Sorcery accusations unleashed: the Lele revisited, 1987

Abstract

AbstractThe case described—an anti-witchcraft movement headed by two Catholic priests—occurred among the Lele of the Kasai (then in Zaire) in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The information was received during a brief visit in 1987. This small, local case of rage against sorcery is set in a broader context. Some nations support institutions whose express purpose is to detect, disable and punish occult evildoers, such as sorcerers, and demons. Western theology is not currently attuned to answering the questions that plague Africans about the causes of evil in the world, the causes of illness and death, questions which their pagan traditions answer all too plausibly in terms of sorcery. Some Christian denominations have defined their doctrine concerning demons in a way that accommodates local sorcery beliefs. Where the subject is barely mentionable African Christians are unable to contribute to the developing moral philosophy of the Christian Church. The novitiate training for the Catholic African clergy can give no special guidance in dealing with pastoral problems to which the pagan religion had ready answers.