Witchcraft in Post-colonial Africa: Beliefs, techniques and containment strategies

Chapter Four: Explaining Witchcraft Violence in Venda, Limpopo Province

81 Chapter Four Explaining Witchcraft Violence in Venda, Limpopo Province Introduction Levels and types of belief in witches vary in time within African societies. At some points in time people believe that witches are rife and more aggressive within their communities; while at other points they believe that while witches exist, they show signs of domesticity and are confinable. The witchcraft violence that has ravaged the area of Venda since the 1980s manifests such variation in the beliefs as held by people in witchcraft-ridden communities. The twentieth century, and particularly its last two decades, has witnessed an effort in anthropology to situate African witchcraft within social ‘strain-gauge’ and modernity theories. This was done as if African witchcraft it was homogeneous and coherent, and notwithstanding its variations in different African localities. African witchcraft has therefore increasingly become a phenomenon that is understood within the context of recent socio-economic changes that have engulfed the globe. Similarly, the witchcraft violence that left large parts of the Limpopo Province divided and counting the loss of their inhabitants has been explained in terms of these theories. The violence was said to have been instigated by unemployed and disillusioned youth against the elderly or the jealous poor against the relatively rich whom they blamed for their sufferings. It was said to reflect a “widespread anxiety about the production and reproduction of wealth, an anxiety that translated into bitter generational opposition. ... It should be noted, urban “comrades” demonised the parental generation as passive “sell-outs” to colonial oppression ... Precisely this sense of illegitimate production and reproduction pervades youthful discourses of witchcraft in much of South Africa. Many young blacks blame their incapacity to ensure a future for 82 themselves on an aged elite that controls the means of generating wealth without working” (Comaroff and Comaroff 1997:19). That is, the impoverished youth perpetuated this violence against the relatively better off elderly people. Such a dichotomous explanation of witchcraft violence in areas of the Limpopo Province was also echoed in the media. In Ke Bona Boloi, a drama on witchcraft violence in the Limpopo Province that was broadcast on SABC TV (South Africa’s public broadcasting television station) in 1999, the disgruntled, unemployed, partisan youth were portrayed as the perpetrators of the violence against the elderly, especially old women. Meanwhile, the diviners were portrayed as quacks and charlatans who were central to the witchcraft violence. Those accused of witchcraft were portrayed as victims of loose gossip, jealousy or as members of the community who were vulnerable and weak. They were victims of social insanity arising from irrational community members that were struggling to make sense of their sufferings as a result of socio-economic changes. However, reducing the witchcraft violence that ravaged the Limpopo Province into conventional and commonplace explanations is too simple. Without analysing such violence within the social context that it takes place, such efforts actually yields little understanding. What happened in Venda and other areas was a witchcraft struggle which centred around a collective determination to rid communities of witches. In Venda, participation in this witchcraft struggle was not shaped by party-political identification, poverty, wealth, gender or age, but was influenced by fear – the fear of becoming the next victim of witchcraft and the fear of being labelled a witch. This fear and the awareness of fear cut across members of society - political leaders, traditional leaders, traditional healers, church leaders, academics, and members of the police service - who were caught up in witchcraft struggle. It was this witchcraft struggle that divided members of various communities into heroes and villains. In this respect, it resembled the struggle for liberation, which divided the black community in South Africa into those who supported the liberation movements and those who accepted the oppressive system. As in the liberation struggle, 83 neutrality in the witchcraft struggle was unacceptable and was often interpreted as covert support for witches and the State which was deemed as apathetic to the concerns of the majority of its citizens. The heroes were those that saw themselves as committed to freeing the community from the supernatural evil - liberating people from the attacks of witches. They called themselves comrades – a popular name within political circles during the struggle for liberation. The villains were those labelled as witches, their relatives, and everyone who was viewed as sympathizing with them. This chapter critically examines the work of authors who view witchcraft attributions and...