Illness and misfortune: practices that mark them
What people do when someone falls ill or luck turns: consult, cleanse, ward.
Illness and misfortune are the moments when people most often turn to magic. When someone falls ill, a business fails, a child is lost or luck turns, families ask why, and consult a healer, diviner, priest or mediums. Examples include the Mexican limpia, the African consultation of a diviner, the Islamic ruqyah, the Hindu or Buddhist temple rites, the Korean gut and the Catholic blessing of the sick. This page covers the pattern and its risks. It is not medical advice, and illness needs real medical care.
Why and who
Many traditions ask two questions: how did this happen, and why to me? A medical account answers the first. Traditional systems often address the second, linking misfortune to relationships, envy, taboo or spirits. A consultation then names a cause and a remedy, which may involve cleansing, offerings, protective objects or a ceremony. A diviner may be consulted, a healer called, a priest asked to pray or a shrine visited, and in many households several of these happen at once.
Help and hope
Rites of crisis bring people together, give a role to the family and offer hope when treatment is limited. Researchers have documented comfort and reduced distress after ritual. Many people use medicine and ritual together, and many healers support that. The pattern becomes dangerous only when ritual displaces treatment. Many practitioners also give practical advice about rest, diet and family conflict, and some of this advice is sound and some is not.
Blame and exploitation
Crisis also creates a market for fear. Fraudulent healers tell clients they are cursed and sell expensive cleansing. Accusations of witchcraft often follow illness, with violence against the accused. Exorcism of people with mental illness has caused injuries and deaths, including documented cases in churches in several countries. In some societies, a bad event is the signal for a ritual of the whole community, with confession, reconciliation and shared offerings.
Care and context
Public health programmes now involve community healers in work on issues such as HIV, maternal health and mental health, since many people consult them first. Scholars of medical anthropology call this a plural system of care. The sensible approach is to seek qualified medical help promptly and treat other support as company. Public health bodies urge anyone with a serious illness or injury to seek a clinician at once, and to treat traditional help as complementary to that care and never as a replacement for it.
Illness and misfortune on EveryJaadu
The entries written up so far, best known first.
馃嚳馃嚘 South Africa and 4 moreWitch doctor
A traditional healer who identifies supernatural causes of illness and performs rituals to restore balance.Tradition 路 Healing 路 Protection Living
馃嚦馃嚞 Nigeria and 4 moreJuju
A West African spiritual belief system involving charms and ritualsTradition 路 Healing 路 Luck and prosperity Living
馃嚜馃嚬 Ethiopia and 4 moreBuda釅♂嫵
An Ethiopian and Eritrean belief in the evil eye and hyena transformationBelief 路 Cursing and harm 路 Protection Living
馃嚥馃嚞 MadagascarSikidy
An algebraic geomancy practiced by Malagasy peoples using seeds to read fate and prescribe remediesOracle 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Protection Living
馃嚦馃嚞 Nigeria and 1 moreBoriB貌貌r铆铆
A traditional Hausa spirit possession system and healing practice in West AfricaTradition 路 Healing 路 Luck and prosperity Living
馃嚳馃嚘 South Africa and 5 moreTraditional healers of Southern Africa
Practitioners who blend herbal medicine with ancestral divination in Southern AfricaTradition 路 Healing 路 Protection Living
馃嚦馃嚞 Nigeria and 5 moreIf谩
A Yoruba divination system using palm nuts to access spiritual guidanceTradition 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
馃嚦馃嚞 Nigeria and 2 moreOpon If谩峄宲峄嵦乶 If谩
A carved wooden tray used by Yoruba diviners to read signs and consult spirits.Charm 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
馃嚚馃嚛 Democratic Republic of the CongoKindoki
A belief in spirit possession that leads to abuse and abandonment in the Congo regionBelief 路 Cursing and harm Living
馃嚫馃嚫 South Sudan and 1 moreDinka religion
The traditional animist and creator-based faith of the Dinka people of South SudanTradition 路 Protection 路 Healing Living
馃嚚馃嚞 Republic of the CongoNkisi
Spirit containers and power figures from the Congo Basin used for justice and healingCharm 路 Protection 路 Healing Living
馃嚚馃嚝 Central African Republic and 5 moreWitchcraft in Africa
Beliefs about supernatural harm and the social responses to accusations across the continentBelief 路 Cursing and harm 路 Protection Living
馃嚚馃嚛 Democratic Republic of the Congo and 4 moreNganga
A spiritual healer and ritual specialist in Kongo religion and its diaspora traditionsTradition 路 Healing 路 Seeing and foretelling Living
馃嚳馃嚘 South Africa and 5 moreMurder for body parts
The killing of people to harvest body parts for traditional medicine or the illegal organ trade.Belief 路 Cursing and harm 路 Power and authority Living
馃嚜馃嚞 Egypt and 5 moreZ膩r夭丕乇
A spirit possession tradition and healing ritual in the Horn of Africa and Middle EastTradition 路 Healing 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
馃嚫馃嚫 South Sudan and 1 moreAzande witchcraft
A Zande belief that certain people harm others by an inherited power, judged by oraclesBelief 路 Cursing and harm 路 Seeing and foretelling Living
馃嚫馃嚛 SudanBenge
A divination method among the Azande using a poisoned chicken to identify witches.Oracle 路 Cursing and harm Fading
馃嚜馃嚞 Egypt and 5 moreAfrican divination
Methods used across the continent to understand present realities and predict future events.Oracle 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Healing Living
馃嚥馃嚳 Mozambique and 1 moreNdau witchcraft and sorcery
A system of spirit belief and traditional healing among the Ndau people of Mozambique and ZimbabweTradition 路 Healing 路 Protection Living
馃嚥馃嚤 Mali and 1 moreSandobele
A Senufo woman diviner who mediates between the village and bush spirits.Being 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Protection Living
馃嚳馃嚘 South Africa and 1 moreSacred caves of the Basotho
Cave networks in South Africa and Lesotho used by the Basotho for ancestral rituals and healingTradition 路 Healing 路 Protection Living
馃嚦馃嚞 Nigeria and 5 moreWitchcraft accusations against children in Africa
Violent persecution of children blamed for misfortune across Sub-Saharan Africa and beyondBelief 路 Cursing and harm Living
馃嚞馃嚟 Ghana and 4 moreSpirit children
A Ghanaian belief that disabled children are harmful spirits requiring ritual treatment or deathBelief 路 Cursing and harm Fading
馃嚞馃嚘 Gabon and 2 moreMbulu Ngulu
Wood and metal figures guarding ancestor relics in GabonCharm 路 Protection 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
馃嚭馃嚞 UgandaKilling of disabled children in Uganda
The ritual murder of disabled children in parts of Uganda for body parts and perceived benefitsRite 路 Cursing and harm 路 Power and authority Historical
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Nkisi: MiddleOfAfrica, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- European witchcraft: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
- If谩: Toluaye, Public domain, source
- Opon If谩: Unknown author, CC BY 3.0, source
- Buda: Aberdeen Bestiary, Public domain, source
- Bori: Tremearne, A. J. N. (Arthur John Newman), 1877-1915, Public domain, source
- Sacred caves of the Basotho: JMK, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Z膩r: Emad Nemati, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- African divination: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
- Azande witchcraft: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
- Witch doctor: Lucjan W臋drychowski, Public domain, source
- Juju: ILN Staff, after special artist correspondent Mr Harries F.R.G.S., Public domain, source
- Mbulu Ngulu: Sailko, CC BY 3.0, source
- Sikidy: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Traditional healers of Southern Africa: Wizzy, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Ndau witchcraft and sorcery: Mycelium101, CC BY-SA 3.0, source