Black soccer stars try to bewitch opponents

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34151, 12 May 1976, Page 28

Black soccer stars try to bewitch opponents

(By

BRIAN TIMMS.

A' Z.P. A.-Reuter corresoondentl

JOHANNESBURG. A little dab of herbal ointment on the feet, a charm tucked into the boot. When it comes to witchcraft. South Africa’s leading black soccer players take no chances.

Their natural talent is un-i questionable, but it pays to play safe to avoid tripping! over a spell because most top black clubs seek the assistance of witch-doctors. They dispense the ointments and protect the goal areas with incantations. But' as one young fan explained: "They don’t make the ball' suddenly shoot off to one side of the goal, that’s too! obvious. But I think they do I something to the goal-keep-1 ers. because some of the saves are fantastic." The soccer witch-doctors spending half their time countering each others! appear to reign supreme. But there is no doubt that the black population ofj South Africa — and some! whites — have great faith in In the teeming township of Soweto, the reservoir of a million black labourers for “white” Johannesburg, there!

are more than one thousand! ■practising witch-doctors. ! They are backed up byj ■! about 20 muti or “chemist” (shops, handing out tree bark, roots, herbs, and pow-i ’ders to customers bringing! verbal prescriptions. ' A recent social survey i estimated that 85 per cent of I I urban Africans consult! [witch-doctors. This indicates that rural! (Africans, representing about! 112 million of South Africa’s! 117 million black population, I are almost totally involved with witch-doctors. ! When rural Africans move | to the cities for work, I witch-doctors slip them a locket of hair from the head of a European to help them adjust to their new surroundings. I The hair? It comes from [the sweepings in barber shops and is sold to the witch-doctors by cleaners. With the submergence of ithe descendants of tradi-

, tional tribal chiefs into fac- > ! tories, offices, and Parlia-: [ments. the witch-doctors are| I the last remaining links withj ithe old cultures. Their main function is to interpret God’s word through the medium of spiritual contact with ancestors. ; As modern physicians specialise, so do witch-doctors, generally dividing into prophets, physicians, herbalists, | psychiatrists, rainmakers, land exorcists. i The exorcists have plenty of cases, especially at the homes of w’hites who abuse black servants — who hurry off to witch-doctors to direct [retribution. A spell is cast on the house, and the servants who follow the one that was sacked or ran away soon find out that all is not well. The owners call in Adrian Boshier, one of the few white witch-doctors in Africa. Boshier spent 10 years roaming Africa, and eventually was “adopted” by the tribesmen and taken through the arduous process of becoming a witch-doctor, graduating after several years apprenticeship.

He now runs a Johannesburg museum, and in his spare time goes out on calls i to “haunted” suburban homes. “I went to a house where, after dismissing a servant, they had 20 or more over about three months. None stayed—they rushed cff after a few days, complaining that doors opened during the night and the place felt ‘cold’. “None of them could have known about the first servant’s departure,” he said. “I don’t do the exorcism for the whites, it's the servants I’m concerned about.” Boshier wants more recognition for witch-doctors, who he feels have made a great contribution to science, especially in the field of psychology. There is a growing tendency among them to refer patients to hospital if they are obviously suffering from an illness which can only be cured by surgery. But they get the patients on the way out, because although the surgeon might have cured the disease, they have not placated the spirit that caused it.