IN CENTRAL AFRICA AND ELSEWHERE. 



159 



When the war broke out I happened to be traveUing in West 

 Africa. At a place I visited called Kapango in West Angola, 

 they told me two young men from the place, who had gone into 

 the interior in search of rubber, had been murdered shortly 

 before by the Chokwes. One would suppose every eifort would 

 be made to trace the murderers, but no, the great effort was to 

 find out what spirit had caused the murder. A witch-doctor 

 alone is competent for this. Messengers were despatched to 

 fetch one. These messengers often become the confederates of 

 the diviner, who learns from them the details of the village. 

 Collusion explains a good deal of African spiritism, as of the home 

 variety, but not everything, and those who know best believe 

 there is some spiritual power behind it, manifesting itself in 

 a desultory, unaccountable, freakish way as in the seances around 

 us to-day. 



Candidates for the profession of witch-doctor serve an appren- 

 ticeship and are then initiated, but it must be with their own 

 consent. I was told of a girl, one of a number destined for the 

 profession, who drew back at the last moment and nothing could 

 be made of her. This has its parallel in home spiritism. The 

 will must be yielded first, but then, as spiritists themselves allow, 

 there is a real danger of obsession, and even though the adept 

 may change his or her mind, the spirit is very unwilling to change 

 his. As Sir William Barrett, a scientific investigator of spiritism, 

 quoted by Dr. Schofield,*says : Spiritism is dangerous in propor- 

 tion as it leads us to surrender our reason or our will to the dictates 

 of an invisible and often lying being, ' ' and the author adds : ' ' The 

 surrender of free-will in spiritism is most dangerous and also 

 most common." 



There seems some misapprehension in our country about 

 the African witch-doctor. He is not a witch himself, but a 

 detector of witches, a sort of medium professing to possess 

 occult powers which enable him to protect from sickness and 

 death. He is not necessarily more wicked than his fellows, but he 

 not seldom is a thorough -going scoundrel and imposter. His 

 divining fetiches are often heirlooms, from father to son, and 

 his position the same. In some parts of Western iVfrica a 

 triangular patch of hair is the professional tonsure of the witch- 

 doctor. He gains his Kvelihood by concocting protective 

 fetiches, much as a doctor or chemist makes up prescriptions. 



Modern Spiritism, pp. 187-88. 



