Allyson Selby
Witchcraft Practices among the Azande People
of
Keywords: Azande (sing. Zande),
I. Abstract
Strong ties emerge from hundreds
of years of cultural nurturing met with domineering authority producng the system of witchcraft practiced by the Azande peoples of
II. Scope and Purpose
of the System
Located along the Central and West African Nile-Congo divide, the Azande people observe and practice a religion involving witchcraft throughout all parts of their culture (Evans-Pritchard 21). Their witchcraft practices distinguish between witches and sorcerers. They are combated through oracles and witchdoctors, and are abundant in the life of every Zande (Evans-Pritchard 21). Witchcraft in the Azande culture descends through a unilateral familial inheritance, where mothers can only hand down their powers to daughters, and fathers to sons (Parrinder 142). The innate qualities their witchcraft contains is not felt as a threat to society if the power remains latent throughout life, only questioned if powers are employed (Parrinder 143). “Azande believe that witchcraft is a substance in the bodies of witches… [described] as an oval blackish swelling or bag in which various small objects are sometimes found” (Evans-Pritchard 21-22). In Azande culture, the organic physical roots of witchcraft are held within the mind.
Witchcraft grows out of grudges bred from a close knit society, kept dormant until a seed of jealousy is born. The witches are believed to devour the souls of their victims, are blamed for unexpected happenings (for example a wife acting unresponsive to her husband or termites not swarming when expected), and use animals such as bats as vehicles (Mair 19). Witch-doctors parade a fight against the evils of witchcraft intending to distress any on-looking witches because they are always plentiful (Mair 75). As witch-doctors mostly clear the atmosphere of witchcraft (by scaring witches before the act), oracles are consulted to establish the future and uncover present events (Evans-Pritchard 258).
III. Authority Structure
A.
Sources and
Criteria of Valid Knowledge
Knowledge of the Azande witchcraft is not recorded in scriptural texts and does not come from God. The Azande culture is non-literate, but does preserve oral lore. All sources and insight are abundant throughout everyday community life. The Azande believe supposed insight from specialists is worthless because knowledge is free-flowing throughout social life (Evans-Pritchard 21). Even with respect to consulting oracles for verification of witchcraft, God and scripture are overlooked for pure custom. If a Zande did not consult the poison oracle for certain occasions, for example before marriage of a daughter or in cases of adultery, the Zande would be contradicting custom and risking a reduction in social prestige (Evans-Pritchard 261-262). The lack of scriptural focus stems from the innate characteristics of the witchcraft itself.
Inherited and viewed as part of the human body, the actions of witchcraft are considered psychic. A link between the witch and the witch’s victim is created by the “soul of witchcraft” or “mbisimo mangu” and accounts for the distance kept between the two while the witchcraft is induced (Evans-Pritchard 33). The soul of the witch is seen to leave its body to act on its victim during the night (Evans-Pritchard 33). Even though witchcraft is possessed within the witch’s mind, the knowledge and presence of witchcraft is extremely salient to all Azandes. According to Evans-Pritchard, one of the most common words in Zandeland is “mangu”, translated as witchcraft, and is heard frequently in casual conversation. He proposes that questioning any act of witchcraft is senseless, because any uncertainty can be fulfilled through watching and listening to the Azande in their everyday activities (Evans-Pritchard 21). Therefore in the Azande society witchcraft is real because everyone treats it that way.
B. Methods of Inquiry
Noticing that the Azande do not have sacred scriptures to consult, acquiring knowledge must be done in a more hands-on manner. The attainment of this information on practices and ritual stretches throughout witchcraft, witch-doctors, and oracles within the Zande culture. Experiments are performed on supposed witches after death, witch-doctors enact ritualistic ceremonies to ward off predicted witchcraft, and oracles are used as “proof” to indicate persons involved in the foreseen witchery.
The practice of witchcraft may not be obtained through any spiritual, rational, or empirical means because it is an inherit quality sometimes even left unknown to those who obtain its powers. Therefore prayer, meditation, or interpretation of any form of texts is not applicable to the Azande system of witchcraft. However, these utilize experiment through autopsy in their determination of supposed witches. Evans-Pritchard states, “A witch shows no certain external symptoms of his condition”. However Major Larken (a fellow Azande researcher) writes, “‘If a person is a witch, there is to be found in the belly a round hairy ball, which may have teeth, and which is very dreadful to look at’” (Evans- Pritchard 22-23). Also, if maggots ooze from a dead persons body before they are buried, they are presumed to have been a witch (Evans-Pritchard 23). The lack of ritualistic exercise to become a witch due to its inborn characteristics can be seen in small doses in the practices of the witch-doctor.
The séance is the main ritual executed by the witch-doctor(s) resulting in announcement of names (proclaimed witches) or precautionary warnings to witches in the audience. The séance denotes a time for posing questions to the witch-doctor(s) dressed in his (their) ceremonial dress: “a hat decked with feathers, a short skin loincloth, a belt, bracelets and anklets made of seeds, horns and gourds round his waist, and a chain of magic whistles slung across his chest” while they dance and sing to beating drums (Parrinder 186-187). The drummers edge on a drawn circle that only the doctors are able to enter. Small offerings are given in return for answered questions, which are often replied to in a far-off voice, as if coming from outside the witch-doctor’s body (Parrinder 187). The doctors tend to give names only if pressed because answers are taken strictly as correct.
Other proof of witchcraft is received from the questioning of the poison oracle which is consulted by witch-doctors to judge guilt of an accused witch or act of witchcraft; and his judgments are considered legally valid. The goal is to expose identity of the witch and unveil the extent of power by “bringing it into the light of day” since witches are believed to love darkness (Parrinder 177-178). The ordeal involves pouring a red paste into the beak of some fowl and examining the resulting spasms to indicate the answers to posed questions. (Parrinder 178). Speaking through the fowl, the simple consultation consists of two tests (“bambata sima” and the “gingo”) (Evans-Pritchard 299). Questions can be presented in positive or negative manners. For example, “If X has committed adultery poison oracle kill the fowl. If X is innocent poison oracle spare the fowl. The fowl dies.” (Evans-Pritchard 300). This is the first test or “bambata sima”. The second test, or “gingo” follows: “The poison oracle has declared X guilty of adultery by slaying the fowl. If its declaration is true let is spare the second fowl. The fowl survives.” (Evans-Pritchard 300). Multiple tests are performed if requested. In this case the verdict is valid and X is declared guilty. These proofs of witchery and validity used among the Azande are seen in various forms throughout other African tribes.
The Azande’s
idea of an oval blackish swelling filled with seeds discovered by autopsy near
the liver is comparable to the idea of witchcraft among the Gã
of Ghana. The Gã
believe witchcraft can either be inherited or may be imposed upon a witch
against her will (Parrinder 142). The idea of witchcraft as an inborn physical
quality is also shared by peoples on the west bank of the
C.
Institutions
and Professional Structure
Structure
throughout the practices of Azande witchcraft extends
among the witches and witch-doctors.
Although the descent of witchcraft is less structured than the teachings
of the witch-doctors it cannot be ignored.
Witchcraft, because innate, can exist within anyone unknowingly, and
therefore a witch may possibly operate his or her powers without
intention. Teaching in any form is found
specifically among the Azande witch-doctors.
An Azande child can approach his mentor and directly ask permission to become his student (Parrinder 185). Apprenticeship to a witch-doctor may begin early and can possibly be very short, but is always expensive. Also pupils may simply pay older witch-doctors; studying and traveling amongst many doctors until completion of their trade. Nearly all witch-doctors are men. When women practice they are usually known as diviners and would be acting as an inferior, untold of the inner secrets of witch-doctors (Parrinder 185). It is believed that only diviners who are themselves witches can detect witches (Blakely 79). The male witch-doctors work in cooperation with one another while performing séances; their interactions define as a mutual assistance involving group dances and medicinal transactions (Parrinder 185). Within the presence of multiple witch-doctors, a trainee will be given medicines for soul-strengthening, will help to cook, and will finally be paid a small coin.
The overall purpose of the novice-professional training relationship is to teach the pupil to discover and combat witches. The Azande believe the witchcraft substance found in the autopsied bodies of witches is a component of the witchcraft phlegm. The phlegm derived from medicine for witch-doctors acts as protection while the witches are born with the harmful substance. The student must swallow the phlegm of an elder witch-doctor out of a small gourd. The official rite of ceremony is a burial and revival of the novice to ensure a separation from his previous and future lives, followed by the adoption of a new professional name (Parrinder 186).
The
witch-doctor in the Zande culture commands
respect. This is thus reinforced by the
fact that any member’s name of society could be brought out during a séance,
and therefore enhancing the prestige of the witch-doctor (Evans-Pritchard
251). However, the social position of
the witch-doctor resides on the same level as ordinary citizens once he is no
longer acting as a “magician” (Evans-Pritchard 251). A witty witch-doctor remains important
because he has the power of magic to “see into the hearts of men and to reveal
their evil intentions”. (Evans-Pritchard 251).
He is known to heal the ill and create awareness of impending dangers
while constantly combating the pervasive peril of witches (Evans-Pritchard
251). The witch-doctor’s social status
is not praised due to the fact that he has no political power and any commoner
with desires of political prestige does not become a witch-doctor (Evans-Pritchard
252). Still, princes must also fear the
ever-present witches of the Azande life, and
therefore support the witch-doctors. All
Azande concur in praise of the medicine of the
witch-doctor and the fact that they are harmless. Overall, the witch-doctor must be seen as a
professional witchcraft detector (Evans-Pritchard 257).
IV. History
Worn due to time and abused authority, the Azande people are now a relaxed, welcoming tribe with some aversion from the casual environment in higher classes (Evans-Pritchard 13). Split by princes, the Zande empire became a multitude of kingdoms divided into branches of provinces. More recently they have become concentrated along roads and in larger groups. Inferiority of women characterizes familial values; however, the woman’s position in society has grown while under control of the British government (Evans-Pritchard 17). Paternal superiority, although reduced with time, is still the most prominent, forceful voice in familial relations, taking precedence over husbands.
Before
1905, the Zande culture was split among those of the
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, the Azande of French Equatorial
Africa, and those of the
Anthropologist, Professor Evans-Pritchard made three journeys to Zandeland between 1926 and 1930 amounting to about twenty months (Evans-Pritchard vii). Under the teachings of Professors Seligman and Malinowski, he found himself in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, working on behalf of the government. Major Larken, to whom he dedicates his book, Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande, was a consistent companion and fellow researcher of the Azande. Evans-Pritchard gives thanks to his two Azande servants, his two informants and his clerk (Evans-Pritchard viii). Evans-Pritchard wrote as a primary source with detailed observations of common everyday rituals devoting his highest respect to the Zande culture.
V. Representative Examples of Argumentation
The values of the Azande system of witchcraft are available to us only through the ethnographer Evans-Pritchard. He is quoted in all other sources and has pledged his full honor on the verity of his testimonies and accounts of the life of a Zande. One problem he came across when collecting his research for textual study is the translation of terms and vocabulary from Azande. He stressed importance not on specific meaning of words, but in conceptual understanding of aspects of Zande life. The second problem came with application of the magical aspects of society without ignoring other imperative parts. Evans-Pritchard has given the most effective coverage and understanding of the play of witchery in common life without over emphasizing any insignificant factors (economy, politics, etc) (Evans-Pritchard 2). He however, fails to relate in this text to other systems outside of Zandeland.
Evans-Pritchard’s account of the Zande system is trusted and compared to other systems correlating interpretations with different locations (Parrinder 133). The belief in witchcraft itself carries over to many other African peoples; however, distinctions arise between sorcerers and witches, preferences for night and day, and indulgence on human or animal flesh. The basic belief in witchcraft carries generally across the African continent. Conflict arises in the innate qualities of witchcraft the Azande assign to their system and among the distinct methods with which witches are supposed to carry out their acts. For example, the Ibo of Nigeria believe their witches fly as fireballs across the sky and infect others by creating a craving for human flesh (Parrinder 134). The Nupe of Bida believe their witches fly invisibly at night to devour their victim’s souls while fire shoots from their eyes (Parrinder 134). All information on witchcraft in other African tribes links back to Evans-Pritchard’s personal research of the Azande.
VI. Suggested
Position in Comparative Scales
A. Emphasis on Traditional Authority (1) ----
on Testimony of Experience (10) : 5
The Azande system of witchcraft practices fall equally between experience and authority due to the innate characteristics of the possession of witchcraft balanced by the cultural tradition that supports belief in witchcraft. No traditional authority overpowers the reliance on experimental evidence with the consultation and legal validity of the poison oracles.
B. Centralization of Authority (1) ---- Decentralization (individual)
(10) : 8
The loosely structured teaching style of the Azande witch-doctor practices pushes this system toward a decentralized authority. Commitment to study of a professional witch-doctor is solely by choice of student or parent. Also, achievement of professional witch-doctor status may be attained through payments and traveling with no strict or set qualifications.
C. Emphasis on spiritual realities (1)
---- on material, earthly ones (10): 6
A balance of spiritual and material realities forms within the Azande witchcraft system due to the simple belief in the inborn witchery and the oracles questioned to accuse. The witchcraft itself is viewed as corporeal substance; however, it is carried out in a spiritual, psychic manner. The balance shifts slightly toward material when examining the tests of witchcraft. Once poison is applied, the spasms of a fowl are examined to deny or warrant the accusation of witchcraft.
D. Spiritual or Moral Objectives (1) ----
Pragmatic aims (10): 8
In comparison to other systems, Azande witchcraft practices are highly aimed at prediction, healing, and personal goals rather than spiritual or moral objectives. The acts of witchcraft are viewed to stem from jealousy and are displayed in for example: unresponsiveness of a wife to her husband, sudden illness, or crop death. The witch-doctors are consulted to warn luring witches and to expose those with the innate witchcraft.
E.
Power
reserved for divine being (1) ---- Realizable in Individuals (10): 8
Ultimately, the powers of the witches, witch-doctors, and oracles stem from individual agents. God remains unrecognized as a divinity involved in any of these actions and unaccountable for the power they retain except in the fact that the Azande assign witchery a unilateral inheritance. Generally speaking, this could be tagged to a divine being; however, what is more significant is the power reserved for the individual in this system of witchcraft among the Azande.
Works Cited
I. Primary Source:
Evans-Pritchard,
E.E. Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande.
This source was extremely useful for my entire paper mainly because it contains primary source matter. It extensively covered all of the practices of witchcraft including the witches themselves, witch-doctors, and oracles. It also gives information on sorcery and magic, of which was not the focus of my paper, but helped to provide an overall feeling for the social and cultural prevalence of witchcraft in the Azande environment. It provides detailed description of all facets of Azande life focusing on their witchcraft practices.
II.
Secondary Sources:
Blakely, T.D, Van
Beek, W.E.A., and Thomson, D.L. Eds. Religion in
This source was not very helpful because it has hardly any information concerning the Azande. I used the one reference on diviners, but would not recommend it for any detailed research on the Azande practices.
Mair, Lucy. Witchcraft.
This source was occasionally helpful providing limited
information on the Azande, but allowing for
comparisons with other systems throughout
Parrinder, Geoffrey. Witchcraft: European and African.
This book was extremely helpful on covering a wide range of topics under the Azande system including inheritance of witchery, society’s views on witches, witch-doctors, and oracles. It detailed sections of the system quoting extensively from the Evans-Pritchard book, but also providing extra information and details. I strongly recommend this book for research on the Azande as a secondary resource.