Witchcraft in Africa
BY J. H. DRIBERG v-iN the days of Olum, our great ancestor, the first I. witch was born, and she was a snake and a bitch and a leopard and a woman of great guile. Many were the men who died through her, for she could kill with a breath of her. nostrils and her thoughts were as the claws of a leopard,- and all men feared her. Then said Olum, ' She shall be killed in this way,' and he showed our fathers the manner of her killing, which is the way that we kilt witches to this day." So runs the law of witchcraft among the Lango, as it is taught to the initiates into manhood. .
The recent conviction of sixty Akamba in Kenya has focussed attention on the prevalence of witchcraft and on the difficulty of dealing with it by normal methods of law. The sixty Akamba were sentenced to death for what British law calls the murder, but what they would call the legal execution, of a witch : the sentence was confirmed on legal grounds by the Appeal Court, but was commuted by the Governor exercising his prerogative of mercy.
The procedure is all very ponderous and solemn : the mills of the law grind slowly, and they grind so exceeding small that the major issues often elude the law's operation, or are only affected by a by-product of its activity. What in this case, is the deduction which the Akamba will be apt to draw ? They will say that British law after a moment of insane hesitation has agreed with them that witches should be executed, though the punishment still to be inflicted on the executioners argues a diversity of opinion concerning the method employed ; but ultimately the law agrees that witchcraft is a bad thing and should be suppressed.
This is,- perhaps, one of the most difficult questions with which European administration is faced in Africa. The Africans all believe in witchcraft : they are also convinced that it is a damnable thing—not confusing it, as we are apt to do, with magic and divination and prophecy, which are good things, beneficial both to society and to the individual ; and believing it to be a damnable thing, they have always kept wizards and witches from becoming too numerous by devising ex- ceedingly unpleasant deaths for them, once they have spotted the malefactors. It is not very difficult to find them out, either, as the wizard is not really a charlatan ; he feels the power which is ascribed to him and often acts deliberately in putting the alleged power into operation and admits to his crimes. The writer once met a party of young men dragging an old woman along by a rope, and asked what-it was all about. " We are taking her to the. Council," they replied ; " she is a witch and has caused So-and-so's cow to dry up." " Of course," readily admitted the woman, though she knew her probable fate. " Of course I bewitched the cow. I also cursed his sister and killed her with small-pox, because . . oh, because I had to do so."
What is British justice to do about it ? Does witchcraft exist ? We say not—though less than two years ago a Somerset peasant was charged in Court with sticking pins into a woman, and his defence- was that she was a witch and-had east a spell on his cattle. However, these survivals apart, we deny the existence of witchcraft : the African believes in it intensely. For him therefore it does
exist, for the omnipotence of thought is sufficient justifica- tion of the Idealist position. We have abrogated his right, to commit homicide (or, alternatively, to inflict the legal penalty of .execution) on witches.and wizards ; their 'lumbers; have. therefore increased out of all proportion thanks.to our intervention,, since it is obviously easier and
safer to stone, club or burn a wizard after a public trial than it is to poison him secretly without any trial at The roll of witches is therefore much longer now despite an occasional poisoning here and there, and the balance of native institutions has been thrown sadly out of gear as a result.
Nevertheless, governments which have repeatedly affirmed their disbelief in witchcraft— a disbelief which affords a logical basis for the protection of wizards from the full penalty of native law-- have not been consistent. They have introduced Witchcraft Ordinances into many of the African Protectorates, under which witches and
wizards (or reputed witches and wizards, reputation for sorcery being a sufficient presumption in this case of the
commission of an act, illegal even if logically and rationally non-existent) may be sentenced to terms of imprisonment varying from one month to seven years.
This is not very satisfactory for two reasons. - It is one thing for an African to stand up and give evidence before his peers that Fulani bin Fulani is a wizard, when he knows that the wizard will be put beyond any possi- bility of retaliation and will be banned, after death, by the local formula of bell, book and candle. But it is a far more serious matter for him to stand up and give evidence that Fulani is a wizard, if he knows that after a period of seclusion Fulani will be at liberty again to get his own back by his nefarious and incluctible methods. The writer has even known policemen refuse to lay hands on a wizard in order to take him into custody, so fearful are they of the after-effects. Was there not a Corporal of Police whose hand withered after he had arrested a notable witch ? Erysipelas, it is true —but that was only the stupid English explanation : everyone knew the real cause. However, the wizard will often solve that difficulty. himself—which introduces its to the second drawback of this method of dealing with the fraternity. He does
not mind going to prison, because he knows that he deserves death, but still antic because, when he conies out
again, he comes out with a reputation enormously en- hanced. " Behold," he says, while his hearers shudder : " behold in me indeed the father of all wizards : for does not even the Government fear me 1 Does it not. lock me up ? They know how powerful my spells tire." Imprisonment confers on him a distinct ea el let, a warrant of mastery in his art : the brand of felony is his highest: testimonial.
There arc only two ways about it. Either there is no such thing as witchcraft : it is a popular delusion (even if the deluded die of it): or it is a fact to be taken into scientific account. What the 111W cannot do is to deny its existence at the same time as it punishes the prac- titioners. That way lies confusion and the exaltation of witchcraft. If it is a fact, capable of proof, if the wizard can really be transmuted to a leopard; if he can really kill by a spell or blast the crops and dry imp the cows, then science must revise its postulates. Meanwhile it looks as if the junction of the old and the new orders leaves our newer civilization momentarily in a cleft stick. nimbi, taraka haina baraka is a wise saying of time Swahili : there is no blessing on snaking a fuss. Witchcraft is the child of ignorance, and will only disappear with growing know- ledge. " Chief," said an African once to the writer, " it is foolish to save the life of that wizard by putting him in prisoM In a few months he will be out, and who knows ? but it is likely that he will die suddenly neverthe- less "—which he did, and no one knew the manner of his death.
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