Is African Witchcraft a Cure or Curse to Zambian Society?

This article is about witchcraft and its different varieties of practices in different cultures. This article explains how witchcraft exists and plays an essential part in structural and functional aspects of a society. It also sheds the light on the journey of witchcraft from being profane and wicked to acceptable part of a culture.

For instance, diarrhea and headaches, which are common symptoms of bacterial infections, are believed to occur due to jealousy, anxiety, and shame, which they term as natural causes. In addition, loss of weight and appetite is believed to be a temporary state of body weakness, which does not need medical attention and will cease with time. On the other hand, Lockwood (2009) explains that illnesses such as skin sores, leprosy, madness, epilepsy, and pneumonia occur as a result of direct supernatural causes. For instance, such cases of illnesses occur after a breach or transgression of some customary laws and taboos. For that reason, the only possible cure is through treatment by sorcerers or traditional Bushmen as opposed to going to the hospital (Shahid, Finn, Bessarab, & Thompson, 2009). This can have adverse effects on the health of the aboriginal people, especially where critical conditions like mental disorders or pneumonia are involved.

Nao Kao and Foua had been conflicted with abiding with the Hmong ways to not seek physician help. Certain parts of Hmong culture, such as taboos against procedures, beliefs of disease origins, and power structures within the family and Hmong clan often conflict with western culture of medicine. But when the Lee’s had not taken one of their children to the hospital, his soul was lost, and he died. Considering this incident and their lack of knowledge of Lia’s condition, the Lee’s had to involuntarily comply to western culture and take Lia to the doctors, as their last line of defense. It is important to note here that as a provider, I must be aware of my own assumptions of care. The doctors’ goal of treatment was to use medication and procedures to find out what caused her seizures and treat it with various medications. Lia’s parents considered her disease a blessing as a chance to become a shaman and a curse that caused great stress over the family. This often resulted in misunderstandings between the physicians and the Lee family as the Lee’s perceptions of Lia’s illness were not in line with the doctors.

Voodoo is an old religion that finds its roots in west Africa. Remnants of its physical history can be found throughout the West African Coast where major slave trading markets were located. An Example of this are locations contain trees of forgetting in which slaves were “Zombified” by administering herbs to make them more compliant. Today these historical sites draw tourist learning about the horrors of the slave trade Voodoo beliefs originated from African animist religions that predate Islam and Christian influences and were not understood by the European slave owners who forbid its practice. It created a fear in the Europeans and is misunderstood even today. Its travel to the Caribbean, Haiti and America had a lasting impact and is still practiced.

On the other hand, the healing powers that sorcerers possess are respected in other communities. Witch doctors, although not real witches, are trusted to concoct remedies to protect others against witchcraft. Furthermore, Shamans are believed to be endowed with the power to both cure and kill. The Shaman has the ability to go into a trance to interact with the spirit world on behalf of the community. Although there are varying opinions on the practicing of witchcraft, it still continues today whether it is accepted or not.

In this case study on cross cultural medicinal beliefs and practices, Anne Fadiman addresses the rift between Hmong spiritual and medicinal customs and the culture of American biomedicine by telling the story of a young Hmong child, Lia Lee. Lia’s journey started when she was three months old and she suffered her first of many epileptic seizures. Over the next few months she continued to suffer from her seizures and made at least three emergency room visits. Like most cases of epilepsy, the cause of her grand mal seizures was unknown, however, her parents, Nao Kao and Foua Lee, believed it to be the result of her elder sister slamming the door and scaring Lia awake, allowing a dab, or evil spirit, to steal her soul. After her first visit to the Merced Community Medical Center, it became clear that the language barrier would not allow for an accurate patient history to be recorded. As Lia’s condition worsened, this barrier would further prevent the Lee’s from understanding exactly what was happening to their daughter as well as follow the treatment the doctors were implementing. This eventually lead to the doctor’s believing that Nao Kao and Foua

The author further explains this narrative by exploring the spirituality and religious practice in the Caribbean culture (Patel, 4). “[The] folklore is rich with belief in Obeah, Voodou, or Santeria [and have entrenched their] basis in African cultures” (Patel, 4). This concludes that anyone exhibiting symptoms of mental health disorders is cursed, or possessed, or were given the evil eye, hence they need an exorcist to be treated (Patel, 4). This is however more prevalent for women than men, and the usual treatment suggested by the town elders is to pray (Patel, 4). In the case of Stacy-Ann, her therapist was Dr. Natasha Browne who is a Toronto based psychologists and accepts the stigma around mental health in the community as

In Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure The World by Tracy Kidder, Kidder denounces both the current global distribution of wealth and how the international community views medical aid in needy countries; he does this by including a scene in which Haitians believe that their illness exists because they’ve been cursed, and that Dr. Paul Farmer is the only person who can release the curse. This frustration is expressed when Farmer states that “Haitians believe in sorcery because their culture has evolved in the absence of effective medicine. So of course they believe in sorcery, in sicknesses that someone has sent to them” (Kidder). The fact that such a large group of people are so far behind in medical

In the 17th and 18th centuries, rationality through reason and logic was presented by the thoughts and writings of philosophers such as Descartes and Locke. This influenced the ways in which people in the west obtained objective truths and the western world became dominated by scientific thought. It was during this period in western history that non-secular forces and powers became less dominant and lost some authority over the actions of monarchies, governments and civilians. With rational thought altering the way people thought about religion, it is no wonder that witchcraft in England was demoted to myth and legend, or tales of folly from times where we did not know better; under this new system of thought, anything unexplainable was deemed invalid. Throughout the 19th century in the peak of British colonialism, in western culture, it was considered a Gentleman’s duty to educate and civilise those who were less fortunate. The pursuit of unilineal cultural evolution in the form of western colonialism came from the concept of psychic unity, the idea that all people must have similar mental abilities (Harkin, 2017). It is why the question around witchcraft and rationality and its trepidatious link to psychic unity and colonial ‘primitive mentality’ (Levi-Bruhl, 1926) is still so markedly debated. To understand if witchcraft is rational, we must look to understand the cultural and social systems of those who practice it. Using Evans-Pritchard’s research on the Azande to

During “Into The Wild” Chris McCandless sets out on an ultimate adventure that leads to his unfortunate death. Main points of the story had to deal with him hitchhiking, and throwing away tons of money; or just plain out giving it away. In today’s everyday life we need to use money for everything. The Nymiang Tribe does not use money to state their wealth or status they use cattle. As if one person has more cattle than another tribe member they are considered more wealthy. This tribe is located in South Kordofan State (Northern Sudan) and the population is 100,000 along with most of them being muslim. Now throughout the story Chris came from a pretty middle-class wealthy family, where his father worked for NASA and brought in most of the household

Healers of Ghana were an amazing film of the people in Ghana. The scenes that caught my attention was learning the about the Techiman Bono people and their belief in witchcraft. They have rituals and religious belief of polytheism.

Research shows that over 15,000 children have been accused in two of Nigeria's 36 states over the past decade, and 1,000 horribly killed (Houreld, "African Children Denounced As "Witches" By Christian Pastors"). Superstition can affect anyone who lets it into their lives. We should all be aware and alert when we find ourselves dealing with what is right, and our superstitious beliefs. The child witch accusations in Africa are not only unfair, but inhumane by the way they go about taking care of these accused children, and this horrible crime has to be stopped.

The Effects of the Utilization of Money as Power during Apartheid Money is a mechanism for control. -- David Korten David Korten expresses an incisive view of money; it is often utilized to control. Through money, a dichotomy is drawn in society. Those who posses money wield all of the power, which they often abuse in order to suppress and intimidate those beneath them. In the short stories No Witchcraft for Sale and Train From Rhodesia, the white citizens exploit money in order to remind the natives of their superiority and impose control.

The Enlightenment and the emerging of modern rationalism have paved the way to a worldview where the suspicion of witchcraft is not needed to explain the mysterious phenomena of this world. This is not the case in Africa. The belief in the existence of witches, evil persons who are able to harm others by using mystical powers, is part of the common cultural knowledge. Samuel Waje Kunhiyop states, “Almost all African societies believe in witchcraft in one form or another. Belief in witchcraft is the traditional way of explaining the ultimate cause of evil, misfortune or death.” The African worldview is holistic. In this perception, things do not just happen. What happens, either good or bad, is traced back to human action,

Cause of illness: In Ethiopia spiritual powers are the main reason of illness because they believe spirits, souls etc. Beside this the supernatural forces is also one of the main reason of illness in this healers. Demonic powers are considered to be the affective reason for bad health such as miscarriages or mental stress or physical illness. On the other hand side in ayurvedic medicine the main reason of illness is physical or mental imbalance of the body like back pain, stress and the other reason of illness in Ayurveda is changes in environment. Mostly the cold and hot weather affect the