The Azande

Paper Summary:

E. E. Evans-Pritchard was the founder and first president of the Association of Social Anthropologists. His seminal work on indigenous, African tribes has preserved a unique perspective of primitive societies or societies that retain their aboriginal features even in modern times --their mental processes more than the social constructs. This essay presents a societal perspective of the Azande tribes of southern Sudan, based on Evans-Pritchard's research which was conducted at a time when every Zande (singular for Azande) paid abeyance to either the British or the Arabs, whichever happened to wield influence at the time. The thesis of this essay is: "The Azande society (as a whole) and each individual was driven by a quest to avoid the ill effects of witchcraft." This essay defines societal ramifications of witchcraft among the Azande and clarifies the meaning of the term 'witchcraft'.

From the Paper:

"Direct confrontation was the alternatively: directly by the kin of the victim or by complaining to the prince. The prince, presented with the wing of the dead chicken (poison oracle), would appoint an emissary to present the wing to the witch. The emissary would cautiously and respectfully announce that the witch had been identified as afflicting the victim. Azande recognized that witchcraft could be transferred even when the witch was ignorant of it; therefore their accusations were couched in polite language. The witch when confronted with the wing, sought to assuage the emissary and the victim's kin that he or she was ignorant of the witchcraft, that it was unintentional. He demonstrated his benignity by swilling a mouthful of water and blowing it at the chicken wing. This was to show that the water had calmed the witchcraft (if any) that resided in his belly rendering it dormant. It behoved the accused not to show affront (though instances of these were recorded by the author) to prevent being ostracized and victimized by others."

More papers on The Azande:

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