There are few, if any, African societies which do not believe in witchcraft of one type or another. These types can be classified and their areas of distribution marked out. Thus we have the ‘evil eye’ type, the likundu type, and the kindoki type, and doubtless other variations could be distinguished. But though some notion which we can describe as a belief in witchcraft is found in maybe every African society it is far from playing a uniform part in each. In many communities, including the one from which the information used in this paper was gathered, witchcraft is a function of a wide range of social behaviour, while in others it has little ideological importance. In this paper my conclusions about the social relations of the witchcraft concept are drawn from twenty months experience of the Azande nation of the Nile-Uelle divide, where witchcraft is a ubiquitous notion. Whether what is true of this people is true of many other African communities I cannot say.

My investigations into witchcraft among the Nupe were carried out under extremely adverse conditions. In February 1932 Bida, the capital of Nupe Emirate, had seen an outbreak of witchcraft which threw the whole country into a state of gravest unrest. Three women, an alleged witch with her daughter and granddaughter, were stoned to death by the enraged people of Bida when they tried to obtain justice against their accusers. The house of one of the town notables who was involved in the case was set fire to. The town was in turmoil, and the ensuing trial before the European authorities, complicated as it was by political issues and violent party feuds, was carried out under great difficulties. It lasted three months, and ended with two death sentences and two sentences of long-term imprisonment. When I arrived in Nupe country in January 1934, these happenings were still alive in every one's memory.

All over present-day Africa witch-finders seem to appear, as it were from nowhere, flourish for a time, and then disappear. Either it is some individual of unusual personality in his community who announces a magic remedy for human sufferings, and so obtains a following, or else it is a more or less organized band of wonderworkers which crosses the border from some neighbouring territory with all the kudos attached to the foreign and the strange. Among these latter the celebrated Bamucapi, who recently swept from Nyasaland into Northern Rhodesia and later reached Southern Rhodesia and the Congo, are an interesting example. The actual origin of this movement is difficult to discover, but I watched it at its height in the Bemba country of N.E. Rhodesia in the summer of 1934, and I want in this article to describe very shortly the methods of these witch-finders, and to try to account for their success.

Les notes qui suivent résument des observations faites dans les territoires du Soudan occidental, notamment en Haute Volta, au Soudan Français, en Haute Côte d'Ivoire, en Guinée et enfin au Sénégal depuis plusieurs années. Elles portent exclusivement sur la personne et les activités nocives, réelles ou supposées, de certains individus, auxquels on attribue les caractéristiques suivantes. Ce sont des hommes ou des femmes, doués de facultés sumaturelles qui leur permettent de se métamorphoser, de voler dans les airs, de pénétrer dans les profondeurs de la terre, enfin et surtout, de faire périr les autres hommes en dévorant leurs organes internes, de préférence le cœur et le foie. Ces êtres malfaisants sont généralement qualifiés de sorciers dans les langues européennes (witch; Hexe), sans que l'on prenne soin de les distinguer des magiciens dont ils empruntent parfois les procédés. Il conviendrait, selon nous, de les appeler ‘sorciers mangeurs d'hommes’, en raison de l'irrésistible impulsion qui les oblige, suivant les croyances indigènes, à commettre des actes d'une anthropophagie particulière.

If we are to understand the firm belief in witchcraft we must first investigate the African's conception of ‘medicine’. In many Bantu languages the word for ‘medicine’ is identical with, or similar to, the word for ‘tree’, e.g. Zulu umuthi, Herero omuti, Lamba umuti, mean both ‘tree’ and ‘medicine’ ; in Ila musamo (plural misamo) is ‘medicine’ and isamo is ‘tree’. This points, I imagine, to the fact that most medicines are of vegetal origin.

When the early colonial legislators were first called upon to deal with the problem of witchcraft in Africa, the official view was the sceptical English one, but this had in practice to recognize the native's general and whole-hearted belief in the supernatural element in magical claims. The law therefore summarily dismissed the practitioner's pretentions to occult powers, but at the same time it was forced to take account of the numerous occasions on which magic furnished the powerful motive for some course of action. Certain anomalies therefore occur in the various ordinances, and some curious discrepancies are to be found in the records of cases tried under them.

The object of this paper is to provide an answer to two questions:

(i) Is the colonial legislation on witchcraft (with special reference to Kenya Colony) satisfactory? and

(ii) If any alteration is desirable, what form should this take, and why?

The Kenya Colony Witchcraft Ordinance No. 23/1925 imposes the penalty of imprisonment for periods up to 10 years for various offences and fines up to 1,000 s. with or without imprisonment (Secs. 2-8). Deportation (Sec.9) can be ordered by a District Commissioner. Under Section 11 the liability to the death penalty where murder has been committed by witchcraft is unimpaired.

As forms of government have been autocratically imposed by us on the Africans, so have our laws. Doubtless much can be said to justify both impositions, but as regards our penal legislation in witchcraft matters it is arguable that it is ethically unsatisfactory, while politically it is demonstrably harmful. Devout modern Christians and agnostic scientists, who rarely see eye to eye, agree in considering the belief in witchcraft a baseless superstition, while anthropologists point out that Africans holding this belief have arrived at a stage common to all primitive races, and that with them, as with others, it is a phase that will pass. All of which seems to me singularly irrelevant, for what we are concerned with is Africa to-day and in the immediate future, and our law, representing the views of the governing race, fails in the dual test of good legislation, that it should be in the interests of and by the consent of the governed. The first is debatable, the second can be emphatically denied.

Làjɔɔ̀k myεεló dìe wóòr mà daánó ònëë̀nö̀(1). Ɛεn dooŋ cΐkó daakonε(2)

The Lajɔɔk dances by night when people sleep. He then informs his

ní: ‘eènòbaa, aan abècíʈó myεεl—daánô’. Dòoŋ daákónε dòoŋ

wife ‘look here, I am going to dance—to dance at man‘. His wife now

kwányó túʈù, dòoŋ ryébó dók túʈù piiny; dòoŋ kwányó tɔ̀bì ɔɔ̀nyɔ̀ ΐ

takes a filter-pot(3), then turns it upside down; then she takes leaven corn, and puts it

àgwaʈa megï, mà gïïn tiío gí tíìc dìe wóòr, gïïn ki cwáàrὲ gïïn aryεlóεló.

in their bowl with which they work at night, she and her husband, these two.

In asking a Kipsigis the question ‘What is a witch?’ there is a difficulty, for firstly, what does the questioner exactly mean by the word ‘witch’? How much does he include under the term ‘witchcraft’? Again, what word is one to use to translate ‘witch’ or ‘witchcraft’? There is a great variety of phenomena which may be included under this term. They are all distinct in the Kipsigis mind and are denoted by different words. There is no word which includes them, all comparable to the English word ‘witchcraft’.

Introduction. Many Kikuyu, as well as the people of other tribes, trouble themselves greatly with the fear of witchcraft. They do not often bother to inquire the source of the stuff and what it is made of. They simply believe that there is such a thing and that a person may die as a result of it, and this fills the hearts of every one with the fear of death by witchcraft. People die from various diseases, and it is frequently supposed that the person has been bewitched, but often this is not so. Whenever a person is taken ill and dies suddenly, it is said that he has been bewitched.

When a person is ill he will go to the diviner and ask him: ‘What has made me ill?’ The diviner takes his cup, rubs it on a stone, and when it is stopped in a certain place he will say: ‘Indeed the sorcerers have bewitched you, go to the doctor and ask him for medicine.’ When the doctor has prepared the medicines, he tells the man: ‘I have settled the matter, you will no longer be ill, nobody is able to bewitch either you or your wife or your children.’

The Moloi may either be a man or a woman. It is said most Baloi are women. Because the men generally have more than one wife, it happens that those wives who are neglected by their husbands obtain magic medicine in order to kill the husband, so that the more-favoured wives lose him too. Or they procure love-philtres from witch-doctors, so that he prefers them to the other wives. And then it often occurs that they unwittingly give him something that is fatal to him. Children obtain the power of magic from their parents. This magic power is given to them in helpless babyhood by grafting magic medicine in their posterior cavity. Such a person has the power of making himself invisible, especially at night.

Ein Mann, der andere behext, ist ein igqwir'a; wenn eine Frau hext, ist sie eine igqwir'akazi. Hexerei heisst ubugqwir'a. Ein Zauberer darf nicht verwechselt werden mit einem ‘Medium’. Ein Zauberer unterscheidet sich erstens dadurch, dass er keine besondere Bekleidung trägt wie ein Medium. Zweitens wünscht er auch nicht, gekannt zu sein, oder dass man weiss, dass er Zaubermittel besitzt. Er verheimlicht seine Fähigkeit. Das tut er solange, bis ein Medium es offenbart, das ihn erkannt hat.

Pour devenir puissant. Quand un homme veut devenir riche et puissant (ekoka: d'okukokela, attirer tout à soi), il cherche quelqu'un pour lui donner des forces, parmi ceux qui peuvent faire mourir (ou rendre malheureux) les vivants. ‘Puissant (ekoka), tu auras tout ce que tu désires, personnene passera à côté de toi sans te saluer, à toi le bétail, les chèvres, inutile de vouloir les compter, tu as tant de céréales, quatre ou cinq femmes, du miel à go-go.’ Et tu te dis: ‘J'ai de tout en abondance, tant de cauries, de bracelets de fer, de colliers de perles, d'étoffes et de couvertures, que me manque-t-il? Je chercherai un remède pour devenir gros (euti) et le remède qui me donne de l'appétit pour que ma chair soit grasse.

Les sorciers, c.-à-d. des hommes accoutumés au mal appelé sorcellerie, s'adonnent à cette chose mauvaise. Ce sont des hommes comme nous; certains ne sont qu'une famille avec nous. Certains ont femmes et enfants comme nous.

On reconnaît le sorcier à ses yeux perçants. Il ne vous regarde que fixement. Il est très menteur et n'avoue pas même sa faute quand on l'a vu. Il est extrêmement insensible: même quand sa mère meurt, il n'en souffre aucune douleur. Dans la misère et dans la mort le sorcier ne pense qu'aux choses de sa sorcellerie. Les sorciers peuvent être hommes ou femmes. Mais une sorcière est plus puissante en sorcellerie qu'un sorcier. Les sorciers ensorcellent de beaucoup de manières: souvent avec des drogues. Ceux qui ont des drogues en ont des ensorcelantes et des désensorcelantes. Par les ensorcelantes ils tuent les hommes; par les désensorcelantes ils les désensorcellent.

1. Kindoki kidi katika mutu'ngana kuandi, vayi mutu bene nyo wuidi bundoki, buna nyandi weta-loka batu mu kubasia minsongo muingi batu bafua.

Kidi epi ti: woso kuandi untangununu mu zina di kindoki, buna mutu bene wuidi ayi mak'undu mu k'ati vumu kiandi, kuna tsi bifula.

1. Les véritables sorciers chez nous sont ceux qui ont la petite bête malfaisante dans le ventre. Elle peut s'introduire d'elle-même. Le plus souvent elle est transmise par un détenteur plus ancien de cette bête, qui a en vue de rendre un autre malheureux comme lui. Si votre père ou votre mère possède cette bête dans son ventre, vous, leur enfant, vous l'aurez également. Cette bête malfaisante s'appelle Li.

Ce qui suit est rédigé d'après des notes écrites par des Noirs, à diverses époques, depuis vingt ans j usque tout récemment, au gré des événements plutôt qu'à l'occasion d'une question posée par le Blanc.

Pour répondre à la question: qu'est-ce que des sorciers? il faut commencer par dire ce qu'ils ne sont pas. La sorcellerie n'est pas une institution; elle n'est ni une fonction, ni un métier; elle n'a rien à voir avec la divination, bien qu'on ait recours au devin (la divination étant un métier), pour découvrir l'homme ou la femme qui jette le mauvais sort en tel cas précis; elle n'a, non plus, rien à voir avec la fabrication de remèdes—bupaki bua manga—laquelle est du ressort du métier de mpaka manga, fabricant de remèdes.

Jegliches Unglück, Krankheit und fast jeden Todesfall führt der kameruner Heide auf Hexerei zurück; Ahnenkult und Machtglaube, Geheimbundwesen und mythische Vorstellungen treten heute in den Hintergrund; ‘aber’, so schreibt mir ein schwarzer Beamter aus französisch Kamerun, ‘der Hexenglaube geht überall ganz heimlich und gleichzeitig mit der Evangeliumspredigt um in jeder Gegend des Landes. Sein Wurzelstock ist heute in den Fremdensiedlungen gepflanzt; von dorther lebt er immer wieder neu auf, denn die Neulinge bringen den alten Aberglauben ihrer Heimat herein und verhindern, dass wahrer Gottesglaube in den Menschenherzen erspriesst.’