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African witchcraft and western law: psychological and cultural issues

2004; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 19; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/1353790032000165122

1469-9419

John Hund,

South African History and Culture

Abstract The South African Suppression of Witchcraft Act of 1957 outlawed tribal mediation by chiefs and sangomas (African priest-diviners) in witchcraft accusation trials. This Western legislative intervention denies African justice to Africans who believe in the reality of African witchcraft. As a result there have been many recorded instances where ordinary African people, thinking themselves bewitched, have turned to self-help to protect themselves against bewitchment; mob justice and witchcraft violence have escalated like never before. This paper argues that the Suppression of Witchcraft Act should be repealed so that legitimate sangomas can be reinstated as mediators in witchcraft accusation cases. The distinction between sangomas and witches is clarified and a Jungian framework is used to shed light on the nature of African beliefs in witches, ancestors, and spirit worlds. Standard models of anthropology and psychology have tended to treat such beliefs as symptoms of superstition or madness. My argument is that by approaching these belief systems from a Jungian perspective, new ways of thinking about them are introduced which can help us find a solution to the problem of witchcraft violence in South Africa. Notes According to figures released by the Institute for Multi-Party Democracy (1999), since 1990, at least 3,000 witchcraft-related cases have been reported to the police in the Northern Province alone. Since 1990, 587 people accused of being witches have been killed in the province. Of this number, 287 have been killed since 1995. For example, Niehaus (1997, 2001) has shown that among Tsonga and Sotho-speaking groups, few killings occurred when chiefs acted as mediators in witchcraft accusation cases. However, soon after the 1957 Suppression of Witchcraft Act, "a perception emerged that chiefs sided with witches" (Niehaus, 1997: 369). Because tribal courts were no longer allowed to prosecute alleged witches, or even hear witchcraft accusation cases, people came to believe that chiefs were protecting witches or even colluding with them (Niehaus, 2001). For example, Magagulu (1999) describes cases which show that before the implementation of the Suppression Act, systems of social control involving sangomas and chiefs existed in Sekhukhuneland, which dampened and controlled witchcraft accusations. Among the closely settled and intermarrying Lovedu, before such legislation, Krige and Krige report that public accusations of witchcraft were rare (Krige & Krige, 1980: 259–263). When disputes did arise, they were settled in customary courts. Hammond-Tooke thinks differently, but he offers little documentary evidence to support his view (1989: Chapt. 5). With the exception of a few cases reported by Hunter (1936: 306ff), I have not been able to find any serious historical evidence which shows that there was a serious problem of witchcraft violence in South Africa prior to the implementation of the 1957 Act. There were other seeds of lawlessness, too. Tribal authorities were propped up by the apartheid government as part of the bantustan (homeland) system of 'grand apartheid'. The misuse of tribal authorities brought tribal courts into disrepute in the eyes of many Africans in South Africa (see Hund & Van der Merwe, 1986: 20–52). These cases and trends have been well documented by social anthropologists and lawyers (see, for example, Stadler, 1996; Delius, 1996; Mihalik & Cassim, 1993). Nganga is a central African dialectical variation of the more familiar nyanga (Zulu) in South Africa. Bourguignon (1999: 52) distinguishes between 'possession' and 'visionary' trances and claims that only the most advanced shamans are able to master the latter. She thinks that the spiritually most developed shamans are ultimately concerned with the psychic unity and harmony of all of mankind (Bourguignon, 1989).