Meanwhile The Witch-Doctor Has Been Sent For, If He Is Not Already
Present, And He Sets To Work In Different Ways To Find Out Who Are
The Persons Guilty Of Causing The Death.
Whether the methods vary with the tribe, or with the individual
witch-doctor, I cannot absolutely say, but I think largely with the
latter.
Among the Benga I saw a witch-doctor going round a village ringing a
small bell which was to stop ringing outside the hut of the guilty.
Among the Cabindas (Fjort) I saw, at different times, two witch-
doctors trying to find witches, one by means of taking on and off
the lid of a small basket while he repeated the names of all the
people in the village. When the lid refused to come off at the name
of a person, that person was doomed. The other Cabinda doctor first
tried throwing nuts upon the ground, also repeating names. That
method apparently failed. Then he resorted to another, rubbing the
flattened palms of his hands against each other. When the palms
refused to meet at a name, and his hands flew about wildly, he had
got his man.
The accused person, if he denies the guilt, and does not claim the
ordeal, is tortured until he not only acknowledges his guilt but
names his accomplices in the murder, for remember this witchcraft is
murder in the African eyes.
If he claims the ordeal, as he usually does, he usually has to take
a poison drink. Among all the Bantu tribes I know this is made from
Sass wood (sass = bad; sass water = rough water; sass surf = bad
surf, etc.), and is a decoction of the freshly pulled bark of a
great hard wood forest tree, which has a tall unbranched stem,
terminating in a crown of branches bearing small leaves. Among the
Calabar tribes the ordeal drink is of two kinds: one made from the
Calabar bean, the other, the great ju-ju drink Mbiam, which is used
also in taking oaths.
In both the sass-wood and Calabar bean drink the only chance for the
accused lies in squaring the witch-doctor, so that in the case of
the sass-wood drink it is allowed to settle before administration,
and in the bean that you get a very heavy dose, both arrangements
tending to produce the immediate emetic effect indicative of
innocence. If this effect does not come on quickly you die a
miserable death from the effects of the poison interrupted by the
means taken to kill you as soon as it is decided from the absence of
violent sickness that you are guilty.
The Mbiam is not poisonous, nor is its use confined, as the use of
the bean is, entirely to witch palaver; but it is the most respected
and dreaded of all oaths, and from its decision there is but one
appeal, the appeal open to all condemned persons, but rarely made -
the appeal to Long ju-ju. This Long ju-ju means almost certain
death, and before it a severe frightening that is worse to a negro
mind than mere physical torture.
The Mbiam oath formula I was able to secure in the upper districts
of the Calabar. One form of it runs thus, and it is recited before
swallowing the drink made of filth and blood: -
"If I have been guilty of this crime,
"If I have gone and sought the sick one's hurt,
"If I have sent another to seek the sick one's hurt,
"If I have employed any one to make charms or to cook bush,
"Or to put anything in the road,
"Or to touch his cloth,
"Or to touch his yams,
"Or to touch his goats,
"Or to touch his fowl,
"Or to touch his children,
"If I have prayed for his hurt,
"If I have thought to hurt him in my heart,
"If I have any intention to hurt him,
"If I ever, at any time, do any of these things (recite in full),
"Or employ others to do these things (recite in full),
"Then, Mbiam! THOU deal with me."
This form I give was for use when a man was sick, and things were
generally going badly with him, for it is not customary in cases of
disease to wait until death occurs before making an accusation of
witchcraft. In the case of Mbiam being administered after a death
this long and complicated oath would be worded to meet the case most
carefully, the future intention clauses being omitted. In all
cases, whenever it is used, the greatest care is taken that the oath
be recited in full, oath-takers being sadly prone to kiss their
thumb, as it were, particularly ladies who are taking Mbiam for
accusations of adultery, in conjunction with the boiling oil ordeal.
Indeed, so unreliable is this class of offenders, or let us rather
say this class of suspected persons, that some one usually says the
oath for them.
From the penalty and inconveniences of these accusations of
witchcraft there is but one escape, namely flight to a sanctuary.
There are several sanctuaries in Congo Francais. The great one in
the Calabar district is at Omon. Thither mothers of twins, widows,
thieves, and slaves fly, and if they reach it are safe. But an
attempt at flight is a confession of guilt; no one is quite certain
the accusation will fall on him, or her, and hopes for the best
until it is generally too late. Moreover, flying anywhere beyond a
day's march, is difficult work in West Africa. So the killing goes
on and it is no uncommon thing for ten or more people to be
destroyed for one man's sickness or death; and thus over immense
tracts of country the death-rate exceeds the birth-rate. Indeed
some of the smaller tribes have thus been almost wiped out. In the
Calabar district I have heard of an entire village taking the bean
voluntarily because another village had accused it en bloc of
witchcraft.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 113 of 190
Words from 114658 to 115669
of 194943
