs about the supernatural tend to focus on the negative features of human existence, its religion functions to explain and deal with misfortune much more often than success and prosperity. Because the most active and capable manipulators of good and evil in a Chewa setting are feared, that is, the witch and the (witch) doctor, anxiety and uncertainty become a more or less permanent part of the average person’s outlook on things. Traditional religion also plays an integral role in all cases of ufiti because the constant presence of evil means that people must continually be engaged in a search for some supernatural means of protection. This is necessary to preserve their lives, to promote their health, well-being, and social position, and to provide for their “spiritual” future through a devoted posterity (i.e., those who will continue to make venerative offerings of “remembrance” to their ancestors). 4.11 Witchcraft and world-view: A functional perspective The different features that comprise the diverse practices associated with witchcraft/sorcery are not simply static phenomena to be observed, described, and analyzed in isolation. They are, more significantly, dynamic components in a total functioning system of socioreligious belief and behavior which need to be investigated and probed in order to discover the specific role that they play conjunctionally in the actual experience of everyday life. The adoption of an operational perspective, no matter how tentative, is also useful for comparative purposes to determine how the manifestation of ufiti in a Chewa setting relates to that recorded for other African societies. A basic descriptive competency may therefore be complemented and made more relevant by the provision of a functional framework within which the crucial forms, both verbal as well as nonverbal, symbolic and nonsymbolic, are seen to derive their ultimate meaning and to achieve their underlying purpose with respect to the governing world-view of the people involved (cf. Wendland 1987, chap. 1). Accordingly, seven distinct but interrelated sociological functions are posited below, that is, operations which the theory and practice of ufiti (witchcraft and/or sorcery) are assumed to perform 17

in most traditional Central African cultural environments. These all have significant religious implications because they pertain to people’s relationship with and response to the faith-focusing, ultimately spiritual, powers that are believed to control their lives and destiny, whether for good, evil, or both. It should be noted that within a given society or constituent community such functions normally manifest themselves in interaction to produce a variable continuum of positive or negative (i.e., dysfunctional) effects, depending on the viewpoint of the particular individual or group which happens to be either affected by the events concerned or evaluating the situation. 4.11.1 Interpersonal The typical ufiti cycle of provocation and response provides an outlet for the repressed feelings of hostility and aggression that result from the various dissensions generated by competition over land, property (inheritance), wives/ husbands, political office, and so on. It is a socially accepted (not necessarily acceptable) device for externalizing such conflicts and for dealing with them in a way that is at least understandable, even if strongly censured, in the cultural context concerned. As Kluckhohn (1944:89) observes, “Every society restricts and channels the expression of hostility.” Such a “safety-valve” (re)action would obviously be more necessary in situations where the general level of frustration and anxiety among the population were heightened due to widespread cultural change, social instability, economic distress, environmental calamity, or political repression. Some form of tension management is also needed where interpersonal kinship relationships are involved, such as within the Chewa matrilineage, for there are no other socially approved means of overtly expressing the pent-up anger, resentment, jealousy, and grudges that inevitably arise in comparatively small, face-to-face, non-stratified, and homogeneous communities of near relatives. It would simply be too shameful, for example, for one member of the family to bring an accusation against another at the chief’s local court or to engage in physical combat to settle personal differences. Even loud, verbal manifestations of vexation are frowned upon, although they frequently do occur. The only apparent recourse, then, is to turn to the realm of the invisible and anti-personal magic to provide both a cause (natural—malice/jealousy; mystical—appetite for flesh) and an effect (i.e., misfortune) for such feelings of disharmony and contention. There is a certain scapegoat mentality operating here, for it is deemed better for a few persons, often misfits themselves, to bear the guilt and blame for social problems rather than to allow the society as a whole to be torn apart by open strife and warfare (Malinowski 1945:97). In this regard, the accusation of witchcraft/ sorcery acts to focus the implicit ambiguous or latent anxieties troubling the community upon a particular individual, the mfiti, so that they may be dealt with overtly in a concrete way and hence dissipated, or at least partially defused. This personal concentration of punishment is a primary response to what some analysts have termed the “collectivization of guilt” (Ma Mpolo 1985:161), which is a symptomatic corporate defense mechanism (similar in many respects to the social psychology of dreams) that often operates in closed, communal settings. According to this principle of collective culpability, the guilt and shame of one member of the clan is borne by all of the others, the elders in particular (Ma Mpolo 1990:40). The danger of this tendency to exteriorize or socialize guilt is that the individual concerned does not accept personal responsibility for wrongdoing, even if it is real. However, the advantage of handling serious interpersonal problems in this manner, particularly in more recent times, is that vengeance in cases of wrongdoing may be exacted magically rather than physically, thus preserving the essential fabric of social relations (Adeney 1974:380). In older days, the only way to preserve the group from the effects of witchcraft was to eliminate the witch. However, since colonial and subsequent laws have banned such capital punishment, including ordeals intended to reveal the witches and sorcerers of an entire village, greater efforts are now made, at least overtly, to purify and rehabilitate offenders and hence to renew interpersonal harmony within the affected social unit. Thus a diagnosed attack on one person has communal 18

implications, and it is up to the leaders of the family/clan to find a solution that will not only restore the health of the victim of ufiti, but also reestablish the unity and well-being of the group. 4.11.2 Institutional Another important social function of ufiti is “institutional” in nature because it applies more directly to the hallowed conventions and traditions which have been handed down from the fathers and now govern the organization and operation of the current community. Beliefs in witchcraft and sorcery serve to affirm the solidarity of the group and to maintain the familiar social order by personalizing whatever is considered to be extraordinary, contrary to the norms, or morally evil. Thus the customs, values, standards, and structures of the status quo are reinforced through a dramatization of the antitype. This is not a simple dualistic system of good versus evil, or natural versus supernatural. Rather, there is a single code, the ancient order derived by oral tradition from the ancestors, from which there may be various degrees of deviation in the form of counter-group attitudes and activities. The most extreme violations, of course, are those perpetrated by the destructive and disruptive antisocial behavior of witches and sorcerers. Ufiti is thus grossly unnatural, a perversion of expected behavioral patterns, as many of the characteristics attributed to those who engage in it would attest (e.g., extreme greed, envy, hostility, cannibalism, nakedness, secretiveness, nocturnal trysts, and familiarity with beasts of the bush). The threat of witchcraft therefore also acts as a powerful socializing agent, pushing people along the path of tradition by placing any deviants from the commonly accepted ideal in terms of either physical or social attributes in a position where they might either be accused of practicing witchcraft themselves or, paradoxically, be especially vulnerable to an attack by mfiti for their noncustomary lifestyle. The approved social habits are thereby implicitly promoted through the public condemnation of their opposite extremes. In a collectively-oriented economy, for example, unwanted competition is dealt with by banning it and by ascribing its manifestation to the influence of ufiti. Indeed, the blanket excuse of witchcraft may serve to mask certain defective aspects of the very structure of society itself, such as ambiguous or ill-defined roles with their associated rights and obligations (Douglas 1970:107). In the area of kinship, for example, there may be some relationships which are inherently potential points of conflict, such as two resident-alien sons-in-law, a husband and wife, or a woman’s brother and her son (his nephew) in a Chewa male-dominated but matrilineal and matrilocal society. Such chronic problem areas provide fertile ground for witchcraft accusations, thus diverting public attention and shading them from the test of critical examination and evaluation. On the other hand, despite the social fissures that may occur as a result, the basic equilibrium of the customary way of life and value-system is thereby maintained, at least overtly, and this acts as a strong stabilizing factor in the precarious movement from one generation and age to the next. Ironically, the fundamental institutional norm of communalism is manifestly active even within the actual practice of ufiti itself. Although a sorcerer is generally believed to be a “loner” in keeping with his consumedly selfish nature, witches seek the company of like-minded individuals in order to form covens which gather for demonic fellowship at night. Furthermore, witchcraft (of the meateating kind) is thought to run in families with children inheriting the traits either biologically or socially from their elders. In an especially perverted caricature of the communal principle, witches tend to attack and devour primarily those who are related to them, usually by blood but also by marriage. Similarly, the sorcerer must typically commit some abominable act, such as murder or incest, against a close relative in order to provide the catalytic energizing force (cizimba) either to assume his power in the first place or to obtain a particularly noxious form of black magic that he wishes to practice.

19

4.11.3 Moral This function is admittedly quite difficult to distinguish from the preceding on account of the prominent social basis that underlies the concepts of “sin” and “evil” in Central Africa. Nevertheless, there are definite ethical standards of right and wrong as these apply not only to interpersonal relationships, but also as they involve one’s individual responsibility in instances where certain serious transgressions are deemed to have been committed. This is particularly true where the offense of ufiti is concerned because the witch “embodies those appetites and passions in every man which, if ungoverned, would destroy any moral law” (Lienhardt 1951:317). This is definitely not a matter of mere spontaneous behavior, but it is viewed as a corruption of one’s whole nature, a “black heart” (wakuda mtima), from which emerges all sorts of insidious and inherently dangerous feelings, notably “hatred” (kumuda, “to be black with respect to someone”. That is why, as mentioned above, in days gone by the only effective way to deal with a proven witch was by execution; there was no hope for reform. Nowadays a total “born-again” conversion experience is necessary as part of the purification and renewal process. Whether they are primarily indigenous or Christian in character, such rites feature both a public confession of the crime and also an overtly administered inoculation of medicinal, magical, or spiritual protective power in an effort to prevent any recurrence. Malicious “jealousy” (for which there are many words in Chewa, depending on the precise nature of the situation) is the cause most frequently cited as a reason for the appearance of ufiti, and this may be aroused by a host of real and potential disparities in the human condition and one’s personal experience. This accusation is, of course, a double-edged sword: Overtly it is most commonly mentioned as being the motivation of a witch or sorcerer; covertly it acts as a convenient excuse for charging a prosperous neighbor with this crime. People are constantly surveying the surroundings, vigilantly on the lookout for any sign of witchcraft intruding upon their lives. Indeed, ufiti lore is laden with graphic eye-witnessed examples of how witches/sorcerers utilize both verbal and nonverbal symbolism in conjunction with their reprehensible actions. To be sure, the shame associated with the chance of being charged with witchcraft is borne to a certain extent by the entire family, but in this instance (as distinct from other judicial cases) the group is much more likely to repudiate the individual member, particularly if he (or she) does not confess, thus allowing the chance at least for restoration and reconciliation. The hardened witch/sorcerer will therefore stand alone in her/his guilt and punishment. Nowhere is this more apparent than at the time of a mfiti’s death, whether natural or inflicted, because only a few closest relatives will show up for the burial to pay their last respects, and this merely out of duty, to ensure that the job gets done. Furthermore, witches are also cut off from the clan by denying them the normal rites of communal remembrance (e.g., a sacrificial feast on the first anniversary of their death, i.e., khisimasi—“Christmas” and by not passing their name (and spiritual influence) along to any descendants. Such is the great moral approbation that accompanies what is undoubtedly considered to be society’s greatest crime—the unforgivable sin. 4.11.4 Psychological This function, in contrast to the interpersonal dimension (section 4.10.1), focuses on the more private and personal aspects of ufiti, especially in the case of those who happen to be somewhat maladjusted. Thus, there may be some people who, feeling psychologically confined or submerged in a communal context, might search for a means to enhance and express their own individuality and personal identity. There would be two possible ways of accomplishing this within the framework of popular beliefs about ufiti and according to the personality type of the individual concerned. The less drastic step would be for one to claim to be bewitched in order to capitalize on the attention that this charge generated for the enhancement of one’s social status, even if only temporarily and with considerable inherent risk (i.e., that a bogus belief might be transformed 20

through the intensity of subsequent events into the real thing). Such defensive behavior might be expected from an insecure individual who was already suffering from either a persecution or an inferiority complex. It might also appeal to the under-achiever or less-gifted person as a handy device for reducing anxiety and boosting one’s self-image by blaming one’s faults and failings upon the evil machinations of others. The ultimate strategy then would be for one to claim (or at least not to deny) to be an actual agent of witchcraft/sorcery, instead of simply a victim. Such an offensive psychological mechanism would certainly raise one’s status in the community, both as an object of fear and also of respect. An informal hierarchy of position based on age and experience, analogous to that of “normal” society, establishes itself among the witches that inhabit a certain area as well as among those who are engaged to hunt them down (i.e., the doctor-diviners, especially the witch-finders) according to the degree of success that one enjoys. But the personal risk factor involved here would be correspondingly greater. This is because over and above the serious moral implications and repulsive associations that are attached to such a reputation (cf. Moral section, 4.10.3), a known witch would always be liable for blame whenever a calamity struck in the community, while a self-professed sorcerer would similarly leave himself open to attack by rivals. In any case, a person who deliberately promoted himself to such a position would have to ensure that he did indeed possess a certain measure of magical power to back up his (or her) claim to infamy. 4.11.5 Ideological As a theory of social and moral causation, the ufiti complex of beliefs comprises a comprehensive, if at times internally self-contradictory, etiology of misfortune. In other words, it provides a readymade rationale for all sorts of personal and corporate disasters that would otherwise be inexplicable in terms of the general degree of scientific knowledge commanded by its adherents. Witchcraft dogma represents an essential aspect of the fundamental philosophy of causality which provides a major portion of the synthetic, or holistic, mode of explanation that covers any and all of life’s blessings, but especially its adversities, in an indigenous setting. As was noted earlier, ufiti appears to be gaining in prominence in comparison with the other distinct, but related, motivating factors: ancestral displeasure, taboo violation, divine fiat, or obvious human error. No trouble, hardship, or unexpected deficiency is allowed to remain unanswered or unresolved. Rather, the offensive cause needs to be discovered through divination or communal consensus so that the human problem or fault that lies at the bottom of the case can be dealt with and the cosmos brought back into harmony and wholeness again. On the overt perceptual level, where face-to-face communities prefer to operate, this indigenous explanatory system helps to take some of the mystery out of man’s lot in life, especially with regard to the bitter extremes of human experience. Indeed, the threat of witchcraft serves to account for those enigmatic questions that Western philosophy, medicine, psychiatry, and religion are often forced to leave unanswered. Why does so-and-so appear to prosper so much more than his fellows? Obviously, he must be practicing sorcery in order to push himself ahead of the rest (cf. Economic section, 4.10.6). Why does so-and-so seem to be suffering all of the time, and unjustly too? No doubt he (she or they) must have fallen under the attack of witches. These agonistic, exaggerated, and stereotyped responses which are typical of primary oral-aural societies (Ong 1982:45), tend to simplify the uncertainties of human experience considerably: “Black magic…[blaming] a human being for misfortune, reduces the metaphysical or fatalistic elements in one’s reaction to it. There is more hope in counteracting human machinations than in dealing with decrees of fate or the will of God” (Malinowski 1945:96). The essence of this belief views the practice of ufiti as involving the conscious or unconscious self-appropriation and negative application of some portion of the “vital force” that permeates and animates the universe. This process is frequently initiated by gaining access, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, to the virulent power of someone who already possesses (-ed) it, for instance, 21

one’s (grand) parent who was a practicing mfiti or an evil ancestral lineage spirit (ciwanda). Another effective way to renew and to utilize such malefic energy is to “tap into” the resources of fellow human beings. Witches have the ability to do this psychically, by the sheer force of their pernicious will, while sorcerers gain control of this superhuman power through the manipulation of magical symbolism. To counteract such ruinous forces, on the other hand, requires a mystical knowledge of these same powers which is equal to or surpassing that of the mfiti themselves. One therefore strives throughout life to preserve and promote both the quantitative (e.g., offspring) and qualitative (e.g., good health) aspects of the “soul-power” with which one has been bequeathed by God through the ancestors at birth. This fundamentally person-centered diagnosis of the human condition is especially useful in parts of the world that are chronically plagued by a high mortality rate, pertaining to children and/or adults (i.e., average life expectancy). Thus mfiti are believed to not only cause disease and death directly, but they are also responsible for hindering and even blocking all attempts at remedial action. So there is a convenient explanation, too, when the best efforts of the renowned defensive specialists of the community come to naught. Nevertheless, by confining the source of evil and adversity to the human realm, the theory at least allows for the possibility that it lies within the range of human capacity to do something about it. And there is no small comfort in that at least for those who know of no alternative. On the other hand, many sufferers too quickly jump to the conclusion that this option is operative in their own case and rush off to the local healer before trying to obtain medical or psychological help from a Western-type clinic or hospital. Alternatively, they stop going for treatment to the latter when results seem to be slow in coming. The consequences for those for whom a genuine cure for a physical or mental problem is possible are indeed disastrous and often deadly. A failure in ideology can prove fatal. If man originates evil, then he at the same time furnishes—in the person of certain gifted, even charismatic, individuals—the principal hope for achieving recovery and renewal. For where there is a witch, there must also be a witch doctor; where sorcery is practiced, an anti-sorcery squad must also move into action to counteract the magical influence of the enemy. It is lamentably ironic, however, that the individual to whom people most often turn for salvation from ufiti, namely, the sing’anga (medicine-man), turns out to be the primary agent in the continued promotion and promulgation of the blinding fears which have captivated them for ages in an endless cycle of misdirected accusation and counter-charge, of interpersonal conflict and incomplete resolution, of wrongly-diagnosed illness and premature death in the judicial, social, and medical spheres respectively. 4.11.6 Economic The economic function of ufiti is related to a basic presupposition of a central African world-view, and this concerns the ultimate circumscription of the earth’s goods and supplies in terms of both quantity and quality. As might be expected, witchcraft tends to thrive in a physical and psychological environment which is perceived to be (if it is not actually) characterized by deprivation and consequently restricted with regard to the amount of the various basic resources that are potentially available in the world (principle of “limited good”—cf. Wendland 2005:8892). Therefore, if some person or group seems, for no apparent reason (which is, of course, a highly subjective matter), either to have too much or to come up short in terms of life’s essentials, then the explanation must inevitably be sought in the exercise of black magic by sorcerers or in the wicked machinations of witches. Correspondingly, any extraordinary achievement, whether in the social, political, economic, or even physical sphere, can only be accomplished at the expense of others, if not materially, then certainly spiritually in terms of their life-force. Thus one person’s apparent success is invariably gained to the detriment of someone else in the immediate vicinity. The area of special concern in this regard is that of his own lineage, where the principles of communalism and equality are supposed to operate for the benefit of all. It is 22

especially suspicious, therefore, if one member appears to enjoy a relatively high level of prosperity while the rest of the clan is continually struggling to remain above the poverty line. In such situations, it is almost inevitable that accusations as well as fears of sorcery (primarily, but also that of witchcraft) enter the picture to act as an implicit socioeconomic leveling device. This may come about in several ways. It does not take long before the rumor begins to circulate that the wealthy individual must be achieving his gains due to his practice of ufiti. Hard work, good soil, business acumen, agricultural insight, common sense—let alone luck—have nothing to do with it. An additional degree of mystical knowledge and potency has to be the explanation, and this can only be obtained through the self-oriented manipulation of magic. Thus sooner or later he is likely to be charged, whether directly or via divination (kuombeza), with sorcery. Various outcomes are possible depending on how much power he is thought to have at his disposal. Even if he is able to withstand the accusations, he will conclude, whether rightly or wrongly, that others will certainly be applying counter-magic against him—if they have not done so already. “To attract admiration is to risk attracting envy…envious people can do harm to one’s person or crops through magic” (Lieban 1967:144-146). Consequently, a vicious and ever-widening circle of doubt and mistrust develops, producing an atmosphere that can only discourage individual initiative and the pursuit of excellence in the opposing interest of promoting a basic parity in the possession and control of the physical resources of the environment. It is thus up to the prosperous to share their goods, and the personal ideal of generosity, when practiced by the rich, is more often than not motivated by a pressing fear of sorcery (cf. Wilson 1951:308; Lienhardt 1951). If the opportunities for personal and corporate advancement are thus limited in scope, a similar outlook would naturally apply with respect to the options for dealing with ostensible inequalities, including those which pertain to illness, accident, or even death. Time and again the answer to such “economic” disparity (i.e., relating to “wealth” or prosperity of any type) turns out to be connected in some way to witchcraft /sorcery, and the only solution is to seek release or redress through the agency of the traditional practitioner (sing’anga) who specializes in such cases. With the majority of people still controlled to a greater or lesser extent by such a rigid and confining outlook on life, it is not surprising to find that despite the sometimes dramatic increase in worldly possessions and educational opportunities that many have experienced in recent years, the incidence of ufiti has not decreased at all, either in rural or urban areas. If anything, as economic conditions become more uncertain, the culture more confronted with change, society more complex, and life more competitive in nature, the witches and sorcerers keep multiplying faster than ever, cleverly adapting their manner as well as their methods to the modern age. 4.11.7 Political In addition to its role in the crucial economic sphere of African culture, ufiti often plays an important part also in the political power structure of society. On the corporate level, accusations of witchcraft/sorcery may lead to ruptures and fissions in the lineage, especially where two or more subgroups are in competition with one another for leadership or domination. This often results, then, in an actual splitting up of the village, where one disgruntled segment moves off en masse to establish a settlement elsewhere, normally in the same vicinity (Mair 1969:210-211; Marwick 1965:284-285). In a community where it is culturally inappropriate display publicly any interpersonal conflict, such as through debates, duels, or judicial proceedings, witchcraft doctrine offers a means for externalizing this politically motivated rivalry and for justifying any consequent social breaks that do occur (Douglas 1970:114). Turning to the individual level of manifestation, just as in the case of the wealthy man, so also the person who holds a position of prominence in the community—or even the nation at large— may rightly feel himself threatened by jealous rivals who also aspire to that office, such as minister of parliament, district or party official, chief, headman, or clan ritual leader. He must therefore 23

have the means to protect himself from the attacks of sorcerers, and in such a situation a derived power (i.e., charms, amulets, magic, etc. supplied by another) is naturally much less satisfactory in terms of personal safety than to control that power oneself, that is, to act as one’s own witch doctor. Second, the various leaders of society (e.g., chief, headman) and the clan (e.g., mwinimbumba, “owner of the matrilineage”) must also have sufficient magical force at their disposal to protect all those who are under their care, both from the mfiti that lurk within the group as well as those that threaten it from without. Consequently, they often seek the power of sorcery in order to defend their own security and interests, as well as those of the group which they are responsible for. Ironically, a village that lacks sorcerers in its midst is considered to be weak (a socialized adaptation of the principle of inoculation) and thus can easily fall prey to the invading mfiti of other areas. Similarly, any respected leader should also have the corresponding power to punish any who are discovered to have committed such an offense—to “fight fire with fire,” as it were. If the chief, for example, does not personally possess this magical strength, then it is up to him to provide for his people by summoning the necessary specialists to his aid, whether legitimate (e.g., the witch-finder) or illegitimate (e.g., a contra-sorcerer). Obviously, the dividing line between the beneficial (group-oriented) and the harmful (self-focused) use of magic is frequently difficult to distinguish. A leader may, for example, decide to employ the former merely out of selfish interests, to keep himself at the top and to enforce his own unpopular decisions on the community. As Nadel (1935:447) described the situation among the Nupe (of Nigeria): “The organization of antiwitchcraft magic became a political weapon by means of which the king exercised a special spiritual as well as economic power over the country.” Thus, all of the functions outlined above in one way or another manifest that paradox of power which ufiti necessarily generates within society, even under the best of circumstances. The continual threat of a surprise attack requires the constant endeavor to put into effect supernatural counter-measures to ensure both individual and group security. Such self-defensive efforts, on the other hand, only serve to reinforce people’s beliefs in the potency of their opponents’ resources and their own vulnerability in a dynamic world that is filled with misfortune occasioned by human malice. For many, then, a serious internal insecurity bordering on paranoia develops, one which obviously contradicts or at least calls into question, the overt gregariousness and hospitality that characterize Bantu culture. 4.12 The problem of perspective—Or is it a potential? It is extremely difficult to determine, from a secular standpoint, whether the seven overlapping orientations proposed above are best regarded as being positive or negative, that is, functional or dysfunctional, and to what degree with respect to cause and effect within society. This is because the answer depends so much on the particular society concerned and the situation in which it finds itself. The nature of the response is also very much dependent on who happens to be making it. An evaluation will differ greatly according to a complex set of factors which pertain both to the analyst as well as the method of analysis carried out. For example, some investigators might not be concerned about socioreligious function at all, but would prefer to concentrate on the symbolic significance of the data in relation to a people’s overall world-view. One’s personal perspective on specific cultural phenomena and related issues may also differ according to a broad range of variables such as the following (cf. Kraft 1979:293; Shaw 1988:2628): whether one is an actual member of the society concerned or an outsider (i.e., a participant versus an observer viewpoint); whether an indigenous model of explanation has been adopted or a generic, universal one (i.e., an emic versus an etic orientation); whether a subjective or objective approach has been used (i.e., in collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating the data); or whether the focus of attention has been on the deep or the surface structure of culture (i.e., overt manifestation versus underlying meaning and significance). There is also the crucial factor of the guiding ideology of the investigator, whether political, economic, religious, or otherwise. A 24

Christian scholar or an advocate of a free-enterprise market will tend to view the same set of facts quite differently from an ethnic brother or sister who is a Marxist and/or a non-Christian (Westerlund 1991:23). Indeed, one’s sex is important too, as demonstrated by the recent rise in the number of distinctly feminist interpretations offered with respect to many fields of study. One’s point of view, wherever it is focused in respect to the polarities suggested above, may be relatively easy or more difficult to change or compensate for. It may offer one some unique insights, yet also constitute a critical barrier to one’s understanding of what is going on. Cultural insiders, for example, are frequently unable to detach themselves enough from their traditional belief-system to realize that the problems they face may actually be a product of the narrow and enclosed conceptual framework of these deeply presupposed beliefs and practices. Similarly, indigenous analysts can suffer from some important cultural “blind spots” which make it difficult for them to perceive potentially significant distinctions in phenomena which they have grown up with. Thus they may simply take them for granted as being part of the real world or perhaps be reluctant to discuss such issues on a scholarly level. Westerlund (1991:17) observes that “African scholars of religion usually pay much less attention to phenomena which have been labeled magic, witchcraft, and sorcery than do Western anthropologists.” Kalilombe (1980), for example, does not even mention the subject in his “outline of Chewa traditional religion”. Ethnic outsiders, on the other hand, may be blinded by their own (or rather, their culture’s) preconceived notions about reality. It is unlikely, therefore, that they would ever be capable of empathizing enough with the local situation in terms of its enveloping world-view to be able to make a completely unbiased functional assessment. This would pertain not only to their interpretation of ritual and other religious events, but such a deficiency would apply especially to their evaluation of efficiency and ethicalness with respect to desired and/or desirable goals according to which the preceding functions are presumed to operate in everyday life. In balance, it would seem that the advantage, in terms of a potential for an accurate and relevant socioreligious diagnosis and prognosis, lies with informed insiders. Such perceptive individuals would have been trained to utilize the correct proportion of both ontological and phenomenological methods in analysis and to adopt an outsider’s perspective at times when a critical judgment of world-view and/or lifestyle has to be made. The present study makes an attempt to compensate for its theoretical limitations and an alien bias by means of a receptor-oriented synthesis of inner and outer viewpoints. It thus offers an additional perspective on the complex, comprehensive, and culturally central belief-behavior system of ufiti. It may therefore also contribute toward a fuller understanding of the manifold role that witchcraft and sorcery play in a given Chewa social group as part of a vast, intertwined communications network that spans generations and links human beings with one another and the world about them, for better or for worse. A greater awareness of these varied interrelationships can in turn create the potential at least for dealing more effectively with the diverse misfortunes and calamities that plague individuals and society at large, especially with regard to the need for healing, harmony, and wholeness—whether of body, mind, or soul. In an African content of course, the physical, psychological, and spiritual dimensions are all one—one person, one clan, one community, one cosmos. In addition, they are, as we have seen, all part of a dramatically religious view of life, death, and the hereafter. REFERENCES for Chapter 4 Adeney, M. A. 1974. “What is ‘Natural’ About Witchcraft and Sorcery.” Missiology 2:377-395. Douglas, M. 1970. Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology. New York: Pantheon Books. Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1937. Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

25

Harwood, A. 1970. Witchcraft, Sorcery, and Social Categories among the Samfwa. London: Oxford University Press. Kalilombe, P. A. 1980. “An Outline of Chewa Traditional Religion.” Africa Theological Journal 9:39-51. Kluckhohn, C. 1944. Navaho Witchcraft. Boston: Beacon Press. Kraft, C. 1979. Christianity in Culture: A Study in Dynamic Biblical Theologizing in a Cross-Cultural Perspective. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. Lieban, R.W. 1967. Cebuano Sorcery. Berkeley: University of California Press. Lienhardt, G. 1951. “Notions on Witchcraft Among the Dinka.” Africa 21:303-318. Mair, L. 1969. Witchcraft. New York: McGraw-Hill. Malinowski, B. 1945. The Dynamics of Culture Change. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Ma Mpolo, M. 1985. “Witchcraft, Dreams, and Pastoral Counseling.” In M. Ma Mpolo and W. Kalu (eds.), The Risks of Growth: Counseling and Pastoral Theology in the African Context. Nairobi: Uzima Press. 124-200. _______ 1990. “Sorcery and Pastoral Care and Counseling.” Africa Theological Journal 19:38-52. Marwick, M. 1965. Sorcery in Its Social Setting: A Study of the Northern Rhodesian Cewa. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Nadel, S.F. 1935. “Witchcraft and Anti-witchcraft in Nupe Society.” Africa 8:444-448. Ong, W. J. 1982. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. London: Methuen. Schoffeleers, J. M. and A. A. Roscoe. 1985. Land of Fire: Oral Literature from Malawi. Lilongwe, Malawi: Likuni Press. Shaw, R. D. 1988. Transculturation: The Cultural Factor in Translation and Other Communication Tasks. Pasadena: William Carey Library. Simoko, P. 1975. “Witchcraft--Is There Such a Thing?” Sunday Times of Zambia (August 3). Stephen, M. 1987. Sorcerer and Witch in Melanesia. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Wendland, E. R. 1987. The Cultural Factor in Bible Translation. New York: United Bible Societies. _______ 1990. “Traditional Central African Religion.” In P. Stine and E. Wendland (eds.), Bridging the Gap: African Traditional Religion and Bible Translation. New York: United Bible Societies. 1-129 Westerlund, D. 1991. “Insiders’ and ‘Outsiders’ in the Study of African Religions: Notes on Some Problems of Theory and Method.” In J. K. Olupona (ed.), African Traditional Religions in Contemporary Society. New York: Paragon House. 15-24. Wilson, M. 1951. “Witch Beliefs and Social Structure.” American Journal of Sociology 56:307-313. Zvarevashi, I. M. 1970. “Witches and Witchcraft.” In C. Kileff and P. Kileff (eds.), Shona Customs. Gweru, Zimbabwe: Mambo Press. 48-50.

26