Viewing Notes “Witchcraft among the Azande”

Prepared by Juan Orrantia ‘02

From the “Disappearing Worlds” Series.

“Disappearing Worlds” is an odd name for a documentary series that includes magic, a cultural practice that is hardly a struggling survival but rather one that remains vibrant and much in evidence. Indeed, its continued force among the Azande is one of the themes of this documentary, which seems to follow the structure of Evan-Pritchard’s famous monograph, Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande.

We are hence initially introduced to the relationship between diseases and witchcraft as an opening into the role of magic in so-called Azande culture. Viewers may expect that if magic is so central in the curing of bodily diseases, it certainly must run through other cultural spheres. And thus the film does show how it runs throughout the Azande system of beliefs and how it has been this way through time—even up to the moment of the film itself, in these 1970’s Christian times.

This view of magic and witchcraft is presented in what anthropologists used to call a syncretic context, where apparent contradictory systems coexisted and yet were entangled with one another. But the power of magic we are told, is not only present, it is has not been replaced in certain spheres like that that of bodily and cultural order survival: it is practiced in order to solve problems that range from adultery to a simple, yet painful, toothache. Christianity then plays it role, yet is not able to encompass the power of magic.

With this introductory ground, and amongst the fields of dusty African villages, Azande magic is presented in this center of non-western life. Here the film (seems to) follow the structure of E-P’s book. It begins it account with reference to the bodily conception of Azande magic’s essence, mangu.

But how to deal with real, ground to earth problems performed by magic? The answer lies in the oracles.

In the first part of documentary, the film describes the oracles through several case studies, certain everyday practices and performances of magic in its various spheres of cultural activity and belief. Thus, the setting for the explanation of the use of oracles, magic and witchcraft has at its core a scene of, well, “regular” everyday adultery. Yet this fault is dealt with, by magic, and its resolution begins and ends, with the consulting of oracles.

The case is even further situated in a context of postcolonial appropriation of (British) institutions and forms of authority. The chief of the village, to whom the accusing and accused parties must face once the adultery claim has been made public by one the affected women, is presented in his very British colonial attire, with a military cap, his beige suit, and seated in the ruling chair table—resembling, by the way, an image of colonial ruling in the field. As the parties set their claims and the chief allows the possibility of confession, which leads to a denial of the charges, oracles, the ultimate judges, come to play. Benge, the poison oracle, the ultimate teller of truth must be consulted.

Meanwhile, in a not so formal context of authority, a man consults oracles in the midst of his fields, in order to know if the current sickness of one of his two wives is being caused by magic embedded and embodied in the other. Magic we are reminded, is an embodied force that rules people, sometimes acting through them without their own control, as an unconscious force of mischief. The man consults various oracles [description of the types of oracles pending], from the simple rubbing board to the ritual and forceful intake of Benge poisoning of chickens. We are told and shown, how this system of consultation works by means of opposing questions determined by the death and survival of the chicken.

Back in the court, the oracles have spoken and indicated that the accused have been lying. The oracles seers perform their role, and again, in a very postcolonial appropriation of British military performance of authority, they provide their results. Fines are set for the guilty.

A third temporality of everyday usage of magic in now located in midst of a hunting expedition, whose members have been rather unfortunate in their catches lately. As these images are shown, the role of Christianity is much more evident. The hunters flow from oracles to Christian beliefs, using magical-“traditional”- practices for the understanding of their misfortune, proving the inability of Christianity for certain cultural purposes, while not totally disregarding it.

Ritual is here then effaced in various ways. The Azande witchdoctor’s performance and the collective Christian Mass are here not only a means of representation of ritual, they also set the stage for a discussion on the role of magic and cultural transformation in generational groups. Narratives of “decline” by older generations are hence located in the sexual context of births, marriages, and religious conflicts. A boy and a girl who have just had a child, smile as the mother of the girl talks of so-called cultural change. We all laugh; it resembles changes similar to those we all know. But magic is accepted, recruited, used, and accepted by the younger generations as much as it seems to be threatened, or so we are told, by an increase in Christianity. A Mass with beautiful African chorus music enhances for the audience the dichotomy between the past and the present, between the so-called traditional and modern. After all, it is a film of a Disappearing World. The narratives are hence juxtaposed between youngsters, older women who firmly believe in magic (hence invigorating the tie between traditional/past/magic), and “native” priests who firmly believe in Christianity and Western progress and development.

The role of oracles, witchcraft and magic among the Azande is thus set in a narrative of development theory, of cultural confrontations. The question remains, but so do the categories of opposition. The film hence ends with a sense of timeless lingering of magic as threatened. Why?