Witchcraft is based on a lie, makes ‘unreal real’

Dar es Salaam. Witchcraft is based on a lie for no human being has innate magical powers to harm others, as is commonly believed to be the case. What we call witchcraft is a social control or a problem solving mechanism, a way society deals with conflict.

When a misfortune strikes a family or village we always look for external causes to blame and it appears doing so gives us mental relief. This blame game is what creates belief in witchcraft by assuming that whenever a misfortune happens, there must be a person responsible for it.

If you also believe witchcraft stories are real take time to study them and you may eventually come up with a conclusion similar to mine.

I should emphasise that witchcraft exists only in the mind and not in reality. It is about repeated imaginations, speculations or claims about a certain unfamiliar experience, a strange episode or its interpretation. What exactly is witchcraft? Why do we think what we believe to have happened is witchcraft and not something else?

In witchcraft people make an unreal story or a happening appear to be real just because almost every person perceives it or interprets a weird social phenomenon to have the hand of somebody else.

There are, of course, some people, who learn various tricks and can use them to convince others that some mysterious power is at work. There are those, who believe witches harm other people sometimes without intending or even knowing it. That the innate magical powers in them operate independently of their cooperation.

You may be one of those, who believes that if a witch is at one end of the street she can harm a person at the other end using innate magical powers. You may also believe witches are invisible and if they want to go to any place they just fly. But have you ever seen an invisible witch flying or is it just an imagination?

You might have seen or heard some people claiming they were witches and only came off a flying object they were aboard. If witches are invisible, how come those coming off the flying object are visible and why have they come off the flying object in the first place? Is it because the innate magical powers have expired?

I once witnessed a neighbour (an old man), who was believed to be a wizard, walking in the nude at night. If he believed he was a wizard and so he couldn’t be seen, his belief failed him for I didn’t only see him walking naked, but I also recognised him.

There are numerous and sometimes contradicting stories about witchcraft, whose nature fits well that of a mystery (something we cannot easily explain or grasp its nature). Actually, the more mysterious the story is the more intriguing and superstitious it becomes.

When I say witchcraft is based on a lie is not on the grounds that people don’t believe in it, but I just want to say that what they believe is more apparent than real. In the absence of evidence that x is the cause of y, why should one conclude x is the cause of y? This being said, I do agree, however, that “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”.

In witchcraft we often claim what we are unable to substantiate and because of that we tend to speculate and convince others to believe our speculations, while the truth lacks internal consistency or existential value.

One day, a friend of mine, who was residing at a university campus, told me he had gone to bed at night, but when he woke up the following morning, he found himself sleeping on a mattress outside the hostel. Thus, he believed he had been bewitched, while he was asleep.

When I asked him what made him believe he had been bewitched, while he was asleep, he replied it was only a witch, who could do that. But how did he know it was a witch? As you can see, when we associate a witch with a weird happening, it doesn’t follow that the person who recounts the episode knows what happened, but he or she only assumes a witch is responsible.

I grew up in a village, where everybody believed in terrifying witchcraft stories, which instilled fear in me and made me take the trouble to investigate what witchcraft consisted of.

Be it a long or unfamiliar illness, a miscarriage, bareness or infertility, a deformity, severe drought, lightning, a wind or rainstorm, a fatal accident, a marriage breakdown, loss of a family member, a friend or employment, bankruptcy or incurring business losses, failing exams – the cause of all this is the witch!

It is possible that a hardworking person who succeeds, where others fail is also suspected of being a witch – how come he or she is succeeding, while others are failing if he or she is not a witch? In this case, we seem to create witches and heap on them all the garbage we are shouldering. In so doing we get mental relief.

When crocodiles and hyenas were still common in our area, it was believed they were sent by witches to harm those, who were targeted. But where have they gone, for today we don’t have such animals anymore, where I come from!

It was also believed that any big stone, a big tree or a thick forest was a witch’s place of abode and they were feared. Today, people have cleared almost all bushes and forests for farming, illegal logging or charcoal making. So, where have those witches gone? Why couldn’t they harm farmers, illegal loggers or those making charcoal?

It is common that if a wind or rainstorm damages buildings, crops and causes losses of life people easily associate such phenomena with a villager or villagers they dislike most out of sheer suspicion and they would just set fire to their houses, attack or kill them. As a result, some old people have been brutally attacked and killed simply because a misfortune happened in the village and they were suspected of causing it. But if witches have innate magical powers and are invisible, why are they attacked and killed for the innate magical powers would have protected them or would have at least affected their attackers?

The truth is that the more we entertain superstitious beliefs the more we appeal to irrationality and cruel behaviour. The killing of people with albinism or old people is a result of this appeal to irrationality and suspension of our mental faculties.

As I hinted above, while witchcraft is negative, it has, nevertheless, a comforting effect, as it helps people to find an explanation for frequent misfortunes or losses of life. It is a way of creating the balance of power whenever something goes wrong, but deep down there is often embedded jealousy, fear, suspicion, hatred and revenge.

If I wake up in the morning and find myself sleeping naked by a roadside five kilometres away from home, the likelihood is to conclude that a witch took me there, but I could have got up and gone there on my own, while deeply asleep.

Of course, since it looks strange to wake up and find oneself naked by the roadside, it makes sense to suspect someone else has caused it. If people asked me what happened, I would most probably say a witch had done it not because I know of any, but at least if I blame someone else it gives me mental relief. After all, this is a common belief or perception.

Think about it this way. Suppose you were studying and happened to fail your exams! If you want to avoid the blame and make people believe you are an intelligent student, but only something bad happened to you, the likelihood is to tell them that you have been bewitched. The people you are telling don’t know what has happened to you, but will take it for granted that what you are telling them is true.

The rumour will then go around and everybody will believe it. This is how witchcraft stories spread. You may also decide not to say you have been bewitched, but you could choose to blame your failing exams for something else and this is what we always do. Don’t we?

So, in witchcraft or sorcery, people tend to look for scapegoats out of suspicion. If I see a red-eyed old person, I will associate her or him with possessing occult powers.

The less rational and critical we become, the more we take on board common beliefs and rumours that go around in our society and the more superstitious we become.

To counter witches or sorcerers, people seek protective medicine or an amulet from herbalists. The medicine is often smeared over the body and people applying it believe they are protected and cannot be harmed.

Others wear an amulet believing it dispels misfortunes. This dispels fear and encourages foolhardy behaviour. Accordingly, a person can even risk passing by a dangerous place or engaging in a criminal act believing the medicine or amulet he or she has will protect them.

The people I grew up believing they were witches or sorcerers in my village because almost everybody believed so are almost all of them dead. Since humans always have to blame others for their misfortunes, nowadays witches are close family members.

If an outbreak strikes in a family, one’s new-born baby dies mysteriously or one is injured or dies in an accident and so on, people may blame their own relatives.

Why this shift from strangers to relatives? It is simple! Land scarcity has now become a source of conflict in many families – family members or relatives are scrambling for land. It is fighting for survival. Since there is hatred and harboured conflict, in the end family members easily project it onto another relative who is in conflict with them, then there will always be someone to blame.

The likelihood is to associate one’s personal problems with the relatives he or she is in conflict with - often by citing a Kiswahili saying: Kikulacho ki nguoni mwako (literally meaning what’s affecting you is close to you).

Again this is the lie I am talking about! We often feel comfortable whenever we suspect others of doing something bad so that we can speculate about them.

So, I invite you to take time to study and understand what witchcraft is and find your own explanation for it! What exactly is witchcraft? Think about it!