Towards the end of the nineteenth century, colonial governments
across Africa, including South Africa, promulgated laws which aimed to
prohibit the accusation of witchcraft, methods for the detection of witches
and witch trials. However, while administrators saw merely superstition in
witchcraft beliefs, “repugnant to the standards of civilisation”, many
Africans saw an integral element of the social and spiritual order. The
policing of witchcraft beliefs became a thorn in the side of colonial rule. This
article brings to light some of the deeper historical complexities in policing
witchcraft by looking at the application of witchcraft law in the early
twentieth century ‐ a neglected period in witchcraft scholarship. Firstly, it
examines some prominent discursive constructions of the concepts of
“witchcraft” and the “witch doctor” during the early twentieth century, two
terms which feature centrally in colonial witchcraft legislation. It argues
that these terms were shrouded in a great deal of misconception and, at
times, fear. Secondly, it examines instances in which the Transvaal
Witchcraft Ordinance No. 26 of 1904 was applied at the Supreme Court
level, demonstrating that it was employed in a wide variety of instances
which often shared only a tenuous link to poorly defined notions of “the
supernatural”. Nevertheless, diviners seem to have been especially
prejudiced in the implementation of the law. Finally, archival
correspondence derived from Native Affairs Department files dealing with
witchcraft are examined to reveal that the job of policing witchcraft was
rather more uncertain and ad hoc at the grassroots level than official
“civilising” rhetoric may have suggested. While in principle there was no
compromising with beliefs in witchcraft, in practice, such beliefs had to be
carefully managed by local officials, who were given (often uncomfortably)
wide powers of discretion in deciding when and how to employ the force of
the law.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/19614 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Pearson, Joel David |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf, application/pdf |
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