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Witchcraft and Anti-Witchcraft in Nupe Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2012

S. F. Nadel
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My investigations into witchcraft among the Nupe were carried out under extremely adverse conditions. In February 1932 Bida, the capital of Nupe Emirate, had seen an outbreak of witchcraft which threw the whole country into a state of gravest unrest. Three women, an alleged witch with her daughter and granddaughter, were stoned to death by the enraged people of Bida when they tried to obtain justice against their accusers. The house of one of the town notables who was involved in the case was set fire to. The town was in turmoil, and the ensuing trial before the European authorities, complicated as it was by political issues and violent party feuds, was carried out under great difficulties. It lasted three months, and ended with two death sentences and two sentences of long-term imprisonment. When I arrived in Nupe country in January 1934, these happenings were still alive in every one's memory.

Résumé

LA SORCELLERIE CHEZ LES NOUPÉ

Les croyances des Noupé en matière de sorcellerie se manifestèrent spécialement en février 1932. A ce moment trois hommes, considérés comme sorciers, furent tués par les habitants de Bida en fureur. Les renseignements recueillis révèlent l'existence de deux types de sorcellerie : la ‘vraie’ sorcellerie, celle des femmes qui est toujours nocive et antisociale; et la sorcellerie des hommes, supposée plus faible, moins dangereuse et qui se rapproche davantage du type de la magie ordinaire. Chez les Noupé les idées relatives à la sorcellerie sont englobées dans une croyance à l'organisation d'une véritable association de sorciers, dont le chef prend une importance particulière, du fait qu'il est reconnu par le chef du village.

Il y a deux moyens de combattre la sorcellerie: d'abord par des procédés applicables dans les cas individuels; et en second lieu, au moyen d'un système compliqué dont l'emploi est confié à une société secrète, le ndăkó gbòyá. Cette association et la place qu'elle occupe dans la société est analysée en détail.

La conclusion formule deux problèmes théoriques: le problème social de la coopération originelle entre la communauté dans son ensemble et la société secrète; le problème psychologique, impliqué dans le système de pensée des Noupé, qui semblent accepter le fait qu'il est impossible d'éliminer complètement la sorcellerie, et qu'un certain degré de sorcellerie est presque naturel.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , October 1935 , pp. 423 - 447
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1935

References

page 427 note 1 A certain group of men sorcerers is said to live in the north of Nupe, whose activities are much more like the women's witchcraft, that is to say strongly organized, evil, and always deadly. Their witchcraft, however, is not based on the principle of invisibility and the separation of soul from body, but on a specific bullroarer-magic, called in Nupe vugù-vugù, which is said to give the sorcerers power to kill from a distance. My limited, and so far only second-hand, evidence about this special ‘sorcerer society’ does not allow me to form any opinion as yet.

page 429 note 1 There is a certain inconsistency in this ‘theory’. For in certain cases, more frequently in the case of male witchcraft, it is not the fifingi which is sent out, but a spirit over whom the witch has gained power, and whom she (or he) uses in the same evil way.

page 431 note 1 Lowie, Robert H., Primitive Religion, p. 36.Google Scholar

page 431 note 2 The same type of office exists in Bida to-day, entrusted to a woman who holds the title of sónya (from the Hausa word sarauniya, queen). The sónya is elected by the women of the town, and recognized by the town authorities (including to-day the European authorities). But all my informants stressed the point that originally there was no sónya in Bida or Nupe, but only one head of the women—the lelú.

page 434 note 1 The Nupe frequently use the word ndǎkó, pl. ndǎkóƷì, lit. grandfather or ancestor, for ‘spirits’ in general, and also for certain magical objects linked with these spirits, e.g. the bullroarer, vugù-vugù, is also called a ndǎkó.

page 435 note 1 Waka is a corrupt form of the Hausa wanka, to wash, which is heard fairly frequently in the countries south of Hausa proper. It is surprising that both the

page 436 note 1 ‘The Zande Corporation of Witchdoctors’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. lxii, p. 323.

page 436 note 2 See my articles in Africa, vol. viii, no. 3, and Man, 143, 1935.

page 439 note 1 In this myth will be noticed also a certain deprecatory reference to matriarchal ideas. There exists in fact definite evidence for such a transition from matrilineal to patrilineal succession in the system of Nupe kingship and chieftainship as the mythological account appears to comment on.

page 440 note 1 My full account of the gunnu cult will appear in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.

page 444 note 1 It is a social partnership which is very typical of the ways in which a political system makes use of existing ‘bonds of sentiment and interest’. I have described an analogous development in the sphere of native jurisdiction in my article in Man.