witchcraft

In my first month at site I attended a witchcraft trial right in my village. One lady in her 60’s was being accused of practicing “juju” and therefore a trial was held to decide whether or not she was guilty. At first I was shocked to even hear that the trial was being held, in training we were taught that witchcraft is practiced in Malawi but it’s not the sort of thing you expect to possibly happen in your very own community. The trial was held at the GVH’s (Group Village Headman) house which is less than 50 meters from my house, and this man oversees many villages in the area as well as the chiefs in charge of those villages. I went with my neighbor and as soon as I sat on the ground with all the women and children (men of course sit separate from the women), a man came up to me and directed me to some chairs in front of all 100+ people who were attending. I soon realized that I was sitting on a jury of ten people which included the GVH, some of the area chiefs, and…me. I have no idea why I was included in the group, maybe because I was still new to the community, maybe to make the trial more interesting, but most likely because I am the only white person around.
The trial began with someone stating the charges and then there was the testimonies which came from 3 girls who claimed she was teaching them at night, from the chief of the woman’s village, from the parents of the girls, and from several other witnesses. After they explained their stories they called forth the woman to defend herself. She denied all of the allegations and said that it was unfair that she was being accused in the first place. She was being accused of teaching children to use a “witch plane” to fly to Lilongwe and Johannesburg during the night. Throughout the entire hearing the jurors, particularly the GVH, were asking her questions. I of course did not ask any questions since I was struggling enough just to understand what everyone was saying. And since the meeting lasted several hours and still no decision was reached, the GVH decided to postpone the rest of the trial until the following week.

To make matters worse, two days before the second hearing a young girl who claimed she was being taught by the woman suddenly died. The gossip in my village of course ran rampant, and people were saying that this woman killed her through witchcraft. And what’s more is that they said her brother, who was suffering from some physical and mental problems, became that way after falling out of a witch plane that was flying at night. Now the truth of the matter is that the girl died of cerebral malaria and that her brother was suffering from tuberculosis. The real tragedy in this situation is not that people were gossiping about the use of witchcraft on her but that her family refused to take her to the hospital when she first started to shows signs of having malaria. Because the closest hospital to Kakunga is private and therefore you must pay money to go, the family decided that since they didn’t have enough money that they would just wait. It wasn’t until the malaria had gone to her brain that they decided to take her to get help, but unfortunately it was too late.

The funeral was held the day before the trial and to my surprise the hearing was not postponed out of respect to the girl’s family. After further testimony from several people the woman was again called before the jury to defend herself. When she finished the jury met to discuss the hearing and to make a decision. After that the GVH made his decision and declared the woman guilty of practicing witchcraft and also of teaching it to children. Her sentence was simply to stop practicing and teaching. This was very unexpected since it is custom for the accused to be exiled from the village. But, that was it, and everyone went on their way and the gossip slowly died down after a few weeks.



Almost every time that I read the Malawian papers I find at a story about witchcraft. One that struck me came not too long ago in the southern region in Blantyre. Here is an excerpt from the news article published in The Nation on September 10:
“Confessions by child-witches in Blantyre North have led to two months of captivity for nine people at the home of a witch-doctor who is administering herbs on the group to exorcise the suspects of witchcraft. [The Village Headwoman] said that the process is commendable, acceptable and necessary to get rid of witches and wizards whom she claimed are ‘terrorizing’ her village…The nine people are under the surveillance of witch-doctor Yakobo who claimed they were referred to her by traditional leaders following some children’s confessions that they are students at witchcraft ‘academies’ run by the suspects. The nine comprise of three old women… four boys aged between 10 and 12 and two men aged 25 and 27...The three old women told The Nation that they were being held against their will and that they have denied the allegations several times…At the witch-doctor’s compound, the nine are allocated ‘admission rooms’ where they take a herbal concoction three times a day and bathe in waters treated with herbs twice a day, in the morning and evening…Witchcraft confessions by children have dominated media reports in recent times and have invariably led to the arrest and conviction of suspects in the country although the Witchcraft Act of 1911, as revised in 1926 and 1946, rejects the notion that witchcraft exists”.

Witchcraft has been very detrimental to the development of Malawi because of several reasons. First, it usually involves jealousy on the part of the one who accuses someone of practicing. Often times when someone makes a little bit of money, has a nicer house, does well in business, etc. , then other people in the community assume that they used witchcraft to help them to improve their status. Secondly, there is no proof to judge whether or not someone is actually a witch, it is completely based on suspicion. Witchcraft is supposedly practiced at night, and in the case of the girl who died there was no physical evidence to prove that the woman killed her. So, the village headman must often make a decision largely based on what he hears from other people. Another reason is that the traditional leaders often go beyond their powers and the laws of the government. Just like the case in Blantyre, there was no jurisdiction for the village headwoman to allow them to be taken captive. Lastly, there is no clear consensus as to how to deal with this issue. Witchcraft has been around for a long time and even though the country continues to develop, it seems like this problem is not going away anytime soon.

People here all the time ask me if witchcraft exists in America. I usually say no although I am sure it does to some extent. Even still it is a strange and uncomfortable thing to encounter and I struggle greatly in finding ways to deal with it. I want to tell people that it’s ridiculous and that they shouldn’t be afraid of it, but I know it is deeply ingrained into their culture. And whether or not people choose to believe that it’s real, we should understand that it exists and that it can be a huge obstacle to progress in developing countries. The next step is to find ways to fight against it and to preserve people's basic human rights.