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Witchcraft in Kisii Society

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The Gusii have historically maintained strong beliefs in witchcraft (oborogi), understanding it as a real and dangerous form of harmful power. Witchcraft accusations have been a persistent feature of Gusii society, and in the contemporary period, the issue has taken on tragic dimensions as alleged witches (particularly elderly women) have been subjected to mob violence and killing.

Witchcraft in Traditional Gusii Cosmology

In traditional Gusii thought, witchcraft was understood as an inherent power some individuals possessed, typically inherited within families. Unlike sorcery (magic learned and practiced), witchcraft was believed to be an innate capacity, sometimes activated without the witch's conscious intention.

Characteristics of witchcraft:

  1. Inherent power - possessed by individuals, usually certain families, as an inborn quality rather than learned practice
  2. Harmful intent - witches used their power to cause harm, illness, death, or misfortune to others
  3. Nocturnal activity - witches were believed to operate primarily at night, sometimes in embodied form, sometimes in spiritual form
  4. Concealment - witches kept their identity and activities hidden, making detection difficult
  5. Multiplex targeting - witches might harm family members, neighbors, rivals, or strangers based on various motives

Practices Attributed to Witches

Gusii beliefs about witchcraft included specific practices and mechanisms:

Harmful methods attributed to witches:

  1. Spiritual projection - witches sent their spiritual essence (sometimes taking animal form) to harm others
  2. Substance sending - witches sent harmful substances (through food, water, or magical projection) to cause illness
  3. Life-force draining - witches extracted the life force or vital essence from victims, causing wasting diseases
  4. Reproductive harm - witches specifically targeted pregnancies, causing miscarriages, stillbirths, or infant deaths
  5. Crop destruction - witches sent destructive influence to destroy crops or livestock
  6. Economic harm - witches caused business failures, poverty, and economic misfortune

Witchcraft Accusation Processes

In traditional Gusii society, witchcraft accusations followed certain patterns:

Detection and accusation:

  1. Diviner consultation - when misfortune occurred (illness, death, crop failure), families consulted the omoragori (diviner) to determine if witchcraft was responsible
  2. Diviner identification - the diviner used divination techniques to identify the suspected witch
  3. Community response - once identified, the accused witch faced social pressure, compensation demands, or other remedies
  4. Denial and defense - accused witches sometimes vigorously denied accusations, sometimes confessed, sometimes fled

Traditional remedies:

  1. Compensation - the accused paid compensation (livestock, money, or goods) to victims or their families
  2. Ritual cleansing - the accused underwent rituals intended to remove or neutralize their witchcraft power
  3. Banishment - in some cases, witches were banished or socially ostracized
  4. Rare execution - in extreme cases, witches might be killed, though this was less common in traditional Gusii society than in some other African societies

The traditional system, while involving social punishment and compensation, was not typically characterized by mob violence or extrajudicial killing.

Colonial and Christian Impact

The arrival of colonial rule and Christianity altered witchcraft discourse:

  1. Legal prohibition - British colonial law made witchcraft accusations and killings illegal, criminalizing witchcraft-related violence
  2. Christian reinterpretation - Christian churches taught that witchcraft was either non-existent (a superstition) or should be understood through Christian cosmology (as demonic or satanic)
  3. Medical rationalization - biomedical medicine offered alternative explanations for illness, sometimes reducing attribution to witchcraft
  4. Continued belief - despite legal prohibition and religious teaching, belief in witchcraft persisted in Gusii society

However, the prohibition of witchcraft-related killings and the Christian dismissal of witchcraft as superstition did not eliminate the practice or belief system. Instead, it drove accusations and remedies underground.

Witch-Burning and Mob Killings (Contemporary Period)

From the 1990s onward, Kisii (and several other Kenyan regions) experienced a disturbing phenomenon: mob killings of persons accused of witchcraft. These killings, typically targeting elderly women (sometimes men), involve:

Characteristics of modern witch-burning:

  1. Accusation - a person (usually elderly) is accused of witchcraft, often linked to a recent death or misfortune
  2. Mob assembly - community members gather, often motivated by rumors or persuasion by local figures
  3. Violence - the accused is physically attacked, beaten, sometimes burned alive or killed in other violent ways
  4. Weak law enforcement - police response is often delayed or ineffective, enabling violence
  5. Impunity - perpetrators frequently escape prosecution, enabling recurrence

Scale of the problem:

Documented cases of witch-related killings in Kisii have occurred periodically, with particular clusters in 1999, 2008, and other years. Dozens of killings have been documented, with estimates suggesting the actual number may be higher.

Victims:

The overwhelming majority of victims are elderly women, often widows or socially marginal figures. Some victims are accused based on their appearance (unusual physical features, skin conditions), others based on proximity to a death or misfortune.

Factors Contributing to Contemporary Witch-Killings

Several factors have contributed to the resurgence of witch-killings in the contemporary period:

  1. Social dislocation - rapid social change, urbanization, and economic disruption have created anxieties and search for explanations of misfortune
  2. Persistence of belief - despite Christianity and education, witchcraft beliefs remain culturally salient
  3. Weak state authority - in some rural areas, police presence is minimal and response to violence is slow
  4. Economic desperation - poverty and economic struggle increase anxiety about misfortune and may amplify witchcraft accusations
  5. Scapegoating - elderly women, particularly those with few resources or protectors, become vulnerable targets for displaced anger and anxiety
  6. Rumor and misinformation - false rumors linking deaths or misfortunes to witchcraft can trigger violence
  7. Cultural conservatism - in some communities, traditional beliefs remain powerful despite modernity

Response and Intervention

Civil society, government, and international organizations have responded to witch-killings:

Government response:

  1. Law enforcement - police investigations and prosecutions of perpetrators (though prosecutions remain limited)
  2. Public awareness - government and NGO campaigns addressing witchcraft beliefs and violence
  3. Protection - in some cases, government has provided protection to accused witches

Civil society and NGO response:

  1. Human rights advocacy - organizations documented killings and advocated for protection and justice
  2. Community education - efforts to change beliefs and attitudes toward witchcraft accusations
  3. Victim protection and support - organizations provided shelter and support to targeted individuals
  4. Perpetrator accountability - advocacy for prosecution and justice for killings

Community-level responses:

  1. Elders' intervention - in some communities, respected elders interceded to protect accused persons
  2. Alternative explanations - community education providing medical and other rational explanations for misfortune
  3. Strengthened rule of law - community advocacy for stronger law enforcement and justice

Psychological and Social Dimensions

Witch-killings can be understood through several lenses:

  1. Psychological - scapegoating and projection of fear onto vulnerable targets
  2. Social - witchcraft accusations as expressions of community conflict and social tensions
  3. Epistemological - witchcraft beliefs as a way of making sense of sudden and unexplained misfortune
  4. Political - witchcraft accusations sometimes mobilized by powerful figures to consolidate power or deflect attention

Contemporary Status

By the 2020s, documented witch-killings in Kisii had not ceased but had attracted increased attention from human rights organizations and media. The problem remains a significant challenge to human rights and rule of law in the region.

Sources

  1. Mayer, Philip and Iona Mayer. "Townsmen or Tribesmen: Conservatism and the Process of Urbanization in a South African City." Oxford University Press, 1961.

  2. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1799908

  3. Geschiere, Peter. "The Modernity of Witchcraft: Politics and the Occult in Postcolonial Africa." Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1997.

  4. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/africa

  5. Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. "Documenting and Responding to Witchcraft-Related Violence in Kenya." Nairobi, 2015.

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