Witch Doctor’s Work

Hawera Star, Volume L, 29 November 1930, Page 16

Witch Doctor’s Work

jyj AXV people when thinking of. native herbalists compare them with native witch doctors, who, in reality, are quite different persons, says a writer in the “Cape Times.” The witch doctor proper is a' kind of priest, whose particular duty in life is to detect any person who is a wizard or sorcerer, and to ascertain the means adopted by him in working his enchantments. There are among the natives people who actually profess to be sorcerers, but in the greatmajority of eases the person or persons “smelt, out” by the witch doctors arc entirely innocent.

A wizard professes by supernatural means to gain any ends desired by liis clients. Should you wish an enemy of yours to die a painful death, lie will give you a root or some other article to bury near his homestead, and your wish will be accomplished. He may even send one of his familiar spirits—the dread ieanti (a fabulous serpent) or the lightning bird to bring suffering and misfortune to those who have offended againt tou. He will have love charms for you to purchase and tikoloshe. the water sprite, to .send to the bathing pool frequented by your adored one. If you can procure any of your enemy’s hair or the parings from his finger nails, the wizard will make charms from these, which will bring untold harm to him if used against him. Sorcerers arc supposed to roam about at night, riding on baboons, and sending out owls as messengers of evil. Unlike the witch doctor, the wizard undergoes no training or initiation, and anyone who can obtain tno necessary cuehanments (called übuti or medicine) arc set up as a wizard. The witch doctor, on the other hand, must be a person of the highest intelligence, and also a good psychologist, and must have an intimate knowledge of the persons amongst whom lie proposes to work.

Anyone who wishes to become a witch doctor must first become ill, and while in this condition must see the spirits of his departed ancestors in visions. These spirits foretell the future to him. Then witch doctors of standing are called in and a ceremony is held. At this ceremony there is weeping in sympathy for the sufferer, dancing and preaching. The witch doctors are filled with the spirit of divination, and they tell the cause of the patient’s illness and order sacrifices to the spirits of the dead. Those taking part in the ceremony make gifts to each other. After several such ceremonies have taken place tin* patient becomes convalescent, and then the neophyte is baptised (or punga-ed) by a chosen witch doctor. This witch doctor grinds certain herbs into a pulp between, two stones and places the compound m an earthenware pot in which there is coin water. The concoction is stirred witn a forked stick, which is twirled round between the palms of the hands until a white froth comes to the surface. The candidate is washed with the water, and tin l froth is poured over his head. The ceremonies are spread over a period of about two or three years, during which time the candidate acts as an assistant to the witch doctor, who teaches him his trade, until at last he attains the high position of a witch doctor, ana is entitled to wear a high-crowned cor

How Smelling Out is Done

Terrifying Spectacle

of baboon's skin, the chief insignia oi his rank.

When in full dress he will probably be adorned with the skins of ditforent animals suspended from his shoulders and loins, the dried and inflated en-' trails of animals tilled with pebbles, strings of roots and horns containing powders and ointments hanging from his neck, and rings of metal and dried flesh round his arms. Usually he will in addition carry an assegai. Witch doctors arc thought by the natives to have lions, tigers and elephants as part of their retinue and to commune with the spirits of their ancestors, and as many of them arc ventriloquists, these make their voices or whistles sound, from the roofs of huts or from rocks, and engender the belief that they are conversing with their familiar spirits.

In Zululaml the spirits arc supposed to enter the bodies of certain green snakes with- black.spots. These snakes are not venomous, and attach themselves to the kraals of the spirits’ descendants to look after them, and aro treated as domestic animals. Cetywayo, the Zulu King, firmly believed this theory. The Zulus offer sacrifices to the departed spirits. When a man is taken ill his relatives offer up an ox or a cow, and one stands up and prays to the spirits of their departed relations 1.0 accept the offering, to partake of the feast, and to restore the patient to health. The beast is then eaten bv members of the kraal. When they come to its fetlocks the same prayer as before is uttered, and the large gut of the sacrifice scattered about the patient’s quarters, which soon after are carefully cleansed. A witch-doctor is sometimes, attached to the “Great Place” of the chief of a tribe. I.f tlie tribe goes to war, lie must kafuln the warriors—make them invulnerable. If a noted warrior falls in war iiml liis body is taken by the enemy, certain portions of it are taken by the witch-doctors and made into medicines witn which to doctor their own men and to endow them with courngc.

This use by witch doctors of portions of the human body has in certain native territories, such as Swaziland, been responsible, even in recent years, for many ghastly murders. I was one of a Gourt in a murder trial in the Northern Transvaal, a few years ago, whore a man had been brutally done to dentil .and his head and right hand cut off by two men (one being his lirst cousin) just, because a well-known witch-doctor had given out that he required a human head, and, as tno accused men naively explained, the dead man “had troubled th cm. * ’

There is tiie lightmng-cloctor and the rain-doctor. A few years back a nea.dman in Uhodesia allowed his own son to lie taken as a human sacrifice to appease the rain goddess, and Langalilielelc, the Zulu chief, who went into rebellion against the British in Natal in 187 K, accounted himself an expert ra in-inn ker. When a witch-doctor is consulted he is never told the object of tiis client ’s visit, but must always ascertain this ’or himself, and, as invariably he does this, he gains implicit trust from those who consult him. In some cases he has

undoubtedly oecn primed by his satel- i lites, but in most he obtains what he wants by what is called ukuvumisa. He appears to his consultants, who sit round in a ring. He is attended by liis pupils, and at once makes some seemingly irrelevant statement, such as “This is a. sorcerer.” To which his consultants politely reply, “Siyavuma” (“We agree"), at the same time clapping their hands. The doctor watches carefully the expressions on their faces -and the degree of assurance with which they give their applause. If he sees that he is not on the right track, he makes a number of further assertions, all dealing with matters of evory-dav life among the natives, until, by the increased excitement of his clients, ho arrives at a root idea as to the matter upon which his advice is needed. He must now find out what has actually happened to the person pr thing about which he is being consulted, and lie commences a new series of assertions as to what is troubling this person or thing. He continues until he has ascertained what he wants, and then his real difficulty is encountered. He must ascertain wiiat his clients themselves believe to no the root of the evil, for among tiic natives all misfortune, is thought to be caused by the scheming of an enemy and by supernatural means. The witch-doctor is, of course, dressed in all his finery, and presents-a terrifying spectacle. He rolls his eyes in order to take m the whole scene and. as be makes jus various assertions, he be-! comes more and more excited. He leaps: from the ground, stretches out his arms,, making the many bracelets, which encircle them rattle, like castanets: he sways his. body' from side to side, and indulges in the most grotesque contortions. rolling his eyes furiously. When at last he comes to the conclusion which all along has been in his clients' minds,i their own excitement is intense, and; their dapping and shouting is deafen-', ing. Mean while Ihe doctor leans about, as though in'mortal combat with some! ghostly antagonist, brandishing his asse-j gai and giving out blood-curdling yells.{ Thus he is able to bond his dunes to his will. i

lie may decide that it is necessary for him to visit a kraal where there is sickness ur misfortune. There he will prance about, probing, frantically all round with his assegai, until, with a shout of.triumun, he unearths a parcel of roots or herbs, and proceeds to tell lus clients that lie has discovered the cause of all the mischief. Of course they have been placed there beforehand by one of his assistants. He then protends to’ find out the person who is supposed to have placed it there by the process of ukuvumisa. which has neon described.

The results to the poor unfortunate victims of the “smelling-out’-' are indeed serious, for in those parts where witch-doctors flourish thov suffer immediate death bv torture without, in most cases, having an opportunity to defend themselves. Cn many instances" their wives and children are killed with f hem. The witch-doctor’s influence is such that his decisions are accepted without question, and. if the resulting atrocity is discovered by the authorities, no one will ever dream of “giving away ’ ’ the witch-doctor responsible.