Azande witchcraft
Witchcraft for the Azande is evil magic used to inflict harm on an individual and the cause of all unusual or terrible events that take place.[1] It is a power that can only be passed on from a parent to their child.[2] The Azande believe that witchcraft is used when one individual has hatred toward another person.[1] It can also manipulate nature to bring harm upon the victim of the witch[1]. Oracles and witchdoctors determine those who are guilty of using witchcraft on someone.[3] More magic is then created to avenge the death and punish the one who committed the homicide.[1]
Description
The Azande are an African tribe found in the Northern African country of Sudan.[4] Witchcraft is present in every aspect of Zande society.[1] They believe that witchcraft is the major cause of disease, death, and any other unfortunate events that occur.[1] It clings to a digestive organ of the body, and it can only be inherited either from a father to his son or a mother to her daughter.[2] Witchcraft is a psychic power that can only be used at a short range.[3] Because of this, the Azande tend to distance themselves from their neighbors and live closer to Oracles.[1]Witchcraft can also use nature to cause injury or even death if the witch allows it.[1] It can use a an animal such as a buffalo to kill someone or cause a structure such as storage house to collapse on top of a someone.[1]
Although witchcraft is the cause for any bad events that happen to anyone, the Azande do not blame it for human faults.[1] It does not cause people to make mistakes in activities such as farming, hunting, or making crafts.[1] Witchcraft also does not influence anyone commit any moral crimes such as lying, cheating, or deceiving someone.[1]
A witch will not use his or her powers to hurt someone unless he has hatred toward a specific person.[1]When a witch uses their witchcraft on a victim, it flows out of them and into the body of the sleeping victim to steal their soul.[3] A group of witches will then eat the soul of the victim because they work together in using their witchcraft.[3] Killing a person is a slow process, for the witch has to perform witchcraft several times on the person to actually accomplish it.[3] While the witch is busy using their witchcraft, the relatives of the victim suffering from witchcraft can prepare a plan of defense and strike back at the evil magic[3]. Before they are allowed to do this, they must seek advice from an oracle.[1]
Role of oracles
Oracles are tasked with finding those responsible of using witchcraft on and individual and also predicting future tragedies.[3] If someone believes if witchcraft is being used to cause misfortune upon one of their realtives, they may seek the wisdom of the oracles to see if that is the case.[3] Different methods are used by Oracles to determine whether someone is using witchcraft to bring disaster upon an individual.[3]
One method of finding the answer is used by a specific group called the poison oracles.[3] The poison oracles uses a vegetable poison called benge and feeds it to a fowl.[3] The purpose of this is to determine answer any question given before an oracle.[3]. The answer to the question depends on whether the bird is killed from the poison or it survives.[4] There are specific situations to where a second fowl is fed the same poison to confirm the results of the first test.[4] In order for the first test to be accepted as solid evidence, the results of the second test must be opposite of the first.[4]
Witchdoctors
In addition to the oracles, witchdoctors can also predict disasters and reveal the witches who use their witchcraft to cause harm.[3] Although both oracles and witchdoctors have these abilities, witchdoctors are considered to be more accurate as far as pointing out witches.[5] Witchdoctors must go through extensive training before they can be officially become a witchdoctor.[3] When their assistance is needed, they come together and perform a dance near the home of one who is sick or dead to locate the origin of the evil magic.[5] The power that allows witchdoctors to track down witches are obtained by drinking a mixture of medicinal herbs.[3]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1935). "Witchcraft". Africa. 8: 417–422 – via JSTOR.
- ^ a b Wagner, Gunter (1937). "Witchcraft among the Azande". Journal of the Royal African Society. 36: pp. 470 – via JSTOR.
{{cite journal}}:|pages=has extra text (help) - ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wagner, Günter (1937-01-01). "Witchcraft among the Azande". Journal of the Royal African Society. 36 (145): 469–476 – via JSTOR.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ a b c d Sankey, Howard (2010). "Witchcraft, Relativism and the Problem of the Criterion". Erkenntnis. 72: pp. 1-16 – via JSTOR.
{{cite journal}}:|pages=has extra text (help) - ^ a b Forde, C. Daryll (1939). "Review: Witchcraft, Oracles, And Magic Among The Azande By E. E. Evans-Pritchard". The Journal of American Folklore. 52: pp. 135-136 – via JSTOR.
{{cite journal}}:|pages=has extra text (help)