THE MPONDO UNDERSTANDING OF WITCHCRAFT
8.8 Ukubula - confession of witches
In the process of a witch hunt through ukunuka - the smelling out practice - the detected witch is given two alternatives. That is either the sick is made healthy or he/she denounces his or her evil spirit powers publicly (ukubula). Sometimes the patient cannot be saved because it is irreversible.
In such a process, particularly if the target of the witch is not dead, the witch can be pardoned.
Identified suspected witches either confess or are subjected to an ordeal consisting of a concoction made of a soapy medicine. Subsequently they were made to surrender their witchcraft hom (parrinder 19 : 128).
A lighter sentence to a witch who confesses ukubula, rather than being killed, was to make him pay a few herds of cattle. ''Proved cases could be killed, unless they pay a heavy ransom" (Dowes 1971 : 32).
Through the therapeutic defensive confession the offensive witch or sorcerer or magician is forced to withdraw his or her evil spirit or evil magically charged medicine. Even after the attack, before the patient recovers, the witch or sorcerer
must confess and express good will. These confessions are a sort of therapy both for the witch and bewitched alike (Methu-Ikeng 1950 : 175)
Thus the patient might be saved from death. The witch or a sorcerer is saved from being killed by the breath of the man he/she has killed. The spirit of a dead man is very dangerous, for it haunts and finally leads to death.
8.9 Some tough sentences for witchcraft
If the accused onukiweyo (smelt out witch or wizard) is believed to have committed a serious crime such as causing incurable diseases or certified death, he or she cannot be granted a fine or a suspended sentence. To such culprits, charges vary from expUlsion from the community, arson, and death penalty. These charges follow their sequence as appearing above, that is, if one kind of penalty is given and fails to be effective enough then another form of penalty is applied. However, in some extreme cases of death crime, a death penalty as well as arson are applied effectively and simultaneously.
The witch, then, is the very embodiment of evil and in the past, reaction to a convicted witch was violent. Not only was she put to death in a public execution that had all the elements of a mortality play but her whole immediate family was destroyed - often by burning. Witchcraft in Western Europe, the last witch was burnt in 1722, can also be explained in terms of social tension and antagonism (Hammond-Tooke 1989: 48).
There are accidents which are normally the work of sorcery ubuthi. As Monica Hunter puts it:
Accidents are said to just be an accident ingozi sometimes to be the results of sorcery or witchcraft. Umthetho's son, who had been in an accident at the mines and lost a leg, suffered snake bite, or fell from the horse, said that no one sent the trouble. But some people thought that the snake must have been sent, the fall from the horse caused by magic (Hunter 1936 : 273).
In many societies there are people who are believed to be sorcerers or witches. These people are accused of this practice and when found guilty of it they are punished. The idea of punishment is a kind of suppression or control of witchcraft.
The torture of an accused witch aims to force him to confess, and mob executions of chronic witches at ridding the community of evil because in the latter case, there is no longer any hope of repentance and the only alternative is to uproot the witchcraft from its base by destroying the witch herself (Metuh-Ikeng 1950 : 175)
Although the accusation of people of witchcraft has many flaws, it cannot be said that witchcraft is not there. Besides the evidence found from the diviners, validating factors are the type of herbs, medicines, and charms usually found amongst the accused. The method of identifying witchcraft practitioners has problems like any other criminal case which at times find a person guilty when he/she is innocent. This does not mean that the judicial system must cease to operate just because there are flaws within the system.
What normally happens is the thorough search for such flaws within the system. The fact that some people fall victim of the process is a reality. This, however, does not invalidate the system. The crux of the matter is to find ways and means of bringing solutions to the problem. "Witchcraft seems to explain the problem and a witch-hunt seems to provide a solution to them" (Bourdillon 1993 : 209).
To sum up, in order to have solutions there is a need to have a clear direction, first, towards the eradication of all ambiguities and obscurities about the religio-socio-cultural practice of a particular people. In order to understand the whole episode there is a need to know the African worldview. The intention of bringing about some measures of witchcraft control is to limit the practice. This answers why, after a witch has been identified in a particular area witchcraft may not necessarily come to an end.
8.10 Missionaries and the judiciary system aimed at stamping out witchcraft
As an attempt to break the strong traditional African society, many colonial and missionary settlers condemned the belief in witchcraft as a strategy to break the power of Kings. The Kings were both political and religious leaders of the land. They were the ones who passed sentence or verdict on people found guilty of witchcraft crimes. The colonial authorities discouraged the Kings from being engaged in witch hunting operations in their communities. When this failed to gain support, the early missionaries offered witch hunted people land within their mission lands and farms. Within no time, mission stations became locations with people living on these mission lands. They become the subjects of the missionary superintendents as their chiefs since they owed no allegiance to their traditional leaders. But traditional leaders had their own reasons to give land to the foreign missionaries. King Faku had this to say:
He (Faku) gave land to missionaries in dry areas with the hope that they are rain- makers. This also symbolised the fact that they were people whom he did not trust. They were regarded as people with extraordinary powers. So they were not placed near the Great Place (Native Affairs: Blue Book 1885 : 73).
Mfundisweni also called Maghinggo location, in Flagstaff district, was ruled by missionaries, who were also collecting tax from their subjects within their jurisdiction.
The widow of Rev. Jenkins nick-named 'Nozokoza' was known to be a chieftainess of the people in the Mfundisweni-Ntlenzi area. Most of these people were a group of escaped witches and wizards who sought a kind of socio-political assylum from the missionary rulers. She was a highly respected figure for both political and religious reasons (Cetshe, Interview 1995). These people found political security as well as religio-spiritual security from the missionary rulers who paid a deaf ear to the accusation of witchcraft.
In 1845 the year after the treaty, Mr Jenkins founded a mission station on a site selected by Faku within a few miles from his birth place. Here Mr Jenkins lived exerting a great influence with the Pondo Chiefs until 1867. When Faku died at the age of nearly ninety years, Mr Jenkins survived him only four months. The widow of the missionary in the country and until her death a few years later exercised even a greater influence in Pondoland than her husband (Native Affairs : Blue Book 1885 : 73).
The group of Amakholwa or amaggobhoka (i.e. converts) were against belief in witchcraft, African culture, customs and rituals. They emerged as a strong group to preach Christianity, condemning many social, political, economic and African religious structures whilst promoting the western Christian based civilization. This was the case with many mainline churches. African Traditional Religion was regarded as backward, barbaric and heathen associated with black magic and evil. To them, witchcraft as a practice was condemned as superstition and to believe in it was wrong and worthless.