The Pogoro People of Ulanga District
The Bantu-speaking Pogoro people live in central Tanzania's southwest and are well-known for their farming methods. There are an estimated 90,000 Pogoro living in the District of Ulanga, where they are located administratively. (Green 14).
Ethnic Groups in Ulanga District
The Kilombero plains and Mahenge Highlands are home to the Pogoro people, which is the biggest single ethnic group in the Ulanga district. The Ngoni, Ndamba, Ngindo, Vidabaga, and Bena tribes are among the additional tribes residing in the region. (Green 16).
Shared Cultural Background
These Ulanga ethnic groups are classified as Bantu and share a similar language. The communities had shared cultural background since the eighteenth century. The shared cultural practices explain the large appeal of the Majimaji rebellion movement against the German settlers (Green 12). The Pogoro and the other tribes practice various witchcraft suppression movements.
Religious Beliefs and Practices
The Pogoro people are ostentatiously followers of the Roman Catholic (Green 15). The women and girls wear rosaries beads and medallions of the Virgin Mother Mary. The Pogoro doorways are decorated with dried and yellowed palm branches. On Sundays (Dominica as widely Known), the town is busy with people going to and from churches. The churches are full to capacity during the morning services or masses. The Catholic greeting includes ‘Tumsifu Yesu Kristu’ (Praise be to Jesus Christ) phrase. The Mahenge town and the surrounding villages are in Kwiro parish. The parish has an estimated 16,000 people and only 4,000 are not Catholics. There are an estimated 2,000 Muslims in Mahenge Town (Green 15).
Evangelical Churches in Ulanga
The traders and government officials led to the introduction of evangelical churches from the north. However, these churches have little influence and have attracted a handful of Pogoro converts. The Seventh Day Adventists and the Assemblies of God are the only evangelical churches that have a significant presence in Ulanga. The evangelical churches have food taboos and prohibit dancing and alcohol. Just like Islamic religion, the practices are inappropriate to real converts but the prohibition of such practices is unappealing to Catholics. As a whole, the ‘Independent’ churches in Tanzania have a little significant presence. Therefore, it is not a surprise that there are none of these churches in Ulanga district.
The Influence of Catholicism
The majority of the Pogoro are Catholics and the author has consistently articulated the message that there die hard institutions. The author does not insinuate that the institutions cannot change but the evidence from the poor community in a southern part of Tanzania indicates that the Catholic Church has stabilized in the region over the past one hundred days. The church fosters spiritual life and served as the local power broker that shaped the political economy. The Pogoro Catholics perceive themselves as Christians and try to follow the Christian teachings to the latter. However, to the Pogoro, Christianity and its practices are adorning to ‘outside’ agencies. The Christian practices do not necessarily reflect the Pogoro in origin and tend to erase their traditional or their legitimate ethnic practices. Pogoro, like many African rural communities, strives to maintain the sense of identity and autonomy through selection and ignoring institutions of the outside of the state. The Pogoro recognize the existence of two parallel systems which to negotiate. For instance, the people in the district negotiate between laws of the village as opposed to the law of the government. The people can decide to follow the Christian teaching or stick to the traditional practices or ‘things of our place’. The Pogoro make pragmatic movement between two systems but accord one of them the greatest local validity. The paper will discuss Pogoro life-cycle events and kunyolewa (the purification or “shaving” ritual). Additionally, the paper explains the ways these activities express local religious ideas and practices and relate to Christian ideas and practices.
Witchcraft and Medicine among the Pogoro
The people living in Ulanga consider themselves distinct from other communities in terms of lugha (langauge) and mila (customs). However, they have similarities in relation to conceptions of kingship and cultural practice aspects. The people of Ulanga in southern Tanzania have a common kinship and origin. The communities share core rituals and their understandings are regard them as practices as authentically Jadi or traditional. The people have practices that connect them with spirits and ancestors by extension. A tambiko or offering epitomize the practice and is a means where the living and the dead relationships are enacted.
Witchcraft Practices and Definitions
The Swahili word for sorcery and witchcraft is Uchawi. The Tanzanian uses the word although the term may imply various definitions among constituents of witchcraft. Technically, sorcery is the common type of witchcraft among the Pogoro. The sorceries can be an adult of any age, female or male who derives their powers from medicine to harm other people. The witches lack physiological substance inside their bodies. Among the Pogoro as well as Kaguru, the witches cannot harm other by the mere power of spell or thoughts. Therefore, the uchawi practice is deliberate and premeditated.
Medicine and its Uses
The Pogoro refer witchcraft as Uganga but continue to fall in use because of the confusing Swahili meaning of this word. In Swahili, uganga in the abstract sense of the noun means ‘medicine’ and mganga for the medical practitioner. Therefore, the use of this term means that the Pogoro Use medicine. The medicine is administered using various methods. Ntumba is liquid medicine either used for good or bad intentions by either waganga or witches. Waganga uses trees and plants to make healing medicine. However, the Wambui, the diviners relies on the advice of spirits. The Pogoro Catholics in Mahenge town readily accept ‘book medicine’ from the Islamic sheiks though they are not affiliated with Islam.
Medicine for Healing and Harm
The medicine is meant to heal or change the state of the person by empowering and protecting them from harm. For witchcraft victims, administration of medicine is meant to weaken, drain or poison. The witches derive their powers from medicine but the other anti-witch specialist care utilizes another form of medicines to suppress witch powers. Consequently, the witches are unable to continue practicing their witchcraft for whatever the intention. The anti-witch specialist prefers shaving witch’s hair. In recent years, there have been no cases of hair shaving or Kunyolewa in the suppression of witch in Ulanga District. Kwenda Kunyolewa is the Swahili word or in other kugenda kumoga in Kipogoro meant to ‘going to shave, as well as witchcraft. Between the 1980 and her death in 1997, an elderly Ndamba woman called Kalembwana was one of the specialist assumed responsibilities for ‘shaving witchcraft’ throughout Ulanga district, a position since assumed by a successor.
Beliefs and Legends about Witches
The witch joins hands to commit evil and torment the innocent. In popular imaginations, the witch is invisible to the ordinary people and operates at night. It is believed, the witch flies naked and land into victims’ houses and wrestle with them while they are still sleeping. The witch likes human flesh and may dig up fresh graves and is careful not to leave any footprints behind. There is the wide belief that priest guards the Catholic Church graveyard at night. In Mahenge Cathedral specifically, the priests must protest the witches from accessing corpses after burial. However, the priests have since denied the claim although some admit having been offered money so as to perform this imaginary service. The priests are rituals specialists are suited to guard graves against the marauding witches because they see witches during the night. The priest can recognize witches human form during the day. People with the ability to see the witches can potentially destroy them. The witches caught are supposed to die in agony within three days. Deaths frequently occur and are in the gossip in the village. The people suspected of witchcraft are murdered but the authorities continuously deny these claims. The police rarely investigate death caused by nails, thorns, and salt as it is highly unlikely that actual murder involved.
Christianity and Witchcraft
Witchcraft and practices are perceived not to be indigenous in origin rather it is part of authentic African origin. The heritage, however, leads people to hardship and opposes church and Christianity practices. The anti-witchcraft practices excommunication is as pro-Christian. Christianity substances and emulates the ritual specialist of the church. Witchcraft has an ambiguous relations to the nation. Witchcraft indicates that religion is not developing as it should be.
Laws and Beliefs about Witchcraft
Witchcraft has long been regarded as illegal and an enemy to progress. The secular authorities of state oppose witchcraft but are unable to change the perception of those involved and live in the village. The village administration is responsible for mediating witchcraft disputes. The village administration has divergent views because they live among populations which practice real ‘Uchawi’ or witchcraft. Real witchcraft is evidenced by suspicious deaths and is confirmed through findings of diviners. The current laws on witchcraft remain unchanged from the colonial times. The German enacted the ‘Witchcraft Ordinance’ of 1928 and later revised in 1958 to allow local government structures to participate in the implementation of the law. The substance of the ordinance remained intact and declared witchcraft practice and accusation of another as a witch unless before a court of law or local authorities to be illegal. Violation of the Ordinance attracted restricted residence, imprisonment or fines. Witchcraft became a matter of the court thus established mechanisms for dealing with accusations. Currently, the district policies treated the alleged incidences of witchcraft as civil disputes and involve the local authorities and villagers themselves. It is technically illegal to force people to ‘Shave’ but the victims of abduction are always reluctant in pursing the matter in court of law.
Christian Response to Witchcraft
The Roman Catholic Church rejected belief antithetical of witchcraft to the Christians way of life. The currently, the church have policies kizuizi on those to those who face the ‘shave’. The church imposes both accusers and witches. The accused remains excluded in six months. The bishop has the final decisions regarding reincorporation into the church. The many Catholics excluded from the church are treated as neither fundamental nor permanent and are viewed by many as inevitable part of witchcraft cleansing procedure.
Christianity and Witchcraft Practices
The Pogoro demand shaving for people suspected of witchcraft. The Christians involved in witchcraft have their way of ‘shaving’ in Ihowanja. The ‘shaved’ in Ihowanja are not allowed to receive the sacrament has not affected the resolution of Christianity to be ‘shaved’ as different situations would demand. The excommunication is partial and not regarded as permanent. Exclusion becomes an inevitable part of procedures of cleansing. The church should embrace the bad practice as good instead of continuous condemnation. The church needs to put more effort to improve the benefits expected from the converts.
The Church's Involvement in the Battle Against Witchcraft
The Catholic Church has mystical involvement in the battle against witchcraft. The church, however, continuously denies involvement thus contravenes the current policy of orthodoxy that removes priests ability to fight the witch. The indigenous priests have the belief and existence of witchcraft powers. The priest rising against witchcraft practice finds it difficult to convince people to deny it and embrace Christianity. The church appeals to the people to stay away from uchawi and not be ‘shaved’. Witchcraft is ungodly and not only brings evil but also discord and hate among people. However, the Christians' interpretations to these issues are that the Church does not oppose witchcraft ideas but actual witches. Blessing the house of Christians means that the Christ deters witches from entering these houses. The holy water blessed during Easter is a useful tool Christians can use on their doorways to deter witches. The rosary is the protective (kinga) of the Christians (Green 223). These things cannot sufficiently defeat witchcraft.
Perception of the Catholic Church
The institution of the church is perceived as something that originated from the European traditions. The traditions are unable to understand witchcraft or focus on ending the practice. Christians paradoxically condemn witchcraft and are valued as being African while opposed to the public position of the church. The folk theory constructed explains what amounts to witchcraft in Mahenge Catholicism. The sin committed through witchcraft is killing another person without a reason. God will never forgive people who kill without reasons. Witchcraft is thus a serious sin and the killing of witches is unacceptable and applauded. Witches are always against God and he created. Killing the witches is the responsibility of the priests and no contradiction is felt between killing and priestly behavior. God himself cannot deal with uchawi as it relates to the living people relationships. God in these matters is not involved while the saints and the saints stay away. Therefore, people themselves need to deal with witchcraft using whatever available that is rituals, rosaries, and medicines. The Kalembwana is believed to have powers from God which justify her work and in the interest of Christians and church and did not work against them.
The Church's Stance on Witchcraft
The peasants of medieval Italy could not accept that involvement in the night battles against witches. The witches should be interpreted by the church as trying to implicate the person in the work of the devil. Similarly, the Pogoro Catholics do not condemnations of the Kalembwana. In both cases, the argument is that the church should recognize any practice which is anti-witchcraft. The church should consider anti-witchcraft practices as well as witchcraft that is regarded as bad by the church. Additionally, as the church becomes good and denounces practices of witchcraft directed towards the witches essentially are Christian in intention if not in form. The church should apply similar logic but the premise is different. Non-Christian forms indicate non-Christian intentions and therefore, the practices not sanctioned by the church become anti-church. The devil is said to use the anti-Christian practice to promote the bad. Any connection with witches and witchcraft on its term not those of the church is a result of the devil’s work.
Conclusion
Maia Green studied the Pogoro ethnic group found in southern district of Ulanga, Tanzania. This study explained the Pogoro witchcraft and shaving practices and how they relate to Christianity. The majority of the Pogoro are Catholics and the author has consistently articulated the message that there die hard institutions. The author does not insinuate that the institutions cannot change but the evidence from the poor community in southern part of Tanzania indicates that the Catholic Church has stabilized in the region over the past one hundred days. The church fosters spiritual life and served as the local power broker that shaped the political economy. The church as an institution has failed to offer solutions to poverty issues. The church provided formal education but it has little significance in the fight against poverty and witchcraft. The witchcraft is deeply rooted into the Pogoro culture and involves sorceries and witchcraft practices that the church finds it difficult to fight. The Pogoro demand shaving for people suspected of witchcraft. The Christians involved in witchcraft have their way of ‘shaving’ in Ihowanja. Such Christians are not allowed to receive the sacrament has not affected the resolution of Christianity to be ‘shaved’ as different situations would demand. The excommunication is partial and not regarded as permanent. Exclusion becomes an inevitable part of procedures of cleansing. The church should embrace the bad practice as good instead of continuous condemnation. The church needs to put more effort to improve the benefits expected from the converts.
Work Cited
Green, Maia. Priests, Witches and Power: Popular Christianity after Mission in Southern Tanzania. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Computer file.
