Witchcraft is a prominent and leading superstition among all
the races of Africa, and may be regarded as one of the heaviest
curses which rests upon that benighted land. … A person
endowed with this mysterious art is supposed to possess little less
than omnipotence. He exercises unlimited control, not only over
the lives and destiny of his fellow-men, but over the wild beasts of
the woods, over the sea and dry land, and over all the elements
of nature. He may transform himself into a tiger, and keep the
community in which he lives in a state of constant fear and per-
turbation ; into an elephant, and desolate their farms ; or into a
shark, and devour all the fish in their rivers. By his magical
arts he can keep back the showers, and fill the land with want
and distress. The lightnings obey his commands, and he need
only wave his wand to call forth the pestilence from its lurking-
place. The sea is lashed into fury, and the storm rages to exe-
cute his behests. In short, there is nothing too hard for the
machinations of witchcraft. Sickness, poverty, insanity, and al-
most every evil incident to human life, are ascribed to its agency."
— Wilson’’ s Africa, page 222.
Every death which occurs in the community is ascribed to
witchcraft, and some one, consequently, is guilty of the wicked
deed. The priesthood go to work to find out the guilty person.
It may be a brother, a sister, a father, and, in a, few extreme
cases, even mothers have been accused of the unnatural deed of
causing the death of their own ofi’spring. There is, in fact, no
eifectual shield against the suspicion of it. Age, the ties of re-
lationship, oflacial prominence, and general benevolence of char-
acter, are alike unavailing. The priesthood, in consequence
of the universal belief in the superstition, have unlimited scope
for the indulgence of the most malicious feelings, and, in many
cases, it is exercised with unsparing severity." — Wilsori’s Africa,
page 223.