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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Swahili Society, Magic, Witchcraft and Power
| Panel |
66. Traditional religion and healing in Africa and the role of the inner senses
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| Paper ID | 603 |
| Author(s) |
Nicolini, Beatrice
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | The diffusion of magical practices and witchcraft did always represent great and powerful aggregation issues among many East African different populations, both during colonial and contemporary times.
From the historical, institutional and military points of view, East African colonial history clashed against East African magical practices and witchcraft, and, in many occasions, colonial authorities of the time did persecute major representatives of these practices, also with the use of force. East African chiefs, and East African dictators of contemporary African history 'used' magical rites and supernatural powers with the firm object of justifying their political choices and military actions, together with the obvious prerequisites of mass control. Their aims have always been, and are still today in some cases, and in some areas, of maintain their personal political-institutional and military power. Within peace-building processes, the role of magic and witchcraft did play a significant contribution towards mediation and social security implementations.
Magical practices and witchcraft are very much spread throughout the whole African continent, especially in those regions where economic and environmental crises conditions gave life to high social, economical and political uncertainty. This is undoubtedly a very complex phenomenon, absolutely relevant upon which reflections and analysis are strongly requested with regards to the development of new perspectives and methodological keys of re-reading African historical dynamics, both of the past and of the present times. Many commentators - missionaries, administrators, journalists and even academics - have described many aspects of positive and socially valued African religion as witchcraft. For rural Africans, however, the idea of witchcraft is reserved for destructive, negative and nocturnal power. Both religion and witchcraft have been invoked to explain violent events but in different ways. However, there can be an overlap because of contests of explanation of misfortune.
The object of this paper is that of showing how practices of magic and witchcraft did reveal, and still reveal today, as very much useful instruments within political fights, sometimes with the object of violent oppositions and revolutions, sometimes with the object of status quo preservation processes.
The studies on waganga role within Swahili society certainly occupy an important place, since for a long time Zanzibar and Pemba has been singled out as the proverbial abode of witchcraft. Throughout colonial period, witchcraft featured in racialist and imperialist constructions of alterity and inferiority as projected onto members of East African societies. Consequently, it’s very easy associating waganga role with lower strata of the local society, such as people of subordinate status, often explained as compensation for frustration and alternative mean of achieving social status and power. But it remains a fact that along the Swahili coast, waganga role did always crossed ethnic and religious boundaries. Within this framework, we will try to understand the role of the traditional healer and his magical practices towards the community and the way the colonial authorities react to these practices.Condemned by the colonialism and forbidden after the independence, these practises were connected with witchcraft and only recently are seen in a different perspective.
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