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Culture & Society
Prosecute?
p solutions to
Accusations
it is typically the most vulnerable of
society that are targeted. For states and
governments, witchcraft allegations raise
both questions around their monopoly
of power and of how to deal with the
victims?
Zimbabwe and the Central African
Republic can be seen as two opposing
models in that sense. While Zimbabwe has
prioritised the protection of the accused,
the Central African Republic still carries
on with the French colonial attitude of
treating witchcraft itself as a crime and
trying to institutionalise the process of
accusation and trial.
Both the British and the French
colonial rulers introduced laws against
witchcraft, but while the French only
punished the practice of witchcraft,
the British also suppressed witchcraft
allegations no matter if one was accusing
others falsely or claimed to be a witch
themselves. Zimbabwe abandoned the
British law in the 1980s, but failed at
the time to introduce a law banning
witchcraft accusations.
Instead, the government set up a series
of institutions like Zinatha and otherwise
relied on laws against communal violence
and forceful eviction to punish the
perpetrators of witchcraft allegations.
This approach has proven to be
Many of them, for example, do not
know how to deal properly with the
police and courts. If they even approach
law enforcement, Masvanhise told The
Parade, they are often turned away
because they only tell the police about
the witchcraft allegations and fail to
happened as a consequence of those
accusations.
By contrast, the Central African
Republic has kept its colonial-era law and,
contrary to some other African states, is
making frequent use of it. According to a
study by UNICEF, about 25% of all cases
brought to court in the capital Bangui
and 80-90% of all cases in rural areas are
witchcraft-related. 70% of all prisoners
in Bangui central prison are incarcerated
because of witchcraft accusations.
In theory, an argument can be made
for the punishment of ‘black magic’ in
African societies. Witchcraft is not only
believed in, but also actively practised
all over the continent and the anecdotal
and factual evidence of malign witchcraft
practices abounds.
Completely doing away with
recognising witchcraft as a crime
therefore bears the real risk of lowering
the trust in the judicial system and
driving the practice of punishing witches
underground; after all, in the eyes of
most of the population, somebody has to
protect them from the evil intentions of
witches and sorcerers.
But this risk is probably worth it, if
one looks at the problems associated with
witchcraft-related trials. How do you
prove that somebody is involved with
the supernatural? In the Central African
Republic, the answer is simple: You just
ask somebody else who purports to wield
similar powers.
“That is hard because if my neighbour
gets on my nerves and I want to get rid
of her, I can just say she is a witch. I’m
against that,” argued Kaviya.
It is also worth asking whether a
sustainable solution to the suffering
produced by witchcraft accusations can
even come from attacking witchcraft
related practices at all?
As has been established, these
accusations are largely a function of
underlying social issues like poverty, low
levels of education and insecurity.
Witchcraft allegations typically target
the most vulnerable in society, but how
can beliefs “as strong as iron” be tackled?
TP
The Parade - Zimbabwe’s Most Read Lifestyle Magazine August 2014
Page 49