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Witchcraft in Africa

Summary

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The modern issue of witchcraft in Africa finds it genesis in the semantic confusion which was established in the Kingdom of Kongo between the African traditional initiatory lore and witchcraft. This confusion resulted from the diabolization of the African spiritual culture and its outcome was a bad definition of African witchcraft which unleashed the fear of it among the population, a fear that the modern institutions are unable to fight efficiently until now, due to the oblivion of the traditional philosophy of the fight against witchcraft and the adoption of a westerner epistemological base in the attempt to grasp an African concept.

Historical background

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The modern issue of witchcraft has its foundations in the history of the Kingdom of Kongo. Before its discovery by Diego Cao, in 1482, this African state, like all others, had initiatory structures which constituted the essential of its educational system outside of the family frames. The knowledge acquired in those initiatory schools included the divine and the human lore (kindoki), meanwhile the perversion of the later resulting in its negative use (witchcraft) was something condemned by the society.

The general mood of inquisition and witch hunting, which still pervaded the western societies in the fifteenth century, added to prejudice, led the European missionaries to view all the kongo culture as essentially devilish. [1] Thus all the spiritual culture of the black people was equated to witchcraft. This newly established hypothesis –that the African initiatory lore and the power it offers (the kindoki) are equal to witchcraft- will lead all the subsequent researches made by anthropologists. That same presupposition will be used to redefine the African cultures all over the continent; because after the Kingdom of Kongo Christianity was introduced in Angola, in Mozambique [2], and all the other African states followed and received the mental seeds sowed in the Kingdom of Kongo; the wrong view of the African culture established thereby. This redefinition of the African traditional values will lead to many misconceptions.

For example, the term witch doctor, a common translation for the Zulu inyanga, has been misconstrued to mean "a healer who uses witchcraft" rather than its original meaning of "one who diagnoses and cures maladies caused by witches". In Southern African traditions, there are three classifications of somebody who uses magic. The thakathi is usually improperly translated into English as "witch", and is a spiteful person who operates in secret to harm others. The sangoma is a diviner, somewhere on a par with a fortune teller, and is employed in detecting illness, predicting a person's future (or advising them on which path to take), or identifying the guilty party in a crime. He also practices some degree of medicine. The inyanga is often translated as "witch doctor" (though many Southern Africans resent this implication, as it perpetuates the mistaken belief that a "witch doctor" is in some sense a practitioner of malicious magic). The inyanga's job is to heal illness and injury and provide customers with magical items for everyday use.

Though the African scholars mostly addressed the issue from the premises set by the first missionaries in the Kingdom of Kongo that kindoki (the African spiritual lore and power) is witchcraft, some of them question this conclusions of the pioneers of the Christian faith by relying on their deep knowledge of the African culture. Thus Buakasa [3], keeping up with the hypothesis of the first missionaries, speaks of the kongo lore and power (kindoki) as witchcraft, Okeja [4] argues that witchcraft in Africa today plays a very different social role than in Europe of the past--or present--and should be understood through an African rather than post-colonial Western lens, while Hebga affirms that witchcraft is a totally negative craft and cannot do any good to society: “Witchcraft is the all the bad activities of the witch.” [5]

Difference between kindoki and witchcraft

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In a recent study Luyaluka [6] established through a semantic analysis that the African lore and power called kindoki is essentially different from witchcraft which has always been regarded by the church as a sinful practice, a use of knowledge and/or power in order to harm. Kindoki had official initiatory frames, which witchcraft never had. The kindoki was intended to help in the development of the society, while witchcraft aims at its destruction. Due to the confusion introduced between the concepts of kindoki and witchcraft, most of African languages have two terms for witchcraft one is totally negative and alludes to evil-craft while the other is ambivalent and alludes in reality to the African lore and power.

Example:

  • Kongo (of Democratic republic of Congo): n’soki (witchcraft), kindoki (lore and power).
  • Bomitaba (Republic of Congo): bolemba (witchcraft), buanga (lore and power).
  • Baluba (DRC): bumpongo (witchcraft), buloji (lore and power).
  • Douala (Cameroon): ewusu (witchcraft), lemba (lore and power)
  • Songye (DRC): masenda (witchcraft), butshi or ndoshi (lore and power).
  • Etc.

New issues of witchcraft in Africa

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Some of the problems introduced by the diabolization of the back spiritual culture and the equating of the kindoki to witchcraft are:

  • The destruction of the authentic African response to the rise of witchcraft: initiation.
  • The difficulty of correctly defining African witchcraft.
  • The inefficiency of the fight against witchcraft, which is now meanly envisioned unfortunately in terms of exorcism and brutality.

But the increasing fear of witchcraft which is now observed within many African societies is accentuated by economical factors.

Among the new issues of witchcraft in Africa the most crucial are:

  • The problem of the “street children” who have found themselves out of the family structure, mostly on the accusation witchery. As of 2006, between 25,000 and 50,000 children in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, had been accused of witchcraft and thrown out of their homes. [7]
  • The abusive exploitation of the population’s fear of witchcraft by Pentecostal churches for lucrative purpose. In Nigeria several Pentecostal pastors have mixed their evangelical brand of Christianity with African beliefs in witchcraft in order to benefit from the lucrative witch finding and exorcism business which in the past was the exclusive domain of the so-called witch doctor or traditional healers. These pastors have been involved in the torturing and even killing of children accused of witchcraft. [8]
  • The accusation of old people as being witches. In Ghana, for instance, “Forced to flee their homes, women often lose their property or inheritance and, without family support, are destitute in the witch camp.” [9]

Traditional response to witchcraft

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Bitrémieux [10] and van Wing [11] show that initiations were organized among the Bakongo as a response to an increase of the fear of witchcraft. Mvog Ekang [12] hints to the same principles when he notices that the organization the So initiation among the Beti of Cameroon was a response to a n’sem (moral deviance in society). Since the youth were the most likely to be embarked in the fear of witchcraft, the authentic response of the African traditional society was spiritually reinforcing this layer of the society. Thus the traditional highest method of fighting witchcraft in African didn’t involve exorcism and brutality but spiritual education.

The church and the issue of witchcraft

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The concept of witchcraft entertained by the church has been so far cornered to the presupposition established by the first missionaries, and this has resulted in ineffective attempts to solve a problem the ecclesiastic community doesn’t grasp. [13] To summarize the situation Michael Katola says: “While the church demonized traditional experts such as medicine-men and diviners, it has offered no equivalent alternatives” [14] Due to the failure of the traditional Christian churches to find an adequate response to witchcraft, people are turning to Pentecostal churches. It should be added that contrary to the tradition initiatory schools, the response of the church to the problem of witchcraft involves essentially the use of exorcism and sometimes brutality. [15]

Modern responses to the issue of witchcraft

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Among responses that the modern society of Africa applies to the issue of witchcraft one finds the passing of legislation and education.

Legislation

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Many countries have pushed legislation outlawing any accusation for assumed crime of witchcraft. But the efficiency of this approach is very slim. A South African commission inquired into witchcraft and concluded that “legislation constituted ‘an unacceptable solution to the problem of witchcraft and witch-killings.’” [16] The legislation, a tactic used by colonial powers, only leads the people to conceal the problem to the underground level, and this move can be more detrimental.

Education

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A statement of IHEU published by the UN affirms that: “Investment in education in reason and critical thinking is |…] if belief in witchcraft is to be eliminated.” [17] According to the Institute of Animic Sciences [18], it is essential for this step of be not based on the premised adopted by the church that witchcraft is mere superstitious fear, because such approach as resulted in failure. An education which establish the difference between the concept of kindoki and the concept witchcraft and which mentally reinforce the youth, as the traditional society did, is therefore the needed answer.

Notes

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  1. ^ Matukanga, "Ambiguité de la néoculture Kongo ?", in 500 ans d’évangelisation et de rencontre des cultures en pays Kongo, Kisantu, 1996, pp. 130 & &131
  2. ^ Dumont, J., L’histoire générale de l’Afrique, Paris, 1972, pp. 231-232.
  3. ^ Buakasa Tulu tua Mpansu, l’Impensée du discours, Presses universitaires du Zaïre, Kinshasa, 1973.
  4. ^ Okeja, Uchenna (2011). "An African Context of the Belief in Witchcraft and Magic," in Rational Magic. Fisher Imprints.
  5. ^ Meinrad P. Hebga, Sorcellerie, chimère dangereuse…?, INADES Editions, Abidjan, 1979, p.16
  6. ^ Luyaluka, K. L., Vaincre la sorcellerie en Afrique, Harmattan, Paris, 2009, pp. 17-22.
  7. ^ Thousands of child 'witches' turned on to the streets to starve.
  8. ^ Stepping Stones Nigeria 2007. Supporting Victims of Witchcraft Abuse and Street Children in Nigeria: http://www.humantrafficking.org/publications/593.
  9. ^ Schnoebelen, J., Witchcraft allegations, UNHCR, research n° 169, January 2009.
  10. ^ Bittrémieux, L. la Société secrète des Bakhimba au Mayombe, Bruxelles, 1936, pp. 31-32.
  11. ^ Van Wing, Etudes Bakôngo, 2e édition, Léopodville, 1956, p. 428.
  12. ^ Ekang, N, Cameroun – religion traditionnelle, http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=329561433865&topic=15405.
  13. ^ Matota-Ndongala-Masinda, "La Kindoki, obstacle à l’évolution chez les Bakongo", in les Mouvements de résistance Knogo à l’évangélisaiton du 16e siècle à nos jours, Mayidi 1992, p. 97.
  14. ^ Witchcraft destroying the Catholic Church in Africa, experts say, http://www.catholic.org.
  15. ^ Schnoebelen, J., Witchcraft allegations, UNHCR, research n° 169, January 2009.
  16. ^ Ibidem
  17. ^ Witchcraft and witch-hunting in Africa, http://www.iheu.org. 2009.
  18. ^ Institut des Sciences Animiques, Vaincre la sorcellerie, Kinshasa, 2010

Kiatezua (talk) 12:46, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

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