AN AFRICAN PROBLEM

Evening Post, Issue 52, 2 March 1935, Page 25

AN AFRICAN PROBLEM

From Northern Rhodesia there comes an account of a native diviner, or witch finder, whose methods and prestige are notable even in a land where for centuries the "medicine man" has held the people in awe, states the "Manchester Guardian." One Mashapi, [according to the correspondent of ["East Africa" who describes him at work, seems to dispense with the elaborate ceremonies, the chopping up of entrails, and the like, that usually attend divination! He "smells out" by mere second sight the individuals in a village who are secretly harbouring evil charms, describes the nature and hiding-place of the unsavoury titbit—a severed finger or toe perhaps— that they are nursing against a neighbour, and compels them to reveal it and own up. In more intractable cases he is said to be led personally to the hiding-place of the charm iby a mirror which he consults and which, by the changes of the light on its surface, warns him when he is on the right track.' His skill has puzzled

more than one European observer. Its effect on the native mind can wel} be imagined. He seems likely to present an awkward problem to the Administration, for the natives he exposes do not deny their guilt, and the danger that their fellows will take jJunishment into their own hands is considerable. It is not long since sixty Kenya natives were sentenced to death for killing an old woman who was adjudged to be a witch. They were reprieved, but the problem such incidents present is durable . and difficult. The District Officer cannot, compete with the witch doctor in hunting out alleged cases of witchcraft, for the official attitude is and must be that witchcraft does not exist. Yet that the belief in it exists and spreads terror in the minds of a large proportion of the African tribes we are often reminded. Mashapi has been fined for denouncing people as killers and forbidden to go on with his work, but it does not seem likely that we have heard the last of him.