Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande

270 Pages·2017·22.78 MB·English

Witchcraft, Oracles,
and Magic among
the Azande
E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD
ABRIDGED WITH AN INTRODUCTION
Eva Gillies
BY
CLARENDON PRESS · OXFORD
1976
OxfordUniversity Press, Ely House, London W. 1
CLASOOW NEWYORK TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON
CAPETOWN lilADAN NAIROBI DAR ESSALAAM LUSAKA ADDISABABA
DELHI BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI lAHORE DACCA
KUALALUMPUR SINGAPOIU. HONG KONe TOKYO
ISBN 0 19 874029 8
© Oxford University Press1976
Allrightsreserved. Nopartofthispublication11Ulybereproduced,
storedinaretrievalsys~, OTtransmitted, inanyformorbyanymeans,
electronic, mechanical,photocopying, recordingorotherwise, without
thepriorpermissionofOxfordUniversity Press
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Contents
INTRODUCTION vii
REFERENC·ES .xxxi
I. WITCHCRAFT IS AN ORGANIC AN-D
HEREDITARY PHENOMENON
II. THE NOTION OF WITCHCRAFT EXPLAINS
UNFORTUNATE EVENTS 18
III. SUFFERERS FROM MISFORTUNE"SEEK FOR
WITCHES AMONG TH"EIR ENEMIES 33
IV. ARE WITCHES CONSCIOUS AGENTS? 56
v. WITCH-DOCTORS 65
VI. TRAINING OF A NOVICE IN THE ART OF
A WITCH·DOCTOR go
VII. THE PLACE OF WITCH-DOCTORS IN
ZANDE SOCIETY
II I
VIII. THE POISON ORACLE IN DAILY LIFE 120
IX. PR'OBLEMS ARISING FROM CONSULTATION
·OF THE POISON ORACLE 146
x. OTHER ZANDE ORA"CLES 164
.XI. MAGIC AND MEDICINES 176
XII. AN ASSOCIATION FOR THE
PRACTICE OF MAGIC 2°5
XIII. WITCHCRAFT, ORACLES, AND MAGIC,
IN THE SITUATION OF DEATH 221
APPENDIX I. A LIST OF TERMS EMPLOYED IN
DESCRIBING ZANDE CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS 226
APPENDIX II. WlTCHCRAFT AND DREAMS 23°
VI Contents
APPENDIX III. OTHER EVIL AGENTS
ASSOCIATED WITH WITCHCRAFT
APPENDIX IV. SOME REMINISCENCES AND
REFLECTIONS ON. FIELDWORK
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
INDEX
Introduction
IN presenting an abridged version of Witchcraft, Oracles, and
MagicamongtheAzande, nearlyforty years afterits first publica
tion, ODe cannot help feeling a trifle uncomfortable about the
use of the ethnographic present. After all, the fieldwork this
book refers to was done in the late I920S: what is described
hereisa worldlongvanished. It will, I hope, presently appear
thatitisaworldstillfreshandrelevanttothemodernanthropo
logist,aswell as to the philosopher and the historian ofideas.
Butfor the Azande themselves, living as they do in turbulent
Central Africa, in the watershed zone between the Nile and
the Congo, time can hardly be said to have stood still mean
while (nor, as we shallsee, was it doingso at the period when
Evans-Pritchard lived among them).
The traditional Zande homeland today lies across the
frontiers ofthree modem African states: the Republic of the
Sudan, Zaire, and the Republique Centrafricaine. In Evans
Pritchard'sday, all these territories were under colonial domi
nance: the Sudan was Anglo-Egyptian, Zaire was the Belgian
Congo, and the Republique Centrafricaineformed partofthe
vast expanse of French Equatorial Africa. Evans-Pritchard,
engaged in ethnographic survey work for the Government of
the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, perforceconcentrated his research
ontheSudaneseAzande,thoughhe did, on hisfirst two expedi
tions, also visit the Belgiari Congo. Except where otherwise
indicated, references to colonial Government, European influ
ence, etc., therefore allude to the Government of the Anglo
EgyptianSudananditsimpactupontraditionalZandecustom.
Evans-Pritchard found the Sudanese Azande living in
sparselywoodedsavannahcountry-avast plaincrossed by in
numerable small tree-fringed streams. The.structure of the
countrysidewas,indeed,revealedonly duringthe dryseason
April toNovember-whenthebushvegetation was fired; dur
ingtherainsthewholeland wascovered with high, dense grass,
sothatin walkingit wasdifficultto leave the man-made paths.

CHAPTER I
Witchcraft is an Organic and
Hereditary Phenomenon
AZANDE believe that some people are witches and can injure
theminvirtueofaninherentquality. A witch performsno rite,
utters no spell, and possessesno medicines. Anactofwitchcraft
isa psychic act. They believe also that sorcerers may do them
ill by performing magic rites with bad medicines. Azande dis
tinguish clearly between witches and sorcerers. Against both
they employ diviners, oracles, and medicines. The relations
between these beliefs and rites are the subject ofthis book.
Idescribewitchcraftfirst becauseit isan indispensable back
ground to theother beliefs. When Azandeconsult oracles they
consult them mainly about witches. When they employ
diviners it isfor the same purpose. Their leechcraft and closed
associations are directed against the same foe.
I had no difficulty in discovering what Azande think about
witchcraft, nor in observing what they do to combat it. These
ideasand actionsareonthesurface oftheir life and are access
.ible to anyone who lives for a few weeks in" their homesteads.
Every Zande is an authority on witchcraft. There is no need
toconsultspecialists.Thereisnotevenneed to questionAzande
about it, for information flows freely from recurrent situations
intheirsocial life, and onehasonly to watch and listen. Mangu,
witchcraft, was one of the first words I heard in Zandeland,
and I heard it uttered day by day throughout the months.
Azande believe that witchcraft is a substance in the bodies
of witches, a belief which is found among many peoples in
Centraland West Africa. Zandeland is the north-eastern limit
ofitsdistribution. Itisdifficult to say with what organ Azande
associate witchcraft. I have never seen human witchcraft-sub
stance,butit has beendescribed to measanoval blackishswel
lingor bagin whichvarioussmallobjectsaresometimesfound.
2 Witchcraft
When Azande describe its shape they often point to the elbow
oftheirbentarm,andwhentheydescribeitslocation they point
to just beneath the xiphoid cartilage which is said to 'cover
witchcraft-substance'. They say:
It is attached to the edge ofthe liver. When people cut open the
belly they have only to pierce it and witchcraft-substance bursts
through with a pop.
I have heard people say that it is of a reddish colour and
contains seeds ofpumpkins and sesame and other food-plants
whichhave beendevoured by a witch'in the cultivations ofhis
neighbours. Azande know the position ofwitchcraft-substance
because in the past it was sometimes extracted by autopsy. I
believe it to be the small intestine in certain digestive periods.
Thisorganissuggested by Zande descriptions ofautopsies and
wasthatshown to me as containingwitchcraft-substancein the
belly ofone ofmy goats.
Awitchshows no certainexternalsymptomsofhis condition
though people say: 'One knows a witch by his red eyes.'
II
Witchcraft is not only a physical trait but is also inherited. It
is transmitted by unilinear descent from parent to child. The
sons ofa male witch are all witches but his daughters are.not,
while the daughters ofa female witch are all witches but her
sons are not. Biological transmission of witchcraft from one
parent to all children of the same sex is complementary to
Zande opinions about procreation and to their eschatological
beliefs. Conceptionisthoughttobedueto a unisonofpsychical
properties in man and woman. When the soul of the man is
stronger a boy will be born; when the soul of the woman is
strongeragirlwill be born. Thus a child partakesofthepsychi
calqualitiesofboth parents, though a girlisthought to partake
moreofthesoulofhermotheranda boyofthesoul ofhisfather.
Neverthelessin certainrespects a child takes after one or other
parentaccordingto itssex, namely, in theinheritanceofsexual
characters, ofa body-soul, and ofwitchcraft-substance. There
is a vague belief, hardly precise enough to be described as a
doctrine, thatman possessestwo souls, a body-souland aspirit
soul. At death the body-soul becomes a totem ani~al of the
Witchcraft 3
clan whileitsfellow soul becomes a ghost and leads a shadowy
existence at the heads ofstreams. Many people say that the
body-soul ofa man becomes the totem animal of his father's
clanwhilethebody-soulofa woman becomesthetotemanimal
of her mother's clan.
At first sight it seems strange to find a mode ofmatrilineal
transmission in a society which is characterized by its strong
patrilinealbias, but witchcraft like the body-soul is part ofthe
bodyand mightbe expected to accompanyinheritanceofmale
or female characters from father or mother.
To our minds it appears evident that ifa man is proven a
witch thewholeofhisclanareipsofactowitches, sincethe Zande
clan is a group ofpersons related biologically to one another
through the male line. Azande see the sense ofthis argument
but they do not accept its conclusions, and it would involve
the whole notion of witchcraft in contradiction were they to
do so. In practice they regard only close paternal kinsmen of
aknownwitch aswitches. It isonly in theory that they extend
the imputation to all a witch's clansmen. Ifin the eyes ofthe
world payment for homicide by witchcraft stamps the kin of
aguiltyman aswitches, a post-mortem in which no witchcraft
substanceisdiscoveredin a man clearshis paternal kin ofsuspi
cion. Here again we might reason that ifa man be found by
post-mortem immune from witchcraft-substance all his clan
must also be immune, but Azande do not act as though they
were ofthis opinion.
... Further elaborations of belieffree Azande from having to
admitwhatappearto us to be thelogical consequencesofbelief
in biological transmission ofwitchcraft. Ifa man is proven a
witch beyond all doubt his kin, to establish their innocence,
may use the very biological principle which would seem to in
volve them in disrepute. They admit that the man is a witch
but deny that he is a member oftheir clan. They say he was
a bastard,for amongAzandea man isalways ofthe clan ofhis
genitorand notofhispater,and I was told that theymay compel
hismotherifshe isstill alive to say who was her lover, beating
her and asking her, 'Whatdo you mean by going to the bush
to get witchcraft in adultery?' More often they simply make
the declaration that the witch must have been a bastard since
they have no witchcraft in their bodies and that he could not