LUO HARRY POTTER; Tussle of Black Magic
An
article exploring the practice of witchcraft in Luo community of Kenya.
“Do not turn to mediums or spiritists, for you
will be defiled by them. I Am the Lord your God.”[1]
In Kisii, women who live to old age are killed on whispered allegations of being sorceress. Among the Miji Kenda, our evening news regularly regales us with this cat or those bees having magical powers. In Kitui, witchcraft is sold in the markets. In Luoland, people fear to build permanent houses fearing evil eyes...][2]
Our Laws recognize witchcraft,[3] it
criminalizes some elements of the concept. In our day to day lives we come
across advertisements of witchcrafts from Tanzania, Kitui and other places
placed on electric posts, public toilets and tree-trunks. This in effect
superficially recognizes the practice of witchcraft as part of Kenyan lives.
Donald B. Kipkorir in his article encapsulates
the whole idea of witchcraft succinctly. Yes, the concept is not alien to the
rest of the world especially those that have recorded history but also a factor
of culture in Kenya with diverse societies which have believed in practice of
witchcraft or witchery as a result affecting their way of lives, notably Luo
community.
Genesis
of the Belief in Witchcraft in Luo community
Luo community like any other African society
recognizes supernatural spirits that are far beyond the human understanding.
They believed that the living die and join juogi (spirits). Those who before their
demise were good members of the society join caliber of juogi. These good spirits are believed to be
involved in anything good that happens. Conversely, Luos believe that those who
die full of bad and evil deed join the bad spirits and are adversely affect the
community.
These juogi are in turn passed to members of
the family of those who went before them. When a young child is born, his
behavior may be influenced by the departed ancestral spirits. The spirits may be good or
bad. Good juogi born in a given group is used to counter the bad juogi.
Source
of Witchcrafts
Juogi
in a tag-of-war; Good Spirits countering Bad Spirits
Good spirits counter the bad spirits in
everything they exercise they check and balance their adverse acts.
Juogi
begets
Juok. Juok is the magic power that is
a consequence of juogi. It can be transferred
willingly or unwillingly from a carrier to an innocent recipient or a willing
one. For instance; Juok (the magic
power) can be imposed on someone by another person, e.g. a wife or husband,
who places a stone in the victim’s hand at night. If the victim wakes up and
throws the stone away, he become a
jajuok." The Jajuok is a
nightrunner.
"Jajuok
otieno or jajuok mudho means a
‘nightrunner’, and he is a man who runs about naked at night. He is either a
victim of a spell or she has inherited his disposition from a father or mother
who was also a nightrunner."
If a jajuok
intends to bewitch a person, he gathers the leaves of a certain wild plant and
... goes to a crossroads where he knows his enemy often passes and ... he prays
to a particular ancestor from whom he received his bilo, for success in performing his magic.
Bilo
is
a transferred magical ability from members of the society before them commonly
referred to as ancestors who pass down the ability to do good or evil in form of
juok, giving rise to another category
of Jabilo. In the case of an epidemic
a jabilo is consulted in order to
ascertain its cause and to prescribe curative measures.
These acts of equalizing witchcraft, is a maneuver
to keep the evil spirits or Jachien (jochiende pl.) commonly
referred as the devil from hurting other members of the society. Those
possessed of Jachien are evil and
have evil eyes.
Nawi
means harmful magic which takes effect if certain words are spoke over some
drugs kept in a horn which at the same time is pointed at the victim. Janawi is known to do much harm. He is
often hired to harm a particular person. Nawi
means ‘black magic.
There is also jasasia capable of creating hatred between people. Sasia causes hatred when administered
between those targeted for conflict especially families.
Women are not left behind in the practice of
witchcraft; ja-sihoho malevolent
medicine-man, mostly women. They possess the evil eye. These women exercise
virtual witchery. They are capable of implanting anything they wish into a
human body especially when the potential victim eats. For instance they are capable of
turning the food one eats into an inanimate object like a rock . If the rock is not removed the person
dies of stomach-aches.
These jo-sihoho
(pl.) have neuters in jatak.[4]
Jatak has the juok to remove any
object stuck in the victim’s body. He is with
special knowledge of how to cure stomach-ache.
Neither
Good nor Bad:
There is a category of magicians that neither
lie at the extremes of bad or good but malleable. They act depending with the circumstances prevailing.
Their magical stunts are dependent on whoever comes in as a patient. The patient
may be ailing or avenging. Their magic may neutralize, prevent, heal or damage.
Jandagla;
Ndagla is ... the process whereby a
foreseeable calamity is averted by a jandagla.
He has to be consulted before sunrise and it is his duty to tell his client
what ails the sufferer, not vice versa. The client usually has to get hold of
various objects such as the skull of a dog, an infertile egg, etc., which form
the ingredients of the ndagla ... and
which the client has to mix together {thus coating the hound’s skull with raw
egg}. The jandagla then directs him
where to leave the mixture. Whoever finds it will divert the calamity to himself.
The person who finds the ndagla and
ails as a result may consult an Ajuoga.
Ajuoga
(witch doctor) will then enable him to redirect the
bad ndagla to the original sufferer. The
Ajuoga arranges the ingredients of
his magic and utters some words to Nyasaye, saying, ‘you shine upon the good as
well as one the bad {"Our Father which is in heaven: for He maketh his sun
to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the
unjust reveal your secrets to me ... revealing these hidden secrets that you
have ...”} He then sits down and consults his gagi.
If he uses gagi,[5]
he may only throw them on the floor or on a small carpet. By looking at them
and at their positions relative to each other, he will be able to tell his
client what kind of trouble he [the client] is in." An Ajuoga will throw sea shells on a
blanket or on the floor. By the way they fall, how far apart they are and so
on, the Ajuoga can tell.
Conclusion:
As Donald B.
Kipkorir puts it, Witchcraft and its twin-sisters,
magic and sorcery have been with us since the dawn of history. For any
phenomenon that we couldn’t explain, we attributed it to the unknown spirit
world. And for answers we couldn’t get, we went to the occult…[6] it
isn’t a strange circumstance for it happens everywhere else in the world, as in
Luo Nyanza in Kenya where we have jajuok
and Ajuoga; Europe has David Blaine and David Copperfield and Hollywood has
Harry Potter. Just as J.K Rowling created Potter's wand of magic, flying broomstick and a talking bus Luos have gagi, sasia, ndagla and bilo.
Welcome to my Africanized Luoharry Potter.
Welcome to my Africanized Luoharry Potter.
[1] Leviticus
19:31, see 2
[3]Witchcraft Act, Cap 67 Laws
of Kenya
[4] Tak means ‘to take away’
[5]Gagi is the Luo word for the
small white shells used by almost all medicine men for divining
[6] Ibid 2
Comments
Post a Comment