Mukai / Vukani 61 issue by JesCom Zimbabwe

61 No.

20 une

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MB R ZI

Witchcraft and the Church

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EDITORIAL

CONTENTS EDITORIAL Witchcraft in Africa: Dead, Alive, or Resurrecting?

WITCHCRAFT AND THE CHURCH The faithful speak out!

A Patsoral perspective: Cast your nets deeper Fr B.K Mukumba

A Biblical perspective: What does the Bible say about witchcraft Fr Peter N. Bwanali, S.J

A legal perspective: To legislate or not to legislate? Chris Mhike

A hishorical perspective: Friedrich von Spee denounces burning of witches Fr Oskar Wermter SJ

A medical perspective: Inspire power of discernment Dr. P.M Chihumbiri

A philosophical perspective Witchcraft: Are we sure Gabriel Ujah Ejembi S.J, Arrupe college The Log and the splinter Fr Oskar Wermter SJ

No. 61 June 2012

Editorial office: JesCom, 1 Churchill Avenue, Alexandra Park, Harare, P O Box A949,Avondale, Harare, Zimbabwe. Tel. 263-4-744571, 744288, 0713-419453, Fax : 263-4-744284 After hours : Tel/Fax 263-4-2910233 e-mail: owermter@zol.co.zw, websites: www.jesuits.co.zw, www.jescom.co.zw.

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BOOK REVIEWS Did Whites bring violence? Gift Mambipiri

A spiritual Journey through Africa’s Holocaust

A decade of economic madness Gift Mambipiri

Secretarial work: Priscilla Mapfuwa Layout & Design: Gift Mambipiri , Frashishiko Chikosi Printing: Print Dynamix

Editorial Committee Fr Oskar Wermter SJ (Chairman),Frs Chiedza ChimhandaSJ,Dominic Tomuseni SJ,Sr Marceline Mudambo, H.L.M.C, Peter Zawi (Silveria House), Gift Mambipiri (Secretary) Readers may contribute to the production costs by cheque or cash.Articles with full names of their authors do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board

Dear Reader On Africa day, I had the privilege of listening to the Director of Crisis Coalition, Mr MacDonald Lewanika’s talk to National Movement of Catholic Students on Celebrating Africa. He spoke of many challenges facing Africa. One challenge was that of Africans failing to write their own stories. He gave examples from scholarship on Zimbabwean history where most of the leading historians are non Africans. He challenged us to start writing our own stories. As I was preparing for this issue, I found out that a number of books on witchcraft in Africa are written by non Africans. That confirmed Mr Lewanika’s observation. I think we must take his challenge seriously and start writing our own stories. I pray and hope the next issue of Mukai will be flooded with many letters to the editor, responding to the issues raised in this issue and about Mukai in general. This is the best way of beginning to write our stories. Editor P .S. It does not mean that those beyond the continent should not write about Witchcraft in Africa.

No. 61 June 2012

CONTENTS EDITORIAL Witchcraft in Africa: Dead, Alive, or Resurrecting?

WITCHCRAFT AND THE CHURCH The faithful speak out!

A Patsoral view: Cast your nets deeper Fr B.K Mukumba

A Biblical view: What does the Bible say about witchcraft Fr Peter N. Bwanali, S.J

A legal perspective: To legislate or not to legislate? Chris Mhike

A hishorical view: Friedrich von Spee denounces burning of witches Fr Oskar Wermter SJ

A medical perspective: Inspire power of discernment Dr. P.M Chihumbiri

No. 61 June 2012

A philosophical perspective Witchcraft: Are we sure Gabriel Ujah Ejembi S.J, Arrupe college The Log and the splinter Fr Oskar Wermter SJ

18 21

BOOK REVIEWS Did Whites bring violence? Gift Mambipiri

A spiritual Journey through Africa’s Holocaust

A decade of economic madness Gift Mambipiri

Secretarial work: Priscilla Mapfuwa Layout & Design: Gift Mambipiri , Frashishiko Chikosi Printing: Print Dynamix

Dear Reader On Africa day, I had the privilege of listening to the Director of Crisis Coalition, Mr MacDonald Lewanika’s talk to National Movement of Catholic Students on Celebrating Africa. He spoke of many challenges facing Africa. One challenge was that of Africans failing to write their own stories. He gave examples from scholarship on Zimbabwean History where most of the leading historians are non Africans. He challenged us to start writing our own stories. As I was preparing for this issue, I found out that a number of books on witchcraft in Africa are written by non Africans. That confirmed Mr Lewanika’s observation. I think we must take his challenge seriously and start writing our own stories. I pray and hope the next issue of Mukai will be flooded with many letters to the editor, responding to the issues raised in this issue and about Mukai in general. This is the best way of beginning to write our stories. Editor P .S. It does not mean that those beyond the continent should not write about Witchcraft in Africa.

No. 61 June 2012

WITCHCRAFT AND THE CHURCH

Witchcraft and the Church: The faithful speak out!

Mrs Priscilla Mujuru- Vice Chairperson, Sacred Heart Guild Top Board Archdiocese of Harare

When I first read the church’s stance on witchcraft, I had several immediate thoughts. The first was, the church is aware of the existence of witchcraft and must therefore arm the faithful against it. It is not good enough to give a stance of the church without giving the ammunition to fight the evil powers. It is clear that witchcraft exists and there is evidence all around us – ranging from some of the faithful who present themselves possessed with evil spirits which speak out, stories of invisible snakes biting people in church and alleged poisoning of foodstuffs for the targeted faithful etc.. There are several stories told by the faithful of their encounters with evil powers, and within the church of the practice of witchcraft by some church members. As a believer, I feel the church needs to give all the support to the faithful to be able to deal with the evil machinations of satan. The church should not remain quiet and pretend that witchcraft does not exist but talk openly about it and arm the faithful against it with all the best weapons available to them. Failing that the faithful then tend drift to other ungodly ways. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians 6 verses 10 – 18 gives Christians advice on how to fight evil powers.

Thank you for the opportunity for us to express our views. We will respond as one based on what we have discussed as husband and wife. We both share the same view that witchcraft exists. We say it exists because of the unexplained misfortunes that tend to befall people in life. We are aware that evil spirits are there and witchcraft is fueled by such. It is actually a product of evil spirits that seek to avenge or cause harm due to jealousy and even family feuds. As the church it is important to foster the gospel of forgiveness and love as a counter to witchcraft. It is important to acknowledge its existence in life and to also impress on Catholics that with the lord on your side such will not harm us. A thousand may fall on the left side another on the right and as long as we believe in the almighty we will remain unharmed.

Donald and Ruth Mangenje, young couple from St Canisius Malborough.

WANTED: WRITERS We invite our readers to respond to Mukai-Vukani through letters to the editor. Articles should NOT BE LONGER THAN 1200 WORDS.- Editor

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WITCHCRAFT AND THE CHURCH

Zandile J Mafi, Medical student, University of Zimbabwe

Witchcraft is when a human being becomes an instrument or vessel for the manifestation of an evil spirit mainly in form of use of magic and dark arts. If evil spirits and demons indeed exist, which they do, then they ought to have an outlet in the physical world of men. Some people voluntarily offer themselves for such services whilst others are made available or vulnerable to use by the devil by virtue of background. Either way, witchcraft is made into a reality. I firmly believe the church today ought to equip its congregation with weapons, in form of the word and prayer, to fight against this evil. Denial will only lead to a loss of believers to the categories of either bewitched or witches and wizards. Some people today would like to believe that only demons exist but then evil is still evil be it in the form of witchcraft or any other ‘more palatable’ form hence the need for the church to be on guard and open eyes of the believers. If there was a witch at Endor in the time of king Saul, (1 Samuel 28:7) could the world, bad as it is today be any better? st

Pachivanhu Huroyi huriko. Witchcraft exists. You cannot deny it. I once witness a case of a haunted house being stoned by unseen individuals. The white police officers thought they could get the individuals. They guarded the place with guns hoping to catch the culprits but the house was attacked in their presence and they could not see anyone. They had to run away. Witchcraft is caused by laziness, poverty and failure to accept one’s situation in life. People are trying to better themselves or out do each other. Hence they end up involving themselves in witchcraft practices. Therefore the church should encourage people work hard using acceptable means and to accept who they are in life. I do not know what to help people accept this encouragement and advice because this message is repeated many times but still people continue to be involved in witchcraft practices.

Komborerai Murimba , Singles for Christ(SFC) Our lady of the wayside Mt Pleasant., Trainee Consultant.

Baba Nyamupaguma. , Chief superintended CID . St Joseph Guild Mbare, Readers chair

“Witchcraft is certainly there. It exists. As Catholics and even more generally, Christians, we experience the spirit of God in our everyday lives - in our trial, tribulations, endeavors and daily interactions. These affirmations of the presence of the Spirit of God laments on the presence of an opposite darkness on earth, and witchcraft is one of the ways in which evil manifests itself in our African context. The church therefore stands in as a source of hope against the mystic powers of a dimension of evil the average person fears and less than understands. Therefore, as a stance, the church should serve as a sanctuary for those affected by it, as a family in prayer and as a counsellor.”

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WITCHCRAFT AND THE CHURCH

A pastoral view

CAST YOUR NETS DEEPER By Fr B K Mukumba It is beyond reasonable doubt that many Christians are practicing witchcraft or they are involved in it without knowing due to their family tree or as a result of what they call “our culture”. But is it our culture to be a witch? For some KuRoma kunobvumidzwa zvese” (everything is acceptable in the Catholic Church). Where is that written in the Catholic Catechism? Is our catechesis so cheap to allow witchcraft in the Church? Witchcraft by choice or by inheritance is not acceptable in the Catholic Church. This paper highlights witchcraft practices within the Church that I have encountered in my ten years as a priest working in parishes. It also highlights the Church’s response or rather failure to respond to these practices. Baptism and Witchcraft During baptism people are asked, do you reject Satan, and all his works? The answer to both questions is yes. This is a clear case of rejection of evil. However, the problem is that before baptism, someone was named after his late relative who was a witch. A ritual might have been conducted to appease the witchcraft spirit and powers. Some even rename their children after baptism and a covenant is made between this dead person and the child. Sometimes the child does not know until later when they start encountering problems such as “ no work, bad luck , no marriage, seasonal sickness , bad dreams, poverty and suffering continuously. Christians have

engages in other unacceptable practices? Priests should perform proper catechesis before baptism.

Fr B. K. Mukumba spoken vastly about physical abuse yet they zip their mouths about spiritual abuse being perpetrated by Christian parents on their children especially the girl child. Why should you name your child after your mother who was a witch? Why should you name your child, “Tapfuma” who was a thief, murderer and rapist? Why should you name your daughter after your sister who died without a child, without being married because aive neshavi rive risingade risingade varume (She had a spirit that didn’t like men). Parents unknowingly abuse their children for they introduce them to the cult world. Some priests are to blame ,together with their catechists, they baptize without consulting the family about some names thus they baptize what is unbaptizable. The day of baptism that is supposed to be a joyous day for the daughter-inlaw is turned into sorrow because her child is named after her mother in law who is a prominent witch doctor or who

Confirmation and Witchcraft Christians do go against confirmation by tattooing their kids(kutemwa nyora.) Today most young people are tattooed everywhere even on their breasts and private parts. Christians should not be tattooed. They have received the tattoo of the Holy Spirit at confirmation. Nyora (tattoo) is believed to strengthen, protect and help an individual. These nyoras do not help in any way they are signs of some pacts with spirits that that might be evil. There will be there for life. Confirmation is a sure sign of strength and protection. Confirmation will mean nothing if we look for nyora, zvikwambo, mazango , nyanga, makona (charms) to strengthen us. Matrimony and Witchcraft Some people or some parents give, their sons and daughters to spiritual husbands and spiritual wives. If you were offered to a spiritual wife or husband at your early age you will never get married to a human being. If you get married, the spiritual spouse will pounce on you or it will pounce on your wife or husband. Spiritual Husbands/ wives are very jealous they cause havoc in your marriage sometimes they can even beat up your husband or wife. The marriage in church will not mean anything because the person was married to someone else before. That’s why many mysterious matrimonial conflicts come up. These spiritual husbands / wives No. 61 June 2012

WITCHCRAFT AND THE CHURCH beset a couple for economic benefits. Some parents offer their sons and daughters as sacrifices to spirits for riches. These spirits will have sex with the person offered as many times as they want even if the husband or wife is there, sleeping besides the person. And when they do that the result is that your husband or wife will have no appetite for you. The relatives, father, mother , uncles or aunts might be aware of these spiritual spouses. Yet they do not do anything. They just encourage affected couples to be strong. All I am saying is there is a lot in marriage than what we see and think people should tell the truth and break up these pacts. Leadership in the Church and witchcraft Some Christians use charms to remain in Leadership positions such as Humai mukuru (women leader in guilds). Sometimes if she is voted out the person who replace her will suffer a stroke. If you insists on becoming a chairperson muromo unoenda parutivi (suffer a mild stroke that affect the mouth). But why do Christians go to n’anga to acquire leadership charms. Even some priests go to a n’anga so that they may become a parish priest or Bishop. Some nuns go to n’anga so as to become mother superior. Vamwe madzimai vanorwira kushanda musacrist pedzezvo voroyana. Iwe unofunga kuti kushanda muSacrist ndokupinda denga? Usaise mushonga muSacrist usarare kun,anga nekuti mangwana kune sarudzo dzeParish Council. (Some women fight for a post of a sacristan and they bewitch each other. Do you think being a sacristan will take you to heaven? Do not put my charms in the s a c r i s t y. D o n ’ t s l e e p a t witchdoctor’s places when there is an parish council election the following way.

Christians and Money Enhancer (Tusandawana), Money Goblin and Financial Goblin Some Christians who are in business try to steal without being noticed or caught. They use a special goblin called sandawana, very popular in South Africa. This goblin can steal your money without you noticing. Even in agriculture some farmers use this in the form of, “diviso” an agricultural enhancement medicine which steals crops or harvest from other peoples fields. Some Christians offer “stained” offertory in the church, blood stained money. Yet we brand these business people saints. We even thank them in church during mass. Some use their wives and children for financial benefits some husbands use their wives by using goblins on them or spiritual husbands iye oenda kusmall house (he goes to a mistress). The more the goblins sleeps with his wife the more he gets money. Also the more it sleeps with his only daughter the more he gets profits in his business. Vamwe vanopengesa vana vavo kupenga kwavo

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hakuzi koga nekuti paanonyanya kupenga mari inobva yapindawo mushop. Kana akapenga zvishoma mushop hamutengwe mari iyoyo ndoyavanopa kuchechi semupiro wezvipo . Uyu chokwadi hauzi mupiro wezvipo asi mupiro wezvifo, werufu chairwo. Vamwe vaKristo vane mashave ekuba, nekuimba nekuridza ngoma nehosho nekutungamira. (Some people use charms to that make their children become mad. This kind of madness is not just ordinary madness because the more the child become mad, then his business thrives. If the child becomes well, business will not do well. They bring that money for offertory. This offertory is not genuine. Some Christian are possessed by different spirits, like spirits for stealing, singing or playing drums or leadership) The church must cast its nets deeper ( Lk 5:4). It should not just confine itself to preaching, singing and almsgiving. It must confront these evil practices within the church. To be contonued ... (Fr Mukumba is parish priest in Chegutu)

sandawana

WITCHCRAFT AND THE CHURCH

A biblical view

What does the Bible say about witchcraft? Peter N. Bwanali, S.J. There are a number of places in the Bible where reference is made to witchcraft. However the word “witchcraft” tends to be translated in a variety of ways either because of the complexity entailed in the concept of witchcraft itself or because of a particular nuance a particular version of the Bible intends to stress. For example, unlike the King James Bible which uses the word “witch” in Exodus 22:18 the Revised Standard Version Bible (RSV) uses the word “sorceress”. In the same verse, the Good News Bible uses the expression a “woman of magic”. In some cases words such as divination, magic, sorcery, etc. are used almost interchangeably to mean “witchcraft”. Strictly speaking divination has more to do with the desire to know the future whereas magic focuses on the power to do something through supernatural aid. As reported in the Bible these practices were carried out in a variety of ways, for example through the casting of lots (Prov. 16:33), dreams (Gen. 20:3), visions (Is. 28:7) as well as observations of omens (1Kg.20:33). Why/how is witchcraft mentioned in the Bible? What is common, with little exception, in both the Old and the New Testaments and in all translations is that witchcraft is never properly defined and is generally condemned. It would appear the people to whom the bible was originally addressed

uncondemned under the guise of a “harmless ritual” or indeed prayer. For example, Daniel was head of the wise men of Babylon who included magicians, enchanters and sorcerers (Dan. 2:2&48). The magi in the Gospel of Matthew may have belonged to similar groups. Simon Magus (Acts 8:9-24) is an example of a condemned magician. Some examples of witchcraft in the Bible

Fr Peter N. Bwanali, S.J. knew what witchcraft meant in their culture. In any case, the development of magic in Israel was mainly due to contact with other cultures like Assyria, Babylon and Egypt. The moral character or the intention behind the seeking of supernatural aid determined what was and what was not acceptable in Israel. For example, the use of magical arts with the intention of injuring someone else was considered witchcraft and this was always condemned. In addition, because magic and divination were associated with foreign religions and foreign gods Israel made an effort, not always with success, to distance itself from these practices. It is this appeal to “other gods” and the injurious intention of the practice that led to the condemnation of witchcraft. Israel believed in the one true and living God. But light versions of witchcraft crept into Israel and into the bible

In Deuteronomy we read: “There shall not be found among you any one (…) who practices divination, a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer (…) for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord.” (Dt.18:10-13). In condemning witchcraft 1 Sam.15:23 (RSV Bible) uses the word divination: “For rebellion is as the sin of divination.” In his letter to the Galatians, for example, Paul relegates it among the works of the flesh which must be condemned: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry sorcery, etc. (Gal. 5:19-21). Similarly, the Book of Revelation puts sorcerers on the same list as fornicators, idolaters and liars “who shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone in the second death” (Rev. 21:8). Saul was condemned for worshiping other gods and consulting a medium (1Chro. 13). Where and why did Saul consult a medium? Saul was scared of the Philistines who were set to fight his army. But with the prophet Samuel dead and buried, and having removed all the mediums and wizards from his land as required by Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and with God not

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WITCHCRAFT AND THE CHURCH answering his prayers, Saul panicked. He disguised himself and went to consult a woman medium at Endor. The medium called back the spirit of Samuel. She said, “I see a god coming up out of the earth…An old man is coming up; and he is wrapped in a rob” (read the story in 1 Sam. 28:1-25). Such a desperate situation is typical of those who consult a “n”anga”. Should Christians believe in Witchcraft? To believe in the existence of God, for example, is not the same as to have faith in God. True belief in God goes beyond accepting his existence. Those who believe in God are aware of the jealousy of God. God, at Sinai, demanded to be loved by his people: “…and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Dt. 6:5). Therefore those who believe in God commit themselves to Him and are beneficiaries of his blessings and positive influence. Similarly, to believe in the existence of the devil is not the same as having faith in the devil. Those who believe in the devil are committed to him and are beneficiaries of his works. Christians who don’t make this distinction often worry about whether or not witchcraft exists; fearing that their acknowledgment might be mistaken for believing in witchcraft itself, i.e. benefiting from its evil powers. Especially Christians who consider themselves “educated and sophisticated” often think to acknowledge the existence of witchcraft is to be primitive, belonging to a “simple” society. This need not be the case. Good Christians believe in the existence of the Good Spirit and the Bad

Spirit. Both of these have an influence on human beings. Witchcraft, insofar as it is the consultation with, or the dedication of oneself to, evil spirits with the intention to harm falls under the realm of darkness. This is probably what is called Satanism. Essentially the Bible condemns allegiance to the devil. A word of caution to Christians The observation of C.S. Lewis in his book “The Screwtape Letters” is instructive: “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves (the devils) are equally pleased by b o t h e r ro r s a n d h a i l a materialist or a magician with the same delight.” Not limited to Africa From what we have seen above, it is clear that witchcraft is not limited to African cultures. It certainly was there in the “Holy Land”. And despite vehement denials of the existence of this reality by people of some cultures, their commitment or submission to the extreme powers of evil tells a different story. When reading the Bible, Christians need to ask themselves whether or not they believe in the existence of the Good Spirit and whether this Good Spirit has an effect in their lives on earth. They also need to ask themselves whether there is such a thing as the bad spirit and whether this bad spirit can affect their lives on earth. Having made this assessment, they should ask themselves to whom they have placed their trust and total

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commitment. Should a Christian visit the “witchdoctor”? To begin with, it is wrong to refer to a man or woman who gives traditional medicine for the sake of healing as a witchdoctor. A “n’anga” is not necessarily a wizard, witch, or a magician. Only when such a person practices the magic art of intentionally causing harm to others could we begin to think of their practice as witchcraft. It is interesting that the priest in Lilangala and Kikongo, languages spoken in DRC, is called Nganga Nzambi which translates into the witchdoctor of God. Clearly, Nganga Nzambi is understood to be the “Medium”, the link between people and the spiritual reality of God. The sing’anga has the positive role of healing, restoring health to humanity. Surely, “witchdoctor” is a disrespectful term, more so is the translation “witchdoctor of God” Fr Peter Bwanalli (From Malawi) is former provincial of the Jesuits in Zambia & Malawi, currently on sabatical in Oxford

WITCHCRAFT AND THE CHURCH

A legal perspective

TO LEGISLATE OR NOT TO LEGISLATE? By Chris Mhike When the colonial government was established in Zimbabwe on 12 September 1890, one of the ‘human conduct and societal relations’ issues facing the legislature, and therefore due for statutory (and traditional) legislation, was witchcraft. Witchcraft may be defined to mean the practice of bringing magical or preternatural power to bear, or the act of attempting to do so. That phenomenon was, and still is, directly tied to the serious matter of life and death - to be or not to be; to live or not to live .So, on 18 August 1899, an Act of the Rhodesian Parliament the Witchcraft Suppression Act, was promulgated, to deal specifically with that vexatious matter. th

The statute stated that: “witchcraft includes the ‘throwing of bones’, the use of charms and any other means or devices adopted in the practice of sorcery.” The throwing of bones is common at traditional healers’ (n’anga) consultation sessions. N’angas have under modern law been termed “witch-doctors”, and the same law has therefore criminalized some practices (particularly bone-throwing) considered in traditional medicine to be acceptable and legal, thereby bringing the new legal system on collision course with the traditional system. The Witchcraft Suppression Act outlawed the practice of accusing others of witchcraft, the employment of witchdoctors or witch-finders for the

the evil spirit that had possessed the witch.

Chris Mhike purpose of fishing out witches from communities, and the supply of witchcraft materials. T h a t e ff o r t t o s u p p r e s s witchcraft through law remained in place for over a century; lasting through the entire colonial period, and for almost three decades into independent Zimbabwe. As the law stipulated that witches do not exist courts therefore proceeded and decided cases on that basis. Yet traditionalists, traditional courts, and even some practicing Christians, firmly believe that witchcraft is a reality. In the pre-1890 periods, before it was an offence to accuse others of witchcraft, traditional courts could convict persons of witchcraft. Those found guilty were sentenced to beatings, and in extreme cases, death. The sentence could also be an order for the convicted witch to leave the village whereupon their homes would be burnt down. There were also cases where the witch would be cured of the ‘malady’, or a doctor could be asked to neutralize or exorcise

In spite of what the Zimbabwean State law say many Zimbabwean still recognize the existence of witchcraft as it was understood before 1890. The work of traditional healers has been considered at law to be witchcraft but many, including practicing Christians, have sought out the services of n’angas, usually ‘nicodimously’. That perhaps is the reason why a senior Zimbabwean Judge, Justice Maphios Cheda, at the opening of the 2009 Judicial Year at Bulawayo said: “The strongly held conviction of belief in witchcraft …. cannot be wished away.”Justice Cheda went on: “We should amend the centuryold Witchcraft Suppression Act in keeping with the popular thinking and beliefs of the majority in this country.” Certainly, if the law is to remain relevant, it should not be out of touch with realities on the ground. Writing at a time when the development of the law had been left far behind the d e v e l o p m e n t o f s o c i e t y, renowned author Charles Dickens declared in one of his works: “the law is an ass.” If Zimbabwe’s legislators do not take heed of Justice Cheda’s comments Zimbabwean law will remain the stupid ass that it was during the days of Charles Dickens. Zimbabwe’s legislature recently attempted to amend the legal position on witchcraft, and thereby move with the times. The Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [Chapter 9:23],

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WITCHCRAFT AND THE CHURCH also known as the Criminal Code was promulgated on 1 July 2006, and that new law repealed the Witchcraft Suppression Act. The Criminal Code has done away with the 1899 definition of witchcraft, and now stipulates that: “any person who engages in any practice knowing that it is commonly associated with witchcraft shall be guilty of engaging in a practice commonly associated with witchcraft …”

physical, psychological or other forms of harm. Back in 2009, Police Spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena said: “witchcraft is not an area that lends itself to police scrutiny. How do you verify an evil spell? This is a matter of spiritual faith, not a matter of empirical evidence.” Given the difficulty of establishing the necessary nexus (connection) between actions with harmful results, the Salem Witch Trials in 17 Century America resulted in the hanging of more than 20 totally innocent people, on the “evidence” of a group of hysterial teenage girls. th

However, apparently the Criminal Code does not go sufficiently reconcile the law with Zimbabwean realities, hence Justice Cheda’s 2009 comments. Chapter 5, Part VI of the Criminal Code deals with “Witchcraft, witch-finding and crimes related thereto”, and seems to substantially give the 1899 Act a new lease of life. The Code was introduced, not to entirely do away with the statute on witchcraft, but rather only to consolidate and amend the criminal law. To emphasize the point that witchcraft had not been legitimized the Code provides in Section 101 that “belief in witchcraft (could) operate (only) in mitigation and not as a defence to crimes”. That the accused was influenced by a genuine belief that the victim was a witch, cannot be a defence to murder, assault or other crimes. It can only mitigate the accused’s guilt. In short, according to Zimbabwean law, there still are no witches … only “practices commonly associated with witchcraft …”

In light of this difficulty, Zimbabwean (and before them, Rhodesian) legislators have therefore had to be extremely careful not to criminalize being “a witch”. That caution must be maintained under the current discourse, at least to avoid ‘judicial murders’. But at the same time, to maintain firmly that ‘there is no witchcraft’ hasn’t helped matters either. The fine balance on the delicacies must be found.

sorcery (meaning witchcraft … even if this were for the sake of restoring their health – are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion.” So then, whilst the Church abhors witchcraft and the wearing of charms, she recognizes its existence. Christians consider witchcraft to be evil as it derives from a diabolical pact or at least an appeal to the intervention of the spirits of evil. Church teaching condemns witchcraft in stronger terms when the practice is accompanied by the intention of harming someone. “Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another’s credulity,” so teaches the Church.

Given the Church’s acknowledgment of the existence of witchcraft, the popularity of n’angas, and the pervasiveness of the belief in the existence of witchcraft in Zimbabwean society, it would be rather too naïve for the legislature to persist in denial. The legislative review process The Catholic Church teaches that started in 2006 with the that: “All practices of magic or promulgation of the Criminal

There is a legal problem in witchcraft cases – whereas for statements to hold weight at law, they must be backed with evidence. But there can be no empirical, scientific or provable evidence that performing an act deemed to be witchcraft results in

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Can the courts try witchcraft cases?

WITCHCRAFT AND THE CHURCH Code, must seriously continue. The truth must be faced now so that practical and honest strategies to deal with witchcraft are formulated by the State. With her centuries-old experience on combating evil forces, and with the divine inspiration that guides her, the Church would obviously be a highly fertile partner to the legislature in the formulation of appropriate legislative reforms. But to enrich her counsel to the State, and to provide more nourishing ministry to the faithful, the Church must also review her missions/ apostolates in the areas for which citizens and members frequently visit n’angas. Above all, the legislature, the Church, and all other authorities attending to the question – to legislate to not to, on witchcraft,

should go back to the people or the souls on the streets and in the villages, listen to their experiences and views, then factor those insights into the law and positions. TO BE OR NOT TO BE?” pondered Prince Hamlet in William Shakespeare’s great tragedy – Hamlet. He was contemplating on life; to live or not to live. This deep and famous question in Hamlet’s 16 Century soliloquy (that is his monologue or act of speaking to oneself, as more commonly said in contemporary parlance) remains significantly relevant to many individuals and societies today. Oftentimes, themes as major as Hamlet’s inquiry go beyond soliloquy; to dialogue, debate, or national th

discourse. Zimbabwe today undergoes a constitutionmaking process, precisely to elevate the soliloquies of citizens on key issues, to the level of national discourse. This is an excellent opportunity to hear citizens out, especially at the outreach stage of the Constitution-making process. However the process has been disturbed by violent and politically motivated elements. The process might have to be repeated, particularly on the issue of witchcraft, and on other “parked” matters. The Church could use this opportunity to help the state craft the best legal solution to the problem of witchcraft. (Chris Mhike is a lawyer with Artherstone and Cook and Cathedral parishioner)

EDITOR’S NOTE: Chris Mhike ( in article above) says “With her centuries-old experience on combating evil forces, and with the divine inspiration that guides her, the Church would obviously be a highly fertile partner to the legislature in the formulation of appropriate legislative reforms.” HERE IS A CASEIN WHICH THE CHURCH CONTRIBUTED TO LEGISLATIVE REFORMS

Friedrich von Spee – a Jesuit denounces the torture and burning of “witches” Fr Friedrich von Spee SJ (15911635) was often called to hear the confessions of women, and to a lesser extent men, condemned to death for being “witches” before their execution by burning. The horrible suffering he witnessed deeply revolted him. He could not salve his conscience by saying: ‘I have done my duty as confessor. I am not a lawyer. Whether they were judged justly, does not concern me.’ He began to investigate. He found that the legal process that led to the condemnation of these women and men was deeply flawed and corrupt. Once a person was accused of having practised witchcraft and

caused disease and death he/she was caught in a vicious circle. If she denied any guilt she was horribly tortured until she confessed though innocent. If she confessed she was done for anyhow. If the “witch” managed to insist heroically on her innocence even after cruel torture her judges would still condemn her, saying a weak woman could only resist such torture after having given herself over to Satan. She never had a chance. Her cruel fate was predetermined from the start. The judges tended to profit from such legal murder: they would be rewarded with part of the property left by the condemned person. Fr von Spee published

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WITCHCRAFT AND THE CHURCH

Witch burning in 17th century Europe

his legal arguments in a book entitled “Cautio Criminalis” (loosely translated ‘A warning against crime’), without ecclesiastical approval which got him into trouble with his superiors. The Latin original was soon translated into German and other languages and was a huge success. It made people question the belief in witchcraft altogether and eventually led to the fading away of this murderous mentality. He never questioned the existence of witchcraft or of real witches, but admitted that in his opinion all the condemned people he had met and accompanied in their last hour had been innocent. As a professor of moral theology he knew the writings of his fellow Jesuit Fr Adam Tanner SJ (1572-1632) who warned in the interest of justice against court procedures that would lead to the condemnation of innocent people. Fr Paul Laymann SJ (1574-1635) warned that witch- hunting might depopulate whole countries. But another Jesuit, Fr Martin Anton Delrio (1551 – 1606) uncritically accepted all witches’ tales and 1

quoted them in his learned widespread between 1450 and works, contributing to the mass 1650 in Central Europe because these were particularly hysteria of the time. unsettled times, causing great Can you prove the use of insecurity and anxiety in people. Maybe the social witchcraft in a court of law? upheaval in our own society You can prosecute and convict a makes some unfortunate people ritual murderer just like any seek refuge in witch-hunting other killer. Or you can convict a and chasing scapegoats even man who rapes a young virgin, even his own daughter, in the today. Tragically, this leads to belief that that will protect him great injustice and must be from AIDS. But in both cases the resisted. So Jesuits need to be crime is not belief in witchcraft, defenders of “witches”? Yes, if but murder and rape respectively the accusation is based on false You could not then and cannot beliefs. Faith and Justice must prove today that someone has do away with terror and fear. used magical, invisible means to oWe English translation: Friedrich Spee inflict harm on his enemy. von Langenfeld, Cautio Criminalis, or Historians have suggested that a Book on Witch Trials, University of witchcraft beliefs and the Virginia Press, Charlottesville and persecution of ‘witches’ were so London, 2003. 1

Vision Statement Mukai-Vukani (“Rise) Jesuit Journal for Zimbabwe serves as a Bulletin for Theological Reflection among Jesuits in Zimbabwe and their friends. It tries to help us answer the question, “What direction do we have to follow in the light of the Word of God at this moment in time?” (Mukai 23, p.2), facilitating dialogue among Jesuits and their friends based on study, prayer and discernment.

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WITCHCRAFT AND THE CHURCH

A medical perspective

Inspire power of discernment By Dr. P.M Chihumbiri Most people fail to see through the truth and lies about witchcraft and have a tendency of embracing all the sugar coated beliefs in witchcraft in all its manifested guises presented as innocent entertainment in literature, films (e.g. Harry Potter series) and all sorts of sorcery. This write up seeks to explore what happens in what is understood as witchcraft and interpret some of the activities in scientific terms I acknowledge in the first instance that witchcraft exists as exemplified by the following readings: Ephesians 6:12 – Put on the amour of God, Luke 8:26 – Jesus casts out evil spirits into the pigs, Exodus 22:18 – Thou shall not suffer a witch to live, Deuteronomy18:9-14 – Moses cautions the children of Israel to be aware of witchcraft, St Paul to the Galatians5:19-21 –Witchcraft is a deed of the flesh Common Shona Traditional Experiences Children are seen in formal clinics suffering from “sunken fontanel” or “nhova,” clinically meaning the child is severely dehydrated. Traditionally this can be cured by application of traditional medicaments with surprising results. However, some traditional herbalists have been found to be emptying antibiotic capsules into jars of water and dressing these with a few roots with such concoctions being claimed to cure all sorts of infective illnesses which for all practical purposes works on the client. Are these truly herbal remedies or impressionable

have borderline conditions undergo intensive medical checks and treatment before being paraded as healed. Those that are beyond redemption are turned away from healing sessions. Some worldrenowned faith healers are requesting medical records authenticated by Medical Practitioners as a condition for invitation to healing sessions and on the day congregations are surprised when their medical conditions are spelt out matched with the recipients experience. Dr. P.M Chihumbiri clients are being taken up a garden path. “Tsikamutandas“ are crisscrossing the country causing discord amongst well settled villagers by first planting all sorts of objects in peoples’ homes, forcing them to drink concoctions spiked with hallucinogens and taking advantage of their delirious states. Most sessions are conducted under the cover of darkness in order to conceal some of the telltale details which would otherwise be clear during daylight and the dressing of the healer evokes certain emotions and fears in the client Common Christian Experiences During the Gospel of prosperity sermons congregations are cleverly asked to hand over the little they have in order to receive in abundance and in the end basically the congregation is taught to open their eyes to everyday opportunities and take advantage. In some healing sessions recipients who

Medical Perspective This part gives a medical explanation to some experiences commonly understood to be a result of witchcraft or demonic possession. It looks at hallucination which is widespread and is mistaken for communication with the other worlds. It also explores manipulation, a common method of control common in both Shona traditional practices and in some churches. At the end, the reader should be able to distinguish between truths, half truths and lies and reflect on those experiences once considered to be a result of witchcraft by some African healers and those that some Churches call miracles. Hallucination Hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception,

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WITCHCRAFT AND THE CHURCH in that they are vivid, substantial, and located in external objective space. The latter definition distinguishes hallucinations from the related phenomena of dreaming, which does not involve wakefulness; illusion, which involves distorted or misinterpreted real perception; imagery, which does not mimic real perception and is under voluntary control; and pseudo hallucination, which does not mimic real perception, but is not under voluntary control. Hallucinations also differ from “delusional perceptions”, in which a correctly sensed and interpreted stimulus (i.e. a real perception) is given some additional (and typically bizarre) significance. Hallucinations can occur in different ways — visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile. I will explore the first three. Visual – This is the most common way referred to when people speak of hallucinations. These include the phenomena of seeing things which are not present or visual perception which does not reconcile with the physical, consensus reality. There are many different causes, which have been classed as psycho physiologic (a disturbance of brain structure), psycho biochemical (a disturbance of neurotransmitters), and psychological (e.g. meaningful experiences consciousness),

sounds which may or may not be clear, may be familiar or completely unfamiliar, and friendly or aggressive, among other possibilities.

possessed by one spirit or another would not suffer the uncomfortable psychological trauma of witchcraft, if proper medical attention supported by functional societal support is Command hallucinations are hallucinations in the form of availed to them. commands. The contents of the PSYCHOLOGICAL hallucinations can range from MANIPULATION the harmless commands to The following phenomenon is commands to cause harm to the used in most cases of healing by self or others. traditional heales and in some churches. The reader is equally Causes implored to apply their mind to Hallucinations are caused by everyday cases of perceived medications such as ketamine witchcraft and differentiate used during evacuations in cases between truth and falsehood. of incomplete abortion; substances such as crack Psychological manipulation is cocaine, marijuana, heroine, a type of social influence that alcohol: and illnesses such as aims to change the perception or dementia and delirium, epilepsy, behavior of others through fever in children and the elderly, underhanded, deceptive, or liver failure, kidney failure or even abusive tactics. By brain tumors, and Frank advancing the interests of the psychiatric disorders such as manipulator, often at the other’s schizophrenia and manic expense, such methods could be depression considered exploitative, Treatment for such conditions abusive, devious, and deceptive. involves a thorough history of S o c i a l i n f l u e n c e i s n o t the onset, the timing, social necessarily negative. For circumstances and associated example, doctors can try to past or present emotional events persuade patients to change unhealthy habits. Social and current medications. influence is generally perceived This therefore follows that the to be harmless when it respects majority of people being labeled

Auditory hallucinations are the perception of sound without outside stimulus. Auditory hallucinations can be divided into two categories: elementary and complex. Elementary hallucinations are the perception of sounds such as hissing, whistling, an extended tone, and more. Complex hallucinations are those of voices, music, or other

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Can hospitals cure cases of witchcraft?

WITCHCRAFT AND THE CHURCH the right of the influenced to accept or reject it, and is not unduly coercive. Depending on the context and motivations, social influence may constitute underhanded manipulation Requirements for successful manipulation 1.Concealing aggressive intentions and behaviors. 2.Knowing the psychological vulnerabilities of the victim to determine what tactics are likely to be the most effective. 3.Having a sufficient level of ruthlessness to have no qualms about causing harm to the victim if necessary. How manipulators control their victims The following are some basic ways that manipulators use to control their victims: ·Positive reinforcement: includes praise, superficial charm, superficial sympathy (crocodile tears), excessive apologizing; money, approval, gifts; attention, facial expressions such as a forced laugh or smile; public recognition ·Negative reinforcement: involves removing one from a negative situation as a reward, e.g. “You won’t have to do your homework if you allow me to do this to you.” ·Lying by omission: This is a very subtle form of lying by withholding a significant amount of the truth. This technique is also used in propaganda ·Shaming: Manipulator uses sarcasm and put-downs to increase fear and self-doubt in the victim. Manipulators use this tactic to make others feel unworthy and therefore defer to them. Shaming tactics can be very subtle such as a fierce look

witchcraft: pills or herbs? or glance, unpleasant tone of voice, rhetorical comments, and subtle sarcasm. Manipulators can make one feel ashamed for even daring to challenge them. It is an effective way to foster a sense of inadequacy in the victim. ·Playing the servant role: Cloaking a self-serving agenda in guise of a service to a more noble cause, for example saying he is acting in a certain way for “obedience” and “service” to God or a similar authority figure. Some vulnerabilities manipulators exploit · Addiction to earning the approval and acceptance of others · Lack of assertiveness and ability to say no · Low self-confidence - victim is self-doubting, lacking in confidence and assertiveness, likely to go on the defensive too easily. · Too naive - cannot believe there are dishonest people in the world or if there were they would not be allowed to operate.

· Too materialistic - easy prey for loan sharks or get-richquick schemes · The elderly - the elderly can become fatigued and less capable of multi-tasking. They are prone to giving money to someone with a hard-luck story. Motivations of manipulators · ·

· ·

the need to advance their own purposes and personal gain at virtually any cost to others, a strong need to attain feelings of power and superiority in relationships with others, a want and need to feel in control (aka. control freakery), And gaining a feeling of power over others in order to raise self-esteem.

Basic manipulative strategy of a manipulator There are three phases in manipulation,assessment, manipulation and abondonment 1. Assessment phase The manipulator is constantly sizing up the potential usefulness of an No. 61 June 2012

WITCHCRAFT AND THE CHURCH individual as a source of money, power, sex, or influence. Some manipulators enjoy a challenge while others prey on people who are vulnerable. During the assessment phase, the manipulators are able to determine a potential victim’s weak points and will use those weak points to seduce.

How often have we all heard about exorcists coming into a village and leaving with so many goats, cattle and other gifts abandoning the impressionable villagers in poverty by being artists and masters of the above described methods.

2. Manipulation phase During the manipulation phase, a manipulator may create a persona or mask, specifically designed to ‘work’ for his or her target. A manipulator will lie to gain the trust of their victim. Manipulators’ lack of empathy and guilt allows them to lie with impunity; they do not see the value of telling the truth unless it will help get them what they want. As an ardent student of human behavior, the manipulator will then gently test the inner strengths and needs that are part of the v i c t i m ’s p r i v a t e s e l f a n d eventually build a personal relationship with the victim. The persona of the manipulator the “personality” the victim is bonding with - does not really exist. It is built on lies, carefully woven together to entrap the victim. It is a mask, one of many, custom-made by the manipulator to fit the victim’s particular psychological needs and expectations. The victimization is predatory in nature; it often leads to severe financial, physical or

This write up acknowledges that the dark world of witchcraft exists. It went on to explore situations and conditions that can be easily be mistaken to be a result of witchcraft or demonic possession which can be overcome through medical and psychological help. It hereby concludes by suggesting that the Church should focus on strengthening its flock not to fear the unknown hence allowing manipulators take advantage. It must implore the flock to follow the light of the Lord. The Church should inspire the flock to pray for the power of DISCERNMENT to be able to see through the machinations of what is perceived as wicthcraft and indeed of some prophets. Everyone should be taught that God answers prayers in every circumstance, sometimes HE answers YES and at other times HE answers NO.

CONCLUSION

Pray for the power of discernement emotional harm for the individual. Healthy, real relationships are built on mutual respect and trust; they are based on sharing honest thoughts and feelings. The victim’s mistaken belief that the manipulatoric bond has any of these characteristics is the reason it is so successful. 3. Abandonment phase

The abandonment phase begins when the manipulator decides that his or her victim is no longer useful. The manipulator abandons his or her victim and moves on to someone else. In the case of romantic relationships, a manipulator will usually seal a relationship with their next target before abandoning his or (Dr Chihumbiri runs St Micheals clinic in Chitungwiza) her current victim. “. IN TOUCH with Church and Faith

Through JESUIT COMMUNICATIONS A Catholic News Service for Zimbabwe

Get IN TOUCH with Church and Faith through JESUIT COMMUNICATIONS accessing our website www.jescom.co.zw. JESUIT COMMUNICATIONS is also sending out an electronic newsletter “IN TOUCH with Church and Faith”. If you wish to receive it send your request by e-mail to JESUIT COMMUNICATIONS owermter@zol.co.zw.

No. 61 June 2012

WITCHCRAFT AND THE CHURCH

A Philosophical Perspective

Witchcraft: Are we sure? Gabriel Ujah Ejembi SJ, Arrupe College ntroduction One thing that is apparent is that most missionary activities have been successful but the reality of witchcraft continues to remain a challenge and an inevitability in the lives of many Christians in Africa. We have observed that in churches, our members are filled with fears directed at the reality of witchcraft and yet, sometimes though infrequently, the Catholic Church does not take their members’ fears seriously. As a matter of fact, the Catholic Church facilitates, as it were, the conditions that make it difficult or virtually impossible to speak about such matters in general. In this little piece, I will like to reflect on the reality of witchcraft and possible ways of engaging it. My overall position is that cases of witchcraft are not really what we claim they are in most cases. What we notice are virtually demonization of African practices. Some few explanations will be discussed regarding divination in Africa. I will argue that there is very little evidence to justify the sort of activities we say are carried out by witches and I will maintain that we are actually tackling the issue of witchcraft in Africa wrongly which has led to the demonization of many gifts in Africa. The Role of the Medicine Man/Woman: A Reflection on the Practice of Divination Most communities in Africa have structures that help them

Gabriel Ujah Ejembi SJ

rigorous process of learning the history of the people and studying a book called Odu which captures almost nearly all kinds of human predicaments and its solutions and respective advice. Usually when someone visits the diviner in such culture, the diviner listens to the person’s situation and relates what he/she has heard to one of the chapters of the Odu which helps to discern what the situation is and how best it could be averted or improved.

deal with their crises like natural disasters, diseases, poverty, childlessness, and evil in general, and even good gifts like a flourishing life, good rainfall, bumper harvest, good health, etc. Usually the medicine man/woman is consulted with needs like that. Such persons are particularly trained diviners who are able to capture the African psychology in their rituals and practices and so provide helpful suggestions and proposals to African problems.

What a diviner does is to allow the divine realm to manifest since the world view of the Africans is greatly religious, and also, African worldview is rightly an agglomeration of forces and energy. This is because divination is that attempt to connect with the sub-conscious or inner knowing in making relevant predictions and judgments that hold epistemological underpinnings. Divination is generally seen as a psychological therapy but it is more helpful if focus is placed on its social interpretation.

The diviner in an African society is not a witch who achieves his or her desires by some mystical power inherent in his/her personality, a power that is basically directed at evil intents. The diviner is a trained person whose intent is focused on how to improve society’s flourishing. Divination is the University of the Spirits and of the forces which rightly incorporate the African way of looking at realities. Let us take the example of the Yoruba people of Nigeria in West Africa. Their diviners are trained through a very long and

The Christian church has demonised this practice in many ways and as such stripped Africans of a rich cultural way of knowing. Through divination Africans are able to understand that God truly has a foreknowledge of everything, that God is indeed omniscience. In fact, the volume of information gotten from studying divination recently confirms how much knowledge we lost in the past by prejudicially sustaining a position against divination. Throughout an African life, and a human life in general, in whatever status, religion, or sex,

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WITCHCRAFT AND THE CHURCH questions, problems, and occasions for choices arise for which everyday common knowledge is not sufficient and yet some kind of actions must be carried out. The information required to respond effectively is available, but often through a diviner. That is why, as Peek maintains, divination continues to provide a trusted means of decision making, a basic source of vital knowledge. The primary significance of divination is the guidance of action and so the church in Africa needs to explore how best she could tap from this great gift in Africa to transform the lives of Africans as oppose to demonising it. This is because what the Christian church has failed to understand has been disregarded as being either demonic, satanic, or an instant of witchcraft. 2

Understanding Africans Africa is at the crossroads of enumerable transitions and the tension between the traditional African ways of doing things meets severe oppositions at the sight of western educated Africans. These transitions are surely pregnant with a certain unpredictability that feels the whole Africa ambience with fear, suspicions and scepticisms. The experiences of some Africans at the crossroads of these transitions have not been really good. It is not surprising then that during this time of Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s transitions, our Christian African leaders are interested in focusing on evil spirits as the allegedly major obstacles to these transitions. But in this venture, our Christian leaders sometimes miss the point of devaluing African practices. To put it in another way, many Africans who want to make the step into the new society conceive the traditional society under the control of evil spirits. 3

The position of women in the transition of Africa from traditional societies into modern ones is not well handled. Women are the most affected group in Africa in the process of modernization. Little wonder that many women are among the possessed. Lagerwerf notes this interesting development and argues that becoming a medium is one of the ways for women to exert influence on the process of modernization. If this is not well understood, the African Christian communities will continue to spearhead the stereotyping of women as witches in the community and thus subjecting them to humiliating exorcisms and societal exclusionisms. 4

Although some independent churches are propagating themselves as dependable avenues of curing witches, they have also deal with the situation wrongly. They have failed to see the African community as a community society and so any cleansing or exorcising requires community intervention and cooperation. Besides, the force and energy and the power of the so-called witches are not harnessed into something productive. Our social crises should not be subject to purely European and western solutions. Our African medicine and divinations are not pagan and Christian ministers must inculturate community intervention into their ministries. What institutional Christian communities lack is a healthy incorporation of social elements such as traditional beliefs, religious practices and values, interpersonal and social structures, into the healing and exorcising institutions.

To avoid such kind of evil and inhuman treatment in the name of carrying out a good action for God, many western missionaries have taken the initiative in the past to offer women protection. These missionaries however took the situation beyond limits to exclude witchcraft in their Way Forward catechesis and to term any belief The Christian community must in witches as mere superstitions. recognize in their preaching the 6

An educated man, highly regarded by the Church.

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medicine man: demonised by the Church

WITCHCRAFT AND THE CHURCH different gifts and graces of God engrossed within traditional African practices even as she preaches the living God. The God who still gathers many who are not part of the Christian sheepfold should be emphasised as a springboard into opening possible genuine and productive encounters with traditional African societies. Such openness on the part of Christians will not allow them to miss out on significant knowledge and gifts embedded in the traditions and cultures of Africa. For this reason, just like the way the Christians are there beside every Christian for marriage and birth, in times of sickness, family quarrels, death, misfortunes, they should also make efforts to be present in such activities that take place within the traditional settings of the communities in which they minister. This will show that the presence of God is more real than that of the witches. Most Christians have exhibited gestures that exclude those accused of or practicing witchcraft which historically were not salvific. We need to focus on making liberating gestures towards individuals who feel bewitched or who are treated as witches. Such 7

rather than condemned as possible example that could expand our horizons in the process of sharpening our different perspectives regarding African practices. Refutations and condemnations are surely not the part to embrace but a loving relationship with all men and women would help us tackle the reality of evil in our societies. Witchcraft, are we sure? This is an open question for a personal decision. This term is used by Philip John Neimark in The way of the Orisa: Empowering Your Life Through the Ancient African religion of Ifa .New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1993. Ibid. Ibid 13 These are people who mediate commu nication between the world of the spirits and their fellow humans. 1bid 13 Ibid 16 Mpolo, Masamba.“Witchcraft and Dreams Analysis: Perspectives in African Pastoral Psychology.” Bulletin of African Theology, no. 13-14, Jan-June, 1984). Pp. 211. 1

Recognise gifts and graces engrossed within african traditional culture

Christian gestures should not only be an act of living faith but more efforts should be employ to focus on the liberation of individual and communities through the power of love, since God is love. Through acts of love that manifest themselves more in deeds than in words, Christians would be able to strike at the roots causes of evil powers and thus weaken the foundation on which beliefs on witches are built.

Conclusion The paper presented the case of divination as a way of knowing that should be appreciated

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WITCHCRAFT AND THE CHURCH

THE LOG AND THE SPLINTER ‘Tsikamutanda’ does not have the answer By Oskar Wermter SJ, Mbare Hannan’s Shona Dictionary defines “uroyi” as 1. Antisocial status of a person (generally a witch), 2. Antisocial quality of an act (gen. witchcraft), 3. Witchcraft, 4. Harmful quality (generally magical) of an object, 5. Object by means of which a witch or other malicious person does harm to others (p. 707). Duramazwi Guru reChishona, editor: Herbert Chimhundu, College Press, Harare, 2001, puts it more simply: 1. Uroyi kushandisa mishonga kana zvimwewo zvinokuvadza kana kuuraya, 2. Uroyi mushonga unoshandiswa kukuvadza kana kuuraya munhu. When missionaries in the past tried to convince the local people that witches were a figment of the imagination they took the wrong path and ended up nowhere. The people said “Hongu, Baba” and thought “He is a murungu, he does not know”. The question whether witches exist or not, is not really important. As long as people believe they exist and act accordingly witchcraft is a powerful reality. It may not be an objective reality out there, but as long as the fear of witches dominates the human mind we need to take it seriously and should not dismiss it, in that sense, as non-existent. As long as people believe they can gain power by making use of the power of witches it can do great harm. As long as people believe they have been bewitched and are controlled by evil forces there is in

Fr Oskar Wermter SJ fact evil in their hearts which must be confronted. Jesus taught us, “Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the great log in your own? …Hypocrite! Take the log out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7: 3 – 5). It is very human to blame others for one’s own failures. But it is more than a blaming game. The person identified as a witch becomes the object of the collective anger, fear and hostility of the community. Often it is a person who is marginalised, an outsider, maybe a strong individualist, or a somewhat eccentric person and a loner. He, or very often she, is ostracized and expelled from the community as a scapegoat. Belief in witchcraft is a way to cope with the problem of malice and evil. By projecting all evil in the community onto a person or

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persons and evicting that person from the community, people hope to do away with evil, by eliminating the allegedly malicious person(s) and ‘chasing the scapegoat out of the community into the desert’. Sometimes calling someone a witch is a mere expression of hostility. An unpopular person is easily called a witch though nobody accuses him/her in earnest of harmful magical practices. But it is enough to marginalize that person and deprive him or her of respect and a prominent position in the community. Jesus takes a diametrically opposed stance: the evil is in your own heart, and you need to confess and repent and constantly be converted and transformed (Mark 1: 15). Witchcraft, if people believe in i t s e ff i c a c y, i s a g r e a t temptation: it is used as a magical means to harm and destroy your rival and competitor. As such it is socially destructive. Take the example of two business people whose businesses are in competition with each other. One is threatened with bankruptcy. He is persuaded by the witchcraft practitioner to kill a small child and concoct a strong medicine out of the body parts with which to destroy his successful rival. Constructive behaviour would be to ask oneself: why is my business failing? What is my mistake? Want can I do to improve? What new skills and business methods do I need?

WITCHCRAFT AND THE CHURCH A person who believes he/she is bewitched and enthralled by evil forces needs to be liberated. It is here that people call for an exorcism to be pronounced over the affected person. This is certainly a situation where our faith is being tested. The action of the exorcist is not enough if the exorcised person does not have faith and cannot believe that the Word of God is indeed stronger than any evil spirit, witch or whatever. It has been observed that exorcised people keep coming back asking for yet another exorcism. Why? Because they have not really resisted the evil one in their heart of hearts, for fear he might be stronger than their faith in the Holy Spirit. They remain sitting on the fence. They lack trust in God and do not really let go to fully entrust themselves into the hands of God. But if the Risen Christ has vanquished sin and death then they must have this confidence in the power of God and must renounce the evil one, once and for all, as they have indeed done at their Baptism when they renounced Satan.

Witch hunting is very common even among people who have no explicit belief in witchcraft: the political enemy is often demonised and dehumanised so that he can be removed from human society altogether,...at one time it was the communists .In Rhodesia it was “terrorists”. In our own context today it is “neocolonialists and imperialists”. And worldwide it is “terrorists” again.

Success in business depends on busines skills and methods not muti Identifying evil with certain The shocking result is that we all people or groups of people and become “witches”, resorting to chasing them as scapegoats so sheer terror. as not to have to confront the We fight the evil one, and in the evil in their own hearts is not process become evil ourselves. restricted to the context of This is the fundamental error. witchcraft beliefs. Witch “Why do you observe the splinter hunting is very common even in your brother’s eye and never among people who have no notice the great log in your explicit belief in witchcraft: the own?” political enemy is often This question of the New demonised and dehumanised so Testament will not go away. that he can be removed from human society altogether, without the due process of the law: at one time it was the communists (for the communists and their sympathisers it was the capitalists). In Rhodesia it was “terrorists”. In our own context today it is “neo-colonialists and imperialists”. And worldwide it is “terrorists” again. They are the “witches”, the evil ones which must be eliminated, never mind how. Against pure evil, so the popular assumption, “anything goes”. A “terrorist” is no longer human, no longer a member of society, normal moral laws no longer apply. They can be imprisoned and tortured, In The Scaoegoat and other without moral scruples, since writngs,Girard expands on scapegoat mechanism they are evil incarnate.

No. 61 June 2012

BOOK REVIEW

Did Whites Bring Violence? The Genesis of Violence in Zimbabwe, Fr Fidelis Mukonori S.J, Centre for Peace Initiatives in Africa, Harare 2012.

Review by Gift Mambipiri

in Independence. A common feature of the war was sexual violence, and women and girls bore the brunt of this. Sexual violence against women was used to humiliate, intimidate and demoralize both African men and women who were supporting the guerillas. The effects of these acts were very devastating and included physical and emotional trauma, sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies and even permanent harm to reproductive health.

makes an attempt at tracing how institutionalized violence became part of our fabric as a country. And the founding argument presented in the very first paragraph points to the White men who came to colonise Zimbabwe as the culprit. Fr Mukonori says “it has to be said from the outset that the locus of the violence is in the nature and behavior of the white people who occupied the country (10)”. He argues that as the white men arrived from South Africa and went about subjugating local authorities and taking over everything, violence became a policy through which they controlled local people. Research has shown him that the Pioneer Column, numbering 196 pioneers and 500 police arrived in the country heavily armed with machine guns and artillery believing that “violence was a means to an end (11).” The royal charter had mandated the pioneers to farm and mine in Mashonaland where Lobengula, oblivious of their expansionist and imperialist aims, had granted them mineral and settlement rights. The white man then violently conquered Zimbabwe militarily, politically and economically but much of this History “was distorted to suit the white man (12)” The early excursions by the whites resulted in the First Chimurenga as the local natives wanted to retain their sovereignty over their country and its resources. The locals chose to fight after “extreme provocation by pioneers (18)”.

The racist manner in which Rhodesia industrialized and urbanized constituted violence against the blacks. Africans could work in towns but were not allowed to own residential properties. Their place was in national reserves. The accommodation provided in towns was only for the working men and they could be visited under strict conditions with sporadic raids and inspections made to make sure there were no illegal visitors. “The random and violent inspections from the police took place at any time of the night. It was a degrading and humiliating experience that kept reminding the blacks that they did not belong to the city (21).” The writer comments that work can be rewarding and dignifying but forced labour is “pure and unmistakable slavery”. Africans were denied many rights and that triggered cases of civil disobedience. Then there was the Second war of liberation that finally ushered

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The war brought deaths and a culture of violence and counter violence prevailed across the whole country. And Zimbabwe today has struggled to unlearn that culture. Even as the government preached reconciliation in 1980, that has failed to transform the nation because we did not follow the proper cycle of unlearning violence which involves not only reconciliation, but also rehabilitation and reconstruction. Reconciliation without rehabilitation and reconstruction failed to win over the hearts of Zimbabweans. Inferiority and superiority complexes remained entrenched resulting in the current poisoned political and racial climates. Rehabilitation was supposed to help both sides to the war to transform from war to peace without any suspicions. Imagine a guerilla who has been fighting in the bush for 15years, suddenly being told to lay down the arms and live with the white

BOOK REVIEWS man without any psychological conditioning? Reconstruction was supposed to overhaul and reorganize the governance system that previously favored the minority. Economic and political violence in Zimbabwe today is traced to the failed reconstruction of the 80s. It is because of this failure that Zimbabwe had land invasions, ‘Murambatsvina’ and serious political violence particularly in the last decade. In his way forward, the former Jesuit Provincial derides the clemency granted to perpetrators of political violence through presidential pardons after every election. This habit breeds impunity. He also believes false promises made by politicians leave citizens agitated when they are not fulfilled, and our politicians must learn to apologize whenever they fail to perform. He also blames the hate speech used by national leaders against each other. The proposed way forward has important pointers that are necessary for sustainable peace in the country. But on the whole the content of this book is a far cry from what one would expect from Fr Mukonori especially after going through his impressive Curriculum vitae at the back of the book. The book is hugely a narration of what is already in the public domain with little attempt at analysis. Whereas the idea of tracing the genesis of institutionalized violence in this country sounds novel, it is not true that this came with colonization. The Ndebele raids on the Shona before 1890 where institutionalized violence. It was warfare with roots within

Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi whilst in colonial detention before they were condemned to death the Ndebele kingdom that went raped only by Rhodesian forces. out to violate the Shona. It is not Yet if the truth be told, as indeed as if the raids were done by it was through a now- banned naughty individuals with feature film, “The Flame”, violent tendencies. They were a ‘guerillas’ turned against their function of the kingdom fellow female comrades and –specifically commissioned for raped them. the work. The author also makes untrue statement like. “Violence was T h e n t h e r e i s a l s o t h e regarded as the only means to internecine fights between bring about social, cultural, Zimbabwe African people’s e c o n o m i c a n d p o l i t i c a l Union (ZAPU) and Zimbabwe change…”(59). Violence only A f r i c a n N a t i o n a l u n i o n brings political change and you (ZANU) before and during the will need a different war to bring liberation war that the author social, economic and cultural purely attributes to “lack of change. civic education (30).” A reading o f M a s i p u l a S i t h o l e ’ s The author was close to “Struggles within the struggle” liberation fighters but that must or Edgar Tekere’s “A lifetime of not cloud his assessment on Struggle” would have informed some issues. His reasoning when our author that the fights had the whole school was abducted little to do with the past in 1972 at St Albert’s mission is (Ndebele Shona raids) nor the insensitive to say the least. He lack of civic education but had reasons that “this was a war everything to do with power situation and ZANLA needed to – p o s i t i o n i n g o n e s e l f recruit more young men and strategically to benefit from the women for guerilla training if struggle. the war was to be won” (60). Honestly this indiscriminate Then there is the issue of rape as abduction was inexcusable. a weapon used against women (54). The impression given is T h e n a r r a t i o n a r o u n d that black African ladies were Gukurahundi in Matebeleland is

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BOOK REVIEWS n o t e x h a u s t i v e . To s a y Gukurahundi happened on tribal grounds is to miss the point. It had everything to do with power between the opposing political forces. The author seems uncomfortable to deal with this particular violence and simply issues a plea: “in order to close this chapter, it is necessary that some of those who know or were responsible for master minding the original plan should honour this country by giving an honest account of what happened” (78). The suggestion that the Unity Accord of 1987 was agreed upon “without much acrimony (82)” is out of this world. The architects of the accord, who are today insisting on pulling out of the accord, have

always said they capitulated to no equal partners in that fight. prevent more deaths in their The other leader, just like Joshua Nkomo before him, had backyard. to flee the country in the face of death threats. Fr Mukonoro is mentioned in The book editor should also M o rg a n Ts v a n g i r a i ’s have corrected a few factual biography,” At The Deep End”, as a peace broker and Mugabe’s e r r o r s . T h e p i c t u r e o f emissary to him at the height of Chishawasha mission (41) was the June 27 violence. For him in ‘taken’ in 1891 yet the mission this book to generalize the drive was built in 1902 as the text behind that madness of June 27 a c k n o w l e d g e s . A l s o F r and blame “leaders from both Mukonori was Jesuit provincial parties (who) appeared to resolve for 7 years, not 11. Mbuya to continue politicizing in order Nehanda was not hanged on the to either maintain their status quo tree at the corner of Josiah or whistle away the other parties Tongogara and Sam Mujoma advantage (106)” is unfortunate. but at Africa unity square in He had a front row seat and front of our present day knows very well that there were parliament building.

A Spiritual Journey through Africa’s Holocaust Immaculee Ilibagiza with Steve Erwin, Left to Tell, One woman’s story of surviving the Rwandan holocaust, Hay House, United Kingdom, 2006, 215 pp.

She was brought up by loving parents in a beautiful home near Lake Kivu, together with three brothers who adored their only sister. This paradise the genocide turned into hell. In this book she tells her story with the help of an American writer in English, her third language after Kinyarwanda and French. The book is not so much about this hell and its horror, though there is more of it than the reader can bear, but about the inner struggle between God and the “negative energy” in the heart of this young woman. In her Catholic family there was no stress on ethnic identity. Only in school did she realize she was a Tutsi and most of her fellow pupils Hutu when her teacher, a fanatical Hutu tribalist, was hostile to her. A pastor hides her with seven other women in a tiny bathroom in his big house. Her little brother

Vianney and his friend are sent away – to an inevitable cruel fate. They are hacked to death by Hutu killers a few hundred yards down the road. It seems a miracle that the women crammed into that tiny room escape the execution commandos. Immaculee spends her days praying. But the “negative energy”, the evil spirit, points

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out her hopeless situation, with hundreds milling around the house, former neighbours and friends, crazed and demented, baying for her blood. Endless government propaganda over the radio has poisoned people’s minds with hatred of the Tutsi “snakes” and “cockroaches”. It is the old satanic trick: you first demonize and dehumanize the enemy, then you slaughter him with a good conscience, stepping on him and crushing him as vermin. She is torn apart. “The struggle between my prayers and the evil whispers that I was sure belonged to the devil raged in my mind. I never stopped praying…..and the whispering never relented” (79). She was torn between hatred and the desire for revenge, overwhelmed by mad fantasies how she would kill the killers, on the one hand, and the hope of finding peace in God, on the other.

BOOK REVIEWS I could no longer pray to a God of love with a heart full of hatred” (93). She finally sees as if in a vision that all people, even the killers, are God’s children. She prays even for the bloodthirsty monsters looking for her. Revenge perpetuates the slaughter, only forgiveness will put an end to it. When she arrives at this conclusion she feels free and liberated from the relentless cycle of hatred and violence. After three months of fear and terror the women, emaciated and reduced to skin and bones, take refuge in a French army camp. The commanding officer, too, is burning with anger and the craving for revenge. He has seen too much of what the Hutu killers did, and he wants to exterminate them all. He does not understand the young woman who believes she survived because she was “left to tell” her story and her experience of God in the hell of genocide. Her mission will be to make people understand the need for forgiveness.

It is not for us, she feels, to deal with these people who were overwhelmed by evil, the “negative energies”. Let God do that, they are his children. Human justice and punishment will be necessary, but the last word belongs to God. At this time she learns that all her immediate family are dead, except for one, her brother Aimable, a student in Senegal. Once more she has to battle the “negative energies”. “My heart hungered for revenge, and I raged inside myself, ‘Those bloody animals’”(196). Eventually she is able to pray, “Those who did these horrible things are still Your children, so let me help them, and help me to forgive them”. There is no other way to peace. She meets the killer of her mother and her beloved elder brother Damascene. He “was sobbing. I could feel his shame. He looked up at me only for a moment, but our eyes met. I reached out, touched his hands lightly, and quietly said what I had come to say. ‘I forgive you’.”

Is that too easy an answer to the unspeakable horror of the Rwandan genocide? Maybe. But it has to be remembered that Immaculee says this after she has been through a spiritual and physical hell. It is not said lightly. While it was said that after Auschwitz, the extermination camp of the Nazi holocaust, it is no longer possible to believe in a merciful God, this woman clung to her God in the midst of hell; she came to believe in her God of love after a most painful inner struggle and process of discernment between the “positive” and “negative energies” she encountered. There is an African holocaust. There is indiscriminate bloodshed even now. People are dying as they did in Rwanda even today, in the Eastern Congo, on the border between Sudan and South Sudan, in Mali, in northern Nigeria. Zimbabwe has never really confronted its own random killings and “ethnic cleansing”, its ongoing history of violence. Immaculee Ilibagiza’s story tells us that we still have to meet our God face to face over all the blood spilled in our country. Immaculee Ilibagiza now lives in New York, married to Bryan Black with two children. She works for the Rwandan Office at the United Nations. She has set up a foundation to “help others heal from the long-term effects of genocide and war”. Her parents brought her up as a Catholic. She said about her time in Kigali, “I passed many evenings cloistered in prayer and meditation at a nearby Jesuit centre, which became a second home to me”.

Some of the remains of the innocent who died in Rwanda

No. 61 June 2012

BOOK REVIEWS

A decade of economic madness Zimbabwe’s lost decade: politics, Development and Society, Lloyd Sachikonye, Weaver Press, Harare, 2012

Review by Gift Mambipiri The author of this book has made a name researching on governance issues in Zimbabwe and Southern Africa. This book is the 9 of what he has published since 1991. In this book, the focus is on how Zimbabwe has failed to develop economically since independence. His lenses are firmly fixed on the period between 1998 and 2008 though with some background information from preceding years that help explain why we have this economic underdevelopment. th

During the period he calls ‘Zimbabwe’s lost decade’, the country’s economy shrank from an estimated USD 9 billion in 1997 to USD 4 billion in 2008. This is surprising as much as it is disappointing. The surprise stems from the country’s inheritance of the second most industrialized and diversified economy, and with an enviable infrastructure, on the African continent. Its economy was also the most balanced in terms of sector participation. Also compared to its immediate neighbors Botswana, Mozambique and Zambia, Zimbabwe was well endowed with natural and human resources, resources which should have provided it with a head start in growth and development. The book acknowledges that though Zimbabwe had massive social growth in terms of health and education, some after independence, the same growth was never felt in the economy. If the economy had grown steadily, projections say we would have hit Gross Domestic

Products (GDP) of US $15 billions by now. So what went wrong? These are some of the questions that this book seeks to answer. There was a sharp contraction of the Zimbabwean economy starting from 1997. The base for this had been laid by other imprudent approaches, like ESAP, that had set the economy on a knife’s edge. And events and interventions employed from 1997 only fueled the rot. The explanation for the rot given by Sachikonye is in the “collapse of the social contract” (96.) This collapse was signaled by the decline in living standards and unemployment. Various social groups ranging from labour to commercial farmers and commercial farmers and informal economy operators and industrialists to war veterans were pessimistic about the capacity of the Mugabe government to make the economy grow after the stagnation brought by ESAP. There were 232 strikes recorded that year as workers, war veterans and civil society agitated for their rights (97). The year also saw the longest and

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most acrimonious public sector strike since independence (97). War veterans demanded payoffs for their service during the liberation struggle. This was perhaps the most expensive and disastrous demand by any group. The gratuities, forced from government under duress, forced the largest devaluation of the Zimbabwean dollar in one November day, triggering a crisis that would become full blown in 2000. These payments were followed by an expensive military intervention in the DRC which gobbled about US$30 million a month. Food riots broke out in 1998 as prices went up. Though this book tries to stick to the economic decline during the lost decade, it acknowledges the interconnections that existed with political developments. And what compromised the government’s fight to restore the economy as the rot intensified was its loss in the constitutional referendum and the 2000 general elections that greatly reduced its majority. The economic decisions and programmes employed from then onwards were simply meant to prolong the government’s stay in office. The game was to stall, or delay as long as possible, ‘regime change’ (99). Quoting a UNDP 2008 report, Sachikonye concurs that political imperatives took precedence over economic goals, most marked in the land reform programme, but also in exchange rate policy, the pricing policy of parastatals…and the Indigenization and Economic

BOOK REVIEWS and Empowerment Act. Zimbabwe slowly became a predatory State in which conventional macroeconomic and regulatory policy levers are deemed inadequate and authorities seek to secure direct control of markets and economic actors. There were deliberate decisions to make political appointments to strategic institutions like the RBZ and any attempt towards medium to long term planning was abandoned. The RBZ then took centre stage with quasi-fiscal activities at the core of its functions, rebuking conventional economic practices as “textbook or bookish economics” (101). The central bank had its hands in everything –financing agriculture, stabilizing supplies to the health sector, supervising national examinations in 2008, logistical support in fights against cholera, importing fuel, electricity, fertilizer and grain –among many other necessary things. The financing for such was done by printing money and fuelling inflation. The real cost of all that, in monetary terms, is the USD 1.2 billion debt the bank was saddled with as at 2010 (103).

The decade long crisis resulted in significant deindustrialization as well as capacity under-utilisation. Retrenchments were widespread. And with unemployment rates at above 80%, this contributed to an informal economy that saw people in vending, crossborder trade, gold panning, sewing, carpentry, currency trading, amongst others. Many of these were merely coping mechanisms that generated not even enough for basic needs. Sachikonye acknowledges the effect of sanctions on the Zimbabwean crisis. He argues that although estranged relations with the West did not lead to break in trading relations, it did adversely affect Zimbabwe’s access to loans from such institutions like the IMF and World Bank. The results of the decade long madness include massive migration of up to a quarter of the population. The majority of migrants who left as economic refugees found themselves in lowly-skilled jobs and poorly paid positions that were not commensurate with their

positions (164).UNICEF weighed in with a gloomy picture in the education field, in which it decried the falling education standards in the country as a result of limited access. The extreme changes in politics, economics and society at large also had shifts in the sphere of culture, values and ideas (170). HIV/AIDS and large scale migration could not fail to have a profound effect on the family as an institution. With the economically active migrating, the care of the family was left to the elderly and/or orphans having to run child headed families. Such instances left families exposed with the elderly left to do care work under conditions of poverty, stigma, abuse and lack of support. The adolescent orphans were forced out of school and to work. There were deprived of life skills and sex education resulting in early sexual activities and multiple casual partners. This book is relevant to all responsible world citizens who want to understand what becomes of a country when its keepers become predators who sacrifice the common good for narrow self interest..

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No. 61 June 2012