AZANDE believe that some people are witches and can injure them in virtue of an inherent quality.

A
witch performs no rite, utters no spell, and possesses no medicines. An act ofwitchcraft is a psychic
act. They believe also that sorcerers may do them ill by performing magic rites with bad medicines.
Azande distinguish clearly between witches and sorcerers. Against both they employ diviners,
oracles, and medicines. The relations between these beliefs and rites are th.e subject of this book. I
describe witchcraft first because it is an indispensable background to the other beliefs. When
Azande consult oracles they consult them mainly about witches. When they employ diviners it is for
the same purpose. Their leechcraft and closed associations are directed against the same foe. I had
no difficulty in discovering what Azande think about witchcraft, nor in observing what they do to
combat it. These ideas and actions are on the surface of their life and are accessible to anyone who
lives for a few weeks in their homesteads. Every Zande is an authority on witchcraft. There is no need
to consultspecialists. There is not even need to question Azande about it, for information flows freely
from recurrent situations in their social life, and one has only to watch and listen. Mangu, witchcraft,
was one of the first words I heard in Zandeland, and I heard it uttered day by day throughout the
months. Azande believe that witchcraft is a substance in the bodies of witches, a belief which is
found among many peoples in Central and West Africa. Zandeland is the north-eastern limit ofits
distribution. It is difficult to say with what organ Azande associate witchcraft. I have never seen
human witchcraft-substance, but it has been described to me as an oval blackish swelling or bag in
which various small objects are sometimes found . ',I1I ::~ ~~.~: :1 i~, i,i !' ..- 2 f11itchcra~t When
Azande describe its shape they often point to the elbow oftheir bent arm, and when they describe its
location they point to just beneath the xiphoid cartilage which is said to 'cover witchcraft-substance'.
They say: It is attached to the edge of the liver. When people cut open the belly they have only to
pierce it and witchcraft-substance bursts through with a pop. I have heard people say that it is of a
reddish colour and contains seeds of pumpkins and sesame and other food-plants which have been
devoured by a witch in the cultivations of his neighbours. Azande know the position of witchcraft-
substance because in the past it was sometimes extracted by autopsy. I believe it to be the small
intestine in certain digestive periods. This organ is suggested by Zande descriptions of autopsies and
was that shown to me as containing witchcraft-substance in the belly of one of my goats. A witch
shows no certain external symptoms ofhis condition though people say: 'One knows a witch by his
red eyes.' II Witchcraft is not only a physical trait but is also inherited. It is transmitted by unilinear
descent from parent to child. The sons of a male witch are all witches but his daughters are not,
while the daughters of a female witch are all witches but her sons are not. Biological transmission of
witchcraft from pne parent to all children of the same sex is complementary to Zande opinions about
procreation and to their eschatological beliefs. Conception is thought to be due to a unison
ofpsychical properties in man and woman. When the soul of the man is stronger a boy will be born;
when the soul of the woman is stronger a girl will be born. Thus a child partakes ofthe psychical
qualities of both parents, though a girl is thought to partake more ofthe soul ofher mother and a boy
ofthe soul of his father. Nevertheless in certain respects a child takes after one or other parent
according to its sex, namely, in the inheritance ofsexual characters, of a body-soul, and of witchcraft-
substance. There is a vague belief, hardly precise enough to be described as a doctrine, that man
possesses two souls, a body-soul and a spiritsoul. At death the body-soul becomes a totem animal
of the f11itchcraft 3 clan while its fellow soul becomes a ghost and leads a shadowy existence at the
heads of streams. Many people say that the body-soul of a man becomes the totem animal of his
father's clan while the body-soul of a woman becomes the totem animal of her mother's clan. At first
sight it seems strange to find a mode of matrilineal transmission in a society which is characterized
by its strong patrilineal bias, but witchcraft like the body-soul is part of the body and might be
expected to accompany inheritance ofmale or female characters from father or mother. To our minds
it appears evident that if a man is proven a witch the whole ofhis clan are ipsofacto witches, since
the Zande clan is a group of persons related biologically to one another through the male line.
Azande see the sense of this argument but they do not accept its conclusions, and it would involve
the whole notion of witchcraft in contradiction were they to do so. In practice they regard only close
paternal kinsmen of a known witch as witches. It is only in theory that they extend the imputation to
all a witch's clansmen. If in the eyes of the world payment for homicide by witchcraft stamps the kin
of a guilty man as witches, a post-mortem in which no witchcraftsubstance is discovered in a man
clears his paternal kin ofsuspicion. Here again we might reason that if a man be found by post-
mortem immune from witchcraft-substance all his clan must also be immune, but Azande do not act
as though they were of this opinion. ___ Further elaborations of belief free Azande from having to
admit what appear to us to be the logical consequences ofbelief in biological transmission of
witchcraft. If a man is proven a witch beyond all doubt his kin, to establish their innocence, may use
the very biological principle which would seem to involve them in disrepute. They admit that the
man is a witch but deny that he is a member of their clan. They say he was a bastard, for among
Azande a man is always of the clan of his genitor and not ofhis pater, and I was told that they may
compel his mother ifshe is still alive to say who was her lover, beating her and asking her, 'What do
you mean by going to the bush to get witchcraft in adultery?' More often they simply make the
declaration that the witch must have been a bastard since they have no witchcraft in their bodies and
that he could not 4 ~itchcrajft therefore be one of their kinsmen, and they may support this
contention by quoting cases where members of their kin have been shown by autopsy to have been
free from witchcraft. It is unlikely that other people will accept this plea, but they are not asked
either to accept it or reject it. Also Zande doctrine includes the notion that even if a man is the son of
a witch and has witchcraft-substance in his body he may not use it. It may remain inoperative, 'cool'
as the Azande say, throughout his lifetime, and a man can hardly be classed as a witch if his
witchcraft never functions. In point of fact, therefore, Azande generally regard witchcraft as an
individual trait and it is treated as such in spite ofits association with kinship. At the same time
certain clans had a reputation for witchcraft in the reign of King Gbudwe. No one thinks any worse of
a man if he is a member of one of these clans. ',~ Azande do not perceive the contradiction as we
perceive it because they have no theoretical interest in the subject, and those situations in which
they express their beliefs in witchcraft do not force the problem upon them. A man never asks the
oracles, which alone are capable of disclosing the location of witchcraft-substance in the living,
whether a certain man is a witch. He asks whether at the moment this man is bewitching him. One
attempts to discover whether a man is bewitching someone in particular circumstances and not
whether he is born a witch. If the oracles say that a certain man is injuring you at the moment you
then know that he is a witch, whereas if, they say that at the moment he is not injuring you you do
not know whether he is a witch or not and have no interest to inquire into the matter. If he is a
witch it is of no significance to you so long as you are not his victim. A Zande is interested in
witchcraft only as an agent on definite occasions and in relation to his own interests, and not as a
permanent condition of individuals. When he is sick he does not normally say: 'Now let us consider
who are well-known witches of the neighbourhood and place their names before the poison
oracle.' He does not consider the question in this light but asks himself who among his neighbours
have grudges against him and then seeks) to know from the poison oracle whether one of them is on
this particular occasion bewitching him. Azande are interested solely in the dynamics ofwitchcraft in
particular situations. ~itchcraft 5 Lesser misfortunes are soon forgotten and those who caused them
are looked upon by the sufferer and his kin as having bewitched someone on this occasion rather
than as confirmed witches, for only persons who are constantly exposed by the oracles as
responsible for sickness or loss are regarded as confirmed witches, and in the old days it was only
when a witch had killed someone that he became a marked man in the community. III Death is due
to witchcraft and must be avenged. All other practices connected with witchcraft are epitomized in
the action of vengeance. In our present context it will be sufficient to point out that in pre-European
days vengeance was either executed directly, sometimes by the slaughter of a witch, and sometimes
by acceptance of compensation, or by means of lethal magic. Witches were very seldom slain, for it
was only when a man committed a second or third murder, or murdered an important person, that
a prince permitted his execution. Under British rule the magical method alone is employed.
Vengeance seems to have been less a result of anger and hatred than the fulfilment of a pious duty
and a source of profit. I have never heard that today the kin of a dead man, once they have exacted
vengeance, show any rancour towards .the family of the man whom their magic has struck down, nor
that in the past there was any prolonged hostility between the kin ofthe dead and the kin ofthe witch
who had paid compensa- , tion for his murder. Today if a man kills a person by witchcraft : the crime
is his sole responsibility and his kin are not associated with his guilt. In the past they assisted him to
pay compensation, not in virtue of collective responsibility, but in virtue of 'social obligations to a
kinsman. His relatives-in-law and his blood-brothers also contributed towards the payment. As soon
"as a witch is today slain by magic, or in the past had been !speared to death or had paid
compensation, the affair is closed. Moreover, it is an issue between the kin of the dead and the :~n of
the witch and other people are not concerned with it. lThey have the same social links with both
parties. '. It is extremely difficult today to obtain information about 'ctims of vengeance-magic.
Azande themselves do not know IV Being part ofthe body, witchcraft-substance grows as the body
grows. The older a witch the more potent his witchcraft and the more unscrupulous its use. This is
one of the reasons why in causing death. The part ofthe vengeance-magic explains the termination
of mourning of one family and the part of witchcraft explains the initiation ofvengeance by another
family, i.e. they seek to explain a contradiction in their beliefs in the mystical idiom ofthe beliefs
themselves. But I have only been offered I this explanation as a general and theoretical possibility in
reply to my objections. Since the names of victims of vengeance are kept secret the contradiction is
not apparent, for it would only be evident if all deaths were taken into consideration and not anyone
particular death. So long therefore as they are able to conform to custom and maintain family
honour Azande are not interested in the broader aspects of vengeance in general. They saw the
objection when I raised it but they were not incommoded by it. Princes must be aware of the
contradiction because they know the outcome of every death in their provinces. When I asked Prince
Gangura how he accepted the death of a man both as the action of vengeance-magic and of
witchcraft he smiled and admitted that all was not well with the present-day system. Some princes
said that they did not allow a man to be avenged if they knew he had died from vengeance-magic,
but I think· they were lying. One cannot know for certain, for even if a prince were to tell the kin ofa
dead man that he had died from vengeance-magic and might not be avenged he would tell them in
secret and they would keep his words a secret. They would pretend to their neighbours that they
were avenging their kinsmen and after some months would hang up the barkcloth of mourning as a
sign that vengeance was accomplished, for they would not wish people to know that their kinsman
was a witch. Consequently ifthe kinsmen ofA avenge his death by magic on B and then learn that B's
kinsmen have ceased mourning in sign ofhaving accomplished vengeance also, they believe that this
second vengeance is a pretence. Contradiction is thereby avoided. 6 Witchcraft about them unless
they are members ofa murdered man's closest kin. One notices that his kinsmen are no longer
observing taboos ofmourning and one knows by this that their magic has performed its task, but it is
useless to inquire from them who was its victim because they will not tell you. It is their private affair
and is a secret between them and their prince who must be informed of the action of their magic
since it is necessary for his poison oracle to confirm their poison oracle before they are permitted to
end their mourning. Besides, it is a verdict of the poison oracle and one must not disclose its
revelations about such matters. Ifother people were acquainted with the names ofthose who have
fallen victims to avenging magic the whole procedure of vengeance would be exposed as futile. If it
were known that the death of a man X had been avenged upon a witch Y then the whole procedure
would be reduced to an absurdity because the death of Y i~also avenged by his kinsmen upon a
witch Z. Some Azande 'have indeed explained to me their doubts about the honesty of the princes
who control the oracles, and a few have seen that the present-day system is fallacious. At any rate, its
fallaciousness is veiled so long as everybody concerned keeps silence about the victims of their
vengeancemagic. In the past things were different, for then a person accused by the prince's oracles
of having killed another by witchcraft either paid immediate compensation or was killed. In either
case the matter was closed because the man who had paid compensation had no means of proving
that he was not a witch, and if he were killed at the prince's orders his death could not be avenged.
Nor was an autopsy permitted on his corpse to discover whether it contained witchcraft-substance.
When I have challenged Azande to defend their system of vengeance they have generally said that a
prince whose oracles declare that Y has died from the magic of X's kinsmen will not place the name
of Z before his oracles to discover whether he died from the magic of V's kinsmen. When V's kinsmen
ask their prince to place Z's name before his poison oracle he will decline to do so and will tell them
that he knows Y to have died in expiation of a crime and that his death cannot therefore be avenged.
A few Azande explained the present system by saying that perhaps vengeance-magic and witchcraft
participate Witchcraft 7 " behalf, and her husband might surmise adultery. He would wonder what
contact his wife had had with her accuser that had led to disagreement between them. Nevertheless,
a man frequently consults the oracles about his own wives, because he is sure to displease them
from time to time, and often they hate him. I have never heard of cases in which a man has been
accused of bewitching his wife. Azandesay that no man would do such a thing as no one wishes to kill
his wife or cause her sickness since he would himself be the chief loser. Kuagbiaru told me that he
had never known a man to pay compensation for the death of his wife. Another reason why one
does not hear of fowls' wings being presented to husbands in accusation of witchcraftl on account of
the illnesses of their wives is that a woman cannot herself consult the poison oracle and usually
entrusts this task to her husband. She may ask her brother to consult the oracle on her behalf, but he
is not likely to place his brother-in-Iaw's name before it because a husband does not desire the death
of his wife. I have never known a case in which a man has been bewitched by a kinswoman or in
which a woman has been bewitched by a kinsman. Moreover, I have heard of only one case in which
a man was bewitched by a kinsman. A kinsman may do a man wrong in other ways but he would
not'bewitch him. It is evident that a sick man would not care to ask the oracles about his brothers
and paternal cousins, because if the poison oracle declared them to have bewitched him, by the
same declaration he would himself be a witch, since witchcraft is inherited in the male line. Members
ofthe princely class, the Avongara, are not accused of witchcraft, for if a man were to say that the
oracles had declared the son of a prince to have bewitched him he would be asserting that the king
and princes were also witches. However much a prince may detest members of his lineage he never
allows them to be broughtinto disrepute by a commoner. Hence, although Azande will tell one
privately that they believe some members ofthe noble class may be witches, they seldom consult lIt
is customary, when witchcraft is suspected, to ask the local prince, or more often his deputy, to send
a fowl's wing to the presumed witch, courteously requesting him to blow water upon it from his
mouth in token of goodwill towards the injured person; cf. pp. 40-42. Sending a fowl's wing to
someone is therefore tantamount to an accusation of wi tchcraft. II " i I. I, f I :11 1;" t \t Ii, 8
Witchcraft Azande often express apprehension of old persons. The witchcraft-substance of a child is
so small that it can do little injury to others. Therefore a child is never accused of murder, and even
grown boys and girls are notsuspected ofserious witchcraft though they may cause minor
misfortunes to persons oftheir own age. We shall see later how witchcraft operates when thereis ill-
feeling between witch and victim, and ill-feeling is unlikely to arise frequently between children and
adults. Only adults can consult the poison oracle and they do not normally put the names of children
before it when asking it about witchcraft. Children cannot express their enmities and minor
misfortunes in terms of oracular revelations about witchcraft because they cannot consult the poison
oracle. Nevertheless, rare cases have been known in which, after asking the oracle in vain about all
suspected adults, a child's name has been put before it and he has been declared a witch. But I was
told that if this happens an old man will point out that there must be an error. He will say: 'A witch
has taken the child and placed him in front of himself as a screen to protect himself.' Children soon
know about witchcraft, and I have found in talking to little boys and girls, even as young as six years
of age, that they apprehend what is meant when their elders speak ofit. I was told that in a quarrel
one child may bring up the bad reputation of the father of another. However, people do not
comprehend the nature of witchcraft till they are used to, operating oracles, to acting in situations of
misfortune in accordance with oracular revelations, and to making magic. The concept grows with
the social experience of each individual. Men and women are equally witches. Men may be
bewitched by other men or by women, but women are generally bewitched only by members oftheir
own sex. A sick man usually asks the oracles about his male neighbours, while ifhe is consulting them
about a sick wife or kinswoman he normally asks about other - women. This is because ill-feeling is
more likely to arise between man and man and between woman and woman than between man and
woman. A ma~ comes in contact only with his wives and kinswomen and has therefore little
opportunity to incur the hatred of other women. It would, in fact, be suspicious if he consulted the
oracles about another man's wife on his own Witchcraft 9 I ,I ~(I f! ~IIi I' :.~ ~~; ,~ ~i~~ 'I'il, f f.'.! ,'i '! U
t,': III1 10 Witchcraft the oracles about them, so that they are not accused of witchcraft. In the past
they never consulted the oracles about them. There is an established fiction that Avongara are not
witches, and it is maintained by the overwhelming power and prestige of the ruling princes.
Governors of provinces, deputies of districts, men of the court, leaders of military companies, and
other commoners of position and wealth are not likely to be accused of witchcraft unless by a prince
himself on account of his own hunting or on account ofthe death ofsome equally influential
commoner. Generally lesser people do not dare to consult the oracles about influential persons
because their lives would be a misery if they insulted the most important men in their
neighbourhood. So we may say that the incidence of witchcraft in a Zande community falls equally
upon both sexes in the commoner class while nobles are entirely, and powerful commoners largely,
immune from accusations. All children are normally free from suspicion. The relations of ruling
princes to witchcraft are peculiar. Though immune from accusations they believe in witches as firmly
as other people, and they constantly consult the poison oracle to find out who is bewitching them.
They especially consult it about their wives. A prince's oracle is also the final authority which
decides on all witchcraft cases involving homicide, and in the past it was also used to protect his
subjects from witchcraft during warfare. When a lesser noble dies his death is attributed to a witch
and is avenged in the same way as deaths of commoners, but the death of a king or ruling prince is
not so avenged and is generally attributed to sorcery or other evil agents of a mystical nature. v
While witchcraft itselfis part ofthe human organism its action is psychic. What Azande call mbisimo
mangu, the soul of witchcraft, is a concept that bridges over the distance between the person of
the witch and the person of his victim. Some such explanation is necessary to account for the fact
that a witch was in his hut at the time when he is supposed to have injured someone. The soul of
witchcraft may leave its corporeal home at any time during the day or night, but Azande generally
Witchcraft I I think of a witch sending his soul on errands by night when his victim is asleep. Itsails
through the air emitting a bright light. During the daytime this light can only be seen by witches, and
bywitch-doctors when they are primed with medicines, but anyone may have the rare misfortune to
observe it at night. Azande say that the light ofwitchcraft is like the gleam offire-fly beetles, only it is
ever so much larger and brighter than they. They also say that a man may seewitchcraft asit goes to
rest on branchesfor 'Witchcraft is like fire, it lights a light'. If a man sees the light ofwitchcraft he picks
up a piece of charcoal and throws it under his bed so that he may not suffer misfortune from the
sight. I have only once seen witchcraft on its path. I had been sitting late in my hut writing notes.
About midnight, before retiring, I took a spear and went for my usual nocturnal stroll. I was walking
in the garden at the back of my hut, amongst banana trees, when I noticed a bright light passing at
the back of my servants' huts towards the homestead of a man called Tupoi. As this seemed worth
investigation I followed its passage until a grass screen obscured the view. I ran quickly through my
hut to the other side in order to see where the light was going to, but did not regain sight of it. I
knew that only one man, a member of my household, had a lamp that might have given offso bright
a light, but next morning he told me that he had neither been out late at night nor had he used his
lamp. There ,did not lack ready informants to tell me that what I had seen .was witchcraft. Shortly
afterwards, on the same morning, an .old relative ofTupoiand an inmate ofhis homestead died. This .
event fully explained the light I had seen. I never discovered \ itsreal origin, which was possibly a
handful ofgrass lit by some- .: one on his way to defecate, but the coincidence of the direction ·.along
which the light moved and the subsequent death .. accorded well with Zande ideas. This light is not
the witch in person stalking his prey but is an emanation from his body. On this point Zande opinion
is quite decided. The witch is on his bed, but he has dispatched the soul of his witchcraft to remove
the psychical part of his victim's organs, his mbisimo pasio, the soul of his flesh, which he and his
fellow witches will devour. The whole act ofvampirism is an incorporeal one: the soul of witchcraft
removes the soul of the organ. I have not been able to obtain a precise "I 12 Witchcraft explanation
ofwhat is meant by the soul of witchcraft and the soul of an organ. Azande know that people are
killed in this way, but only a witch himself could give an exact account of what happens in the
process. Azande use the same word in describing the psychical parts of witchcraft-substance and
other organs as they use for what we call the soul of a man. Anything the action of which is not
subject to the senses may likewise be explained by the existence of a soul. Medicines act by means
of their soul, an explanation which covers the void between a magical rite and the achievement of
its purpose. The poison oracle also has a soul, which accounts for its power to see what a man
cannot see. The action of witchcraft is therefore not subject to the ordinary conditions which limit
most objects of daily use, but its activity is thought to be limited to some extent by conditions
ofspace. Witchcraft does not strike a man at a great distance, but only injures people in the vicinity. If
a man leaves the district in which he is livIng when attacked by witchcraft it will not follow him far.
Witchcraft needs, moreover, conscious direction. The witch cannot send out his witchcraft and leave
it to find its victim for itself, but he must define its objective and determine its route. Hence a sick
man can often elude its further ravages by withdrawing to the shelter of a grass hut in the bush
unknown to all but his wife and children. The witch will dispatch his witchcraft after his victim and it
will search his homestead in vain and return to its owner. Likewise, a man will leave a homestead
before dawn in order to escape witchcraft, because then witches are asleep and will not observe his
departure. When they become aware that he has left he will already be out of range of their
witchcraft. If, onthe other hand, they see him starting they may bewitch him and some misfortune
will befall him on his journey or after his return home. It is because witchcraft is believed to act only
at a short range that if a wife falls sick on a visit to her parents' home they search for the responsible
witch there and not at her husband's home, and if she dies in her parents' home her husband may
hold them responsible because they have not protected her by consulting the oracles about her
welfare. The farther removed a man's homestead from his neighbours the safer he is from witchcraft.
When Azande of the AngloWitchcraft 13 Egyptian Sudan were compelled to live in roadside
settlements they did so with profound misgivings, and many fled to the Belgian Congo rather than
face close contact with their neighbours. Azande say that their dislike ofliving in close proximity to
others is partly due to a desire to place a stretch of country between their wives and possible lovers
and partly to their beliefthat a witch can injure the more severely the nearer he is to his victim. The
Zande verb 'to bewitch' is no, and in its only other uses we translate this word 'to shoot'. It is used for
shooting with bow and arrow or with a gun. By ajerk ofa leg witch-doctors will shoot (no) pieces of
bone into one another at a distance. We may notice the analogy between these different shootings
and their common factor, the act ofcausing injury at a distance. VI In speaking ofwitches and
witchcraft it is necessary to explain that Azande normally think of witchcraft quite impersonally and
apart from any particular witch or witches. When a man says he cannot live in a certain place
because of witchcraft he means that he has been warned against this spot by the oracles; The oracles
have told him that if he lives there he will be attacked by witches, and he thinks of this danger as a
general danger from witchcraft. Hence he speaks always of mangu, witchcraft. This force does not
exist outside individuals; it is, in fact, an organic part ofthem, but when particular individuals~ are
not specified and no effort is made to identify them, then it must be thought of as a generalized
force. Witchcraft means, therefore, some or any witches. When a Zande says about a mishap, 'It is
witchcraft', he means that it is due to a witch but he does not know to which particular one. In the
same way he will say in a magic spell, 'Let witchcraft die', meaning whoever may attempt to bewitch
him. The concept of witchcraft is not that of an impersonal force that may become attached to
persons but of a personal force that is generalized in speech, for ifAzande do not particularize they
are bound to generalize. VII A witch does not immediately destroy his victim. On the contrary, if a
man becomes suddenly and acutely ill he may be \.Ii t'l:1 !I.I 111 II II 1: 11 il ~I I!i 14 Witchcraft sure
that he is a victim of sorcery and not of witchcraft. The effects of witchcraft lead to death by slow
stages, for it is only when a witch has eaten all the soul of a vital organ that death ensues. This takes
time, because he makes frequent visits over a long period and consumes only a little ofthe soul ofthe
organ on each visit, or, if he removes a large portion, he hides it in the thatch of his hut or in a hole of
a tree and eats it bit by bit. A slow wasting disease is the type of sickness caused by witchcraft. It may
be asked whether Azande consider the consumption of the soul of an organ leads at the same time
to its physical deterioration. They are certainly sometimes of this opinion. Witches also shoot
objects, called ahu mangu, things of witchcraft, into the bodies of those whom they wish to injure.
This leads to pain in the place where the missile is lodged, and a witch-doctor, in his role ofleech, will
be summoned to extract the offending objects, which may be material objects or worms and grubs.
Witches usually combine in their destructive activities and subsequent ghoulish feasts. They assist
each other in their crimes and arrange their nefarious schemes in concert. They possess a special
kind of ointment, which, rubbed into their skins, renders them invisible on nocturnal expeditions, a
statement which suggests that witches are sometimes thought to move in the body to attack their
enemies. They also possess small drums which are beaten to summon them to congress where their
discussions are presided over by old and experi- , enced members of the brotherhood, for there are
status and leadership among witches. Experience must be obtained under tuition of elder witches
before a man is qualified to kill his neighbours. Growth in experience goes hand in hand with growth
ofwitchcraft-substance. It is also said that a witch may not kill a man entirely on his own initiative but
must present his proposals to a meeting of his fellows presided over by a witch-leader. The question
is thrashed out among them. Sooner or later a witch falls a victim to vengeance or, if he is clever
enough to avoid retribution, is killed by another witch or by a sorcerer. We may ask whether the
distinction between witches, aboro mangu, and those who are not witches, amokundu, is maintained
beyond the grave? I have never been given a spontaneousstatement to this effect, but in answer to
direct and Witchcraft 15 leading questions I have on one or two occasions been told that when
witches die they become evil ghosts (agirisa). Atoro, the ordinary ghosts, are benevolent beings, at
least as benevolent as a Zande father ofa family, and their occasional participation in the world they
have left behind them is on the whole orderly and conducive to the welfare of their children. The
agirisa, on the other hand, show a venomous hatred of humanity. They bedevil travellers in the bush
and cause passing states of dissociation. VIII The existence of witchcraft-substance in a living person
is known by oracular verdicts. In the dead it is discovered by opening up the belly, and it is this
second method ofidentification that interests us in our account of the physical basis of witchcraft. I
have already suggested that the organ in which witchcraft-substance is found is the small intestine.
The conditions in which an autopsy took place in pre-European days are obscure. According toone
informant, Gbaru, autopsies were an ancient Mbomu custom, and difficulties only began to arise in
Gbudwe's time. Possiblythe practice was an old one which disappeared as political control of the
Avongara increased and reappeared with its old vigour after European conquest. King Gbudwe, as I
have been told by all informants, discouraged the practice. . However, autopsies were sometimes
made when a witch was executed without royal authority. Occasionally kinsmen of a dead man acted
on the verdict of their own poison oracle and avenged themselves on a witch without waiting for
confirmation from the king's poison oracle. In such a case their action was ultra vires, and if the
relatives of the victim of vengeance could show that there was no witchcraft-substance in his belly
they could claim compensation in the king's court from the kin who had taken the law intotheir own
hands. On the other hand, autopsies to clear the good name of a lineage, a member of which had
been accused ofminor acts of witchcraft not involv-' ing payment of damages, may have been fairly
frequent even before European conquest, and they were certainly common after it. A man who had
frequently been accused of witchcraft, even 1. ',1", M ;(11 ;'JI iN ~ll rr~ II,l !t ~i: ~.;~ though he were
never accused of homicide, would feel that he had been insulted without cause and that the name of
his kin had been brought into illrepute. He would therefore sometimes instruct his sons to open his
abdomen before burial to ascertain whether these reflections on the honour ofhis lineage were
justified, or he might have the operation performed on a son who had died prematurely. For the
Zande mind is logical and inquiring within the framework of its culture and insists on the coherence
ofits own idiom. Ifwitchcraft is an organic substance its presence can be ascertained by post-mortem
search. If it is hereditary it can be discovered in the belly of a close male kinsman of a witch as
surely as in the belly of the witch himself. An autopsy is performed in public at the edge of the grave.
Those who attend are relatives ofthe dead, his relatives-in.,law, his friends, his blood-brothers, and
old men ofstanding in the neighbourhood who commonly attend funerals and sit watching the
grave-diggers at their labour and other preparations for burial. Many ofthese old men have been
present on similar occasions in the past, and it is they who will decide upon the presence or absence
of witchcraft-substance. They can tell its presence by the way the intestines come out of the belly.
Two lateral gashes are made in the belly and one end of the intestines is placed in a cleft branch and
they are wound round it. After the other end has been severed from the body another man takes it
and unwinds the intestines as he walks away from the man holding the cleft branch. The old men
walk alongside , the entrails as they are stretched in the air and examine them for witchcraft-
~ubstance. The intestines are usually replaced in the belly when the examination is finished and the
corpse is buried. I have been told that if no witchcraft-substance were discovered in a man's belly his
kinsmen might strike his accusers in the face with his intestines or might dry them in the sun and
afterwards take them to court and there boast of their victory. I have also heard that if witchcraft-
substance were discovered the accusers might take the entrails and hang them on a tree bordering
one of the main paths leading to a prince's court. The cutting and the burial must be performed by a
bloodbrother, for this is one ofthe duties of blood-brotherhood. One informant told me that if a
man who had not made bloodbrotherhood with the kin of the dead person performed the 16
Witchcraft Witchcraft 17 ceremony he would by so doing become their blood-brother. Ifwitchcraft-
substance is found the cutter will have to be paid heavily for his services. Whether there is
witchcraft-substance or not he must be ritually cleansed after the operation. He is carried round on
the shoulders of a relative of the dead and greeted with ceremonial cries and pelted with earth and
red ground-fruits ofthe nonga plant (Amomumkorarima) 'to take coldness from him'. He is carried
to a stream and the relatives of the dead wash his hands and give him an infusion, made from
various trees, to drink. Before he has been cleansed he may neither eat nor drink, for he is polluted
like a woman whose husband has died. Finally, ifthere was no witchcraft-substance, a feast is
prepared at which the cutter and a kinsman of the dead pull a gourd containing beer into halves and
the kinsmen ofthe dead and the kinsmen ofthe cutter exchange gifts, a man from each party
advancing in turn to the other party and throwing his gift on the ground before them