Azande witchcraft

What it is

Among the Azande, or Zande, witchcraft is a magic held to cause harm to a person. The belief is that it runs in families, passing only from a parent to a child of the same sex, and that it sits in one of the body's digestive organs. A witch is said to act out of hostility toward the person harmed. Zande thought lays most illness, death and bad luck at witchcraft's door, yet not ordinary mistakes: a poor harvest, a failed hunt or a bungled craft is not witchcraft, and neither are lies or cheating. The power is described as short-range, which is one reason people live near oracles rather than close to their neighbours.

Where it comes from

Witchcraft of this kind belongs to the Azande, a people of North Central Africa. Written records start with colonial-era observers, who frequently treated the practice as a custom of a primitive people. The anthropologist E. E. Evans-Pritchard did years of fieldwork in what was then Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, and his 1937 book, Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande, became the standard account. In his reading the belief formed a system of thought, much like a world religion, and held together logically. Later writers describe the book as a turning point in how anthropologists weigh what earlier generations called primitive thought.

How it is done

Enquiries run through oracles, and three are described. The strongest is the benge poison oracle, which only men use. A chicken is given benge, a vegetable poison; whether it lives or dies after a set wait is the answer. A second chicken may confirm the first; the two results have to disagree for the first to count. The termite oracle is open to all, men, women and children: two branches, dakpa and kpoyo, go into a termite mound overnight, and whichever the insects eat gives the reply. A rubbing board of two wooden pieces is the cheapest and least trusted. Witch doctors dance near the home of a sick or dead person to trace the harmful magic.

Tools and materials

The equipment is simple. Benge is the vegetable poison fed to chickens in the poison oracle, and a second bird may be used as a check. The termite oracle needs a branch each from the dakpa and kpoyo trees and a termite mound to hold them. The rubbing board is a pair of small wooden pieces, one with a handle, light enough to be carried and used at any time or place. Witch doctors draw their ability to find witches from medicinal herbs. Witches themselves are said to need no spells and no medicines, unlike sorcerers, who work through bad medicines.

What it is for

People turn to these methods when misfortune strikes: sickness, a death, or a quarrel such as an adultery case. The aim is to learn who is responsible and, once a name is given, to take revenge for the victim and punish the offender. Relatives of a sufferer may prepare a defence or a counter-attack, but only after an oracle has been consulted. Oracles also forecast coming disasters, and in earlier times Zande chiefs asked them about military plans. In John Ryle's film Witchcraft Among the Azande, a husband asked why his wife was ill; the oracle named the second wife and ruled that divorce was pointless, ordering her to spit water sincerely to purify herself and restore the first wife's health.

Who does it

Witches are ordinary members of the community, not a separate profession: the power is believed to be inherited, and an accusation can fall on anyone. Oracles have their own rules. The benge oracle is worked by men alone, and its verdicts are accepted without argument. The termite oracle can be used by anyone, women and children included. Witch doctors are specialists who train at length; several gather to dance near the home of a sick or dead person, watched by a crowd, and their skill in tracking witches is credited to medicinal herbs.

Peoples and places

The Azande, also called Zande, live in North Central Africa. Communities are found in the Central African Republic, South Sudan and the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The belief runs through Zande society, and the accounts describe one shared picture rather than regional variants. Chiefs once used oracles for military decisions, which shows the standing of these methods in Zande political life. The best-known fieldwork was carried out in what was then Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, and a later ethnographic film records consultations in a village.

What people believe

Behind the practice sits a set of ideas. A witch is held to send a psychic force into a sleeping victim and steal the soul, which a group of witches then eats together; death comes slowly, after several attacks. Nature can be turned to the same purpose, by sending a buffalo at a person or bringing a building down on someone. The granary case is often cited: termites had eaten the posts, and people sit in such shade to escape the heat, but the fall coming exactly as one person sat there is credited to witchcraft. Witches use no spells or medicines; sorcerers, who work through bad medicines, are counted apart.

When it is done

There is no fixed season or festival for this work. Consultations happen as trouble arrives: an illness, a death, a suspected affair, a dispute that needs settling. The termite oracle gives its answer after a night, so the branches are set in the mound in the evening and read the next day. The poison test with chickens unfolds over a set span while the bird lives or dies. In pre-European days the same methods were used before decisions about war.

How scholars and sceptics see it

Colonial writers usually set the practice down as the custom of a primitive people. E. E. Evans-Pritchard took a different line, holding that a widespread belief of this kind forms a system of ideas comparable to a world religion; he acknowledged the work of Claude Lévi-Strauss. His 1937 book has been reviewed many times and is called a turning point in how primitive thought was assessed. Unlike earlier authors on magic, he spent years in the field. John Ryle's ethnographic film Witchcraft Among the Azande records consultations in a village.

Compare and confuse

Zande witches are told apart from sorcerers, who are said to cause illness by means of harmful medicines, while witches are held to work through physical acts instead. The same subject appears in English as Zande witchcraft or the witchcraft of the Azande. The rubbing-board oracle has been likened in one account to a Ouija board, a small device consulted by hand.

Questions people ask about Azande witchcraft

Good reading and sources

• Azande witchcraft on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data