JUSTINE GERARDY, Johannesburg | Tuesday
EVERY exam was the same. An inexplicable illness would strike, leaving her unable to write and unable to explain why. No one could give a reason.
Until an igqirha (traditional healer) told her that a witch whose daughter had dropped out of school did not want her to write her exams.
This was one of the stories collected in a study on the link between witchcraft, development and democratisation in African societies conducted in Duncan Village and Newlands earlier this year.
The study was initiated by Jahsa Wiles, a sociologist at a research programme at the University of Hamburg (Germany) working with a project concentrating on social transformation in African societies.
The research was carried out by Monde Mtongana and Luvo Gazi of Rhodes University’s industrial sociology department.
The low-income, urban Duncan Village area ranges from mostly shacks to the relatively affluent Gompo section. About 80 000 people live here permanently — making up 50% of the core city’s population crammed onto two percent of the land.
The rurally situated Newlands is characterised by poverty and unemployment and has no electricity, toilets or roads.
Residents of these areas were interviewed using open-ended questions to allow expansion of narration.
The researchers found a key theme among respondents to be jealousy: ”Almost all the respondents pointed out that jealousy is the cause of all the conflicts that are related to witchcraft,” states the report.
Other emergent themes were poverty — said to lead to jealousy — and the lack of facilities. Most people believed that the lack of infrastructure, jobs, education and the few resources they had to share were some reasons for social conflicts.
Understanding of development centred around the interviewees’ needs. In Duncan Village, physical infrastructure, job creation and poverty alleviation would constitute development in their area. In Newlands, housing, job opportunities, electricity, roads and clinics top the list.
Priorities in Gompo were more along the lines of sport facilities.
For the majority of respondents, witchcraft is indeed a topic of concern – despite the fact that some people and churches choose not to talk about it openly.
But definitions of witchcraft were ambiguous, with almost everybody having a different definition.
A relationship was seen to exist between social conditions prevailing in the communities and the extent of the witchcraft belief – illustrated in Duncan Village, where the extent of the belief was different in both the poor and affluent areas, and which could be attributed to social conditions.
Contrary to the popular notion that the practice was more prevalent in rural areas, the research revealed that it is prevalent in urban areas too.
Stories varied with most respondents agreeing that they had been affected by witchcraft in one way or another.
In Gompo people acknowledged the talk about witchcraft, but said it did not have a significant role in their lives with no stories of witchcraft incidents in their area.
In the poorer areas, the stories were more vivid. One unemployed Duncan Village man told the researchers that he was not working due to pain in his feet. A few years ago a girlfriend of his poured something (presumably muti) into his shoes and as he was drinking heavily at the time, he ignored it.
When he wore the shoes the following day, a problem started which different doctors and hospitals could not solve. He consulted a powerful igqirha, who told him that the reason for his suffering was his girlfriend. He gave him traditional medicine which relieved him but did not cure him. He still cannot wear shoes.
In Newlands almost every respondent had encountered witchcraft directly or indirectly.
One respondent could not sleep peacefully at night. Every time he went to bed he would hear footsteps as if someone was wandering around his house.
No-one could be seen. But as soon as he went back to bed the same thing would happen again. This eventually led him to relocate to a new site. He is convinced that witchcraft was used by someone to move him away, as he now sleeps quietly and peacefully.
The hypothesis that women were the ones who practised witchcraft was confirmed with the majority of respondents (including women) agreeing that men have a very minor role to play if any.
In both areas, while people do interact, relations among them were not very good with poverty and lack of resources pointed out as the source of conflicts.
One respondent said he felt unemployment and grinding poverty in Duncan Village were the driving force behind disunity in the area.
As there are no longer overtly witchcraft-related conflicts (not since the early 1990s), there are no structures specifically set up to look at the issue.
People accused of being witches are not arrested as that cannot be proved in a court of law, but someone accusing another of being a witch could be charged with crimen injuria.
A station commander in Duncan Village told the researchers that police only get involved in cases where there is harm caused to someone or the situation is volatile.
One woman from Duncan Village felt that if people could have jobs and something to eat at the end of the day, then there would be no witchcraft-related conflict as nobody would have the time to accuse others of being witches.
Respondents were divided on whether development could play a role in coping with witchcraft conflicts.
Some felt witchcraft based on poverty would be eradicated if the area was developed. Others argued that even if needs were fulfilled, witchcraft would still be practised as it was rooted in jealousy or was a mystical, magical power which was here to stay.
On the other hand, Gompo residents felt development would play a role in preventing social conflict in general.
Mtongana and Gazi felt that if people had access to basics through development (getting jobs and other material items) there would be a sharp decline of witchcraft-related incidents.
They therefore concluded that development could play a big role in coping with witchcraft-related social conflicts. The rationalisation is that people think that with jobs and ability to self-provide, a sharp decline in conflicts generally would be seen.
However, Mtongana and Gazi state emphatically: ”No amount of development would ever change people from believing in witchcraft. It is a belief system that is deeply entrenched in the people’s minds and would never be changed easily.” – Sapa