Witchcraft

Songoma’s, Nyanga’s(Witch doctors), Witches - what’s the difference

Did you know that Nyanga’s in Africa well at least my part of it are buried at night only, specifically between midnight and two in the morning is preferable, 3 to 4 am is actually a bit late.

Well now you know, that certainly put paid to any aspirations I may have had.

I’m not sure if this applies equally to Songoma’s, nowadays it is quite the in thing to be one, I wouldn’t mind myself actually that is if I don’t have to undergo the training part of it.

Definition
From what I understand Songoma’s and Nyanga’s (traditional doctors) are people who have a healing gift. They also have divination skills and can also communicate with the ancestors. They are consulted mostly on many problems to do with life besides actual illness, and usually preside over traditional ceremonies such as talking to the ancestors (we had one of those last year – it was an experience I never could have imagined) and the annual sacrifice (we are talking beer here people not anything remotely blood related for all you “sadomasochists”), usually performed after the harvest season when there is less to do as most of the work has been done), (I used to love those when me and my sisters used to sneak to neighboring homes at nights – you can hear the drums for miles - to attend them my granny is a staunch Christian). Basically beer is brewed from the harvested millet and people come together at night to dance and sing and well there is a lot more that goes on here – such as the ancestors talking to the people this from personal witness – you want to know more?

Training
The schooling involves apprenticeship with the teacher whereby you actually go to live with them for the duration of the learning. This can consist of months in the bush, with no shelter, no shoes, no food, and absolutely no chance of a bath, sot of like survivor international, except this time around you are supposed to emerge with great psychological powers (among others) as opposed to psychological issues, oh and just forget about combing your hair.
Nowadays however this apprenticeship can also be done in towns where, nowadays it can involve office help, or even chauffeuring services for the teacher – its civilization people!

Finding a teacher
Well the process of finding a teacher isn’t as simple, normally you will be told by those who “see” that you have “the gift”, sometimes if you are resistant the calling of the ancestors may manifest itself as illness or ill luck maybe even mental illness, the doctors will be unable to diagnose and eventually you may be forwarded to the traditional doctor who will inform you of the true nature of your illness. In some cases, of course it’s just hereditary, your father was a traditional healer, your grandfather is one and so on.
When looking for a teacher one may get responses such as “ I am not the one you are looking for” or “you are to heavy for me – please move on”??? I know, this all makes sense in the next paragraph

The examinations
I am told that at the end of it all teacher and student must test their powers against each other – to the death that is. Okay I don’t really know why this is so but there is a wide consensus on this one – it can’t be ignored. It explains the heaviness comment I think. What I wonder is if the student fails at this stage do they qualify for night burial?

Witches
Witches in Africa are common knowledge but one of the best kept secrets of the African heritage, little besides all the crazy stories - and there are many of these it would require a blog page dedicated to just witch stories or something like that to cover those fantastical tales - is actually known about them, in spite of the fact that there is apparently a network of them (yes they collaborate and share tips I’m told, it helps if say this person you were trying to bewitch moved to a different geographical area they even have a hierarchy of leadership). Apparently, witchcraft can not be used to enrich oneself, if you try some kind of spell to do so it will not work; also they cannot do good things with their powers. And the nudity thing just never seems to go away when talking about witches – I don’t know why all the stories involve them flying around at night in the nude but there it is.

Generally witches in Africa can “fly” and are generally always up to no good, putting evil spells and the like. I have come across a witch on 3 occasions in my life, if you wanna know more about that you will have to ask me.

I hope one day I do get an opportunity to interview one, and maybe I’ll be more informed then.

Oh I almost forgot when we were young growing up in the village, I did hear say that say you wanted to become a witch, and say you happened to know an old lady who was a witch in the village, you’d go to the bush and chop a whole stock of firewood and deliver this to the old woman. Ok unfortunately I never quite got the courage to try that one so (akitsi) – I don’t know, again I never really liked chopping firewood. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to tell whether a particular tree can be used as fire wood or not, or even whether its dry enough or not – just don’t remind me.

I will end with a question what is the difference between a traditional doctor & a sangoma – does anyone know?