20.— THE THEORY OF WITCHCRAFT AMONGST SOUTH 



AFRICAN NATIVES. 



By Rev. H. A. Junod. 



It is somewhat assuming to search for reasonable principles in 

 the monstrous superstition of Bantu witchcraft. Can there be a 

 theory in absurdity? However, under every belief of any human 

 group there is a philosophical conception of some kind which explains 

 why that belief has taken such a hold on the minds of the community, 

 and however ridiculous that conception may be, it is the duty of the 

 Ethnologist to try to discover it. That is the only way to understand 

 the mentality of the savage. 



Witchcraft is flourishing amongst South African heathendom 

 more brilliantly that anywhere else on earth ! In fact, it seems that, 

 not satisfied by the scantv religious ideas that he possesses, the native 

 mind has taken a special pleasure in developing beyond all limits the 

 wonderful fancies of witchcraft. White people have very little idea 

 of the richness of imagination of the natives in that domain. But 

 white people, as a rule, even those acquainted with the native lan- 

 guage, d-^ not understand properlv what is witchcraft, for the natives. 

 There are two sets of conceptions which we include under that 

 name, which exist also in the mind of the Bantu, but which are 

 entirely separated for them. The other day a cablegram, entitled 

 " Witcherv Exposed," which I read in the Transvaal Leader, 

 announced to the world that Bambata was very much deceived by the 

 death of his warriors shot bv the Natal Troops, as he thought that, 

 by means of witchcraft, the bullets of the white men would be 

 turned into water. Now, that kind of magical operations which some 

 special men pretend to accomplish is very different from what we gener- 

 ally mean by witchcraft among natives. Those magical operations are 

 called tunganga or bungoma in Thonga ; hugoma in Suto, hungone in 

 Zulu, and the kind of prophets, thaumaturgers, divinators, doctors, 

 who perform them, the tinganga or hangoma (sing, mungoma), are 

 held in high esteem. The witchcraft proper, that is, the power of the 

 evil eye, is an entirely different thing. It is called boloyi in Thonga 

 and Suto ; the people who perform it are very much dreaded, and 

 looked upon as great sinners. They are called haloyi (Thonga : noi, 

 sing, baloyi, plur. Suto : muloi, sing, baloyi, plur. Zulu : mthakati, 

 sing, abathakati, plur.). Their horrible actions are called : kii lova 

 (Ronga, Suto) or ku Iowa (Gwamba) or ukuthakata (Zulu). These 

 two kinds of operations, though both miraculous, are so widely 

 different in the eye of the native, that the one, the power of the 

 divinator, is resorted to in order to check the power of the other, the 

 witch. 



I do not intend to speak of ordinary magic to-day ; but I should 

 like to sketch the wonderful superstitions of buloyi, with the view 

 of finding out where they come from, and how they are related to 

 the animistic system of the Bantus. My remarks apply more 

 especially to the Thonga tribe, which is one of the strongest of 

 South Africa, extending from Zululand to the Sabi Ri-\-er, and 



