Uchawi Upo: Embodied Experience and Anti-Witchcraft Practice in Mwanza, Tanzania
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Uchawi Upo: Embodied Experience and Anti-witchcraft Practice in Mwanza, Tanzania Amy Nichols-Belo Richmond, Virginia Master of Science, Virginia Tech, 2003 Bachelor of Arts, James Madison University, 1998 A Dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Anthropology University of Virginia May 2014 ii © Copyright by Amy Nichols-Belo All Rights Reserved May 2014 iii ABSTRACT Uchawi Upo: Embodied Experience and Anti-witchcraft Practice in Mwanza, Tanzania In Mwanza, Tanzania’s second largest city, it is commonly said that witchcraft exists (uchawi upo). However, witchcraft in Mwanza is more than just a discourse, but is an embodied everyday reality for Mwanzans regardless of ethnicity or socioeconomic background. People afflicted by witchcraft describe diverse experiences including physical and mental symptoms, involuntary spirit possession, relationship problems, economic issues, and fantastic encounters with otherworldly entities. As they seek restoration of wellness, afflicted individuals employ treatments located in seemingly oppositional “disciplines” such as traditional healing and revivalist Christianity. I argue that the use of multiple disciplines by people suffering from witchcraft illness is not haphazard, but demonstrates the assemblage of, what I call, “tactical repertoires.” Tactical repertoires are creative, flexible, and operate outside of the epistemological boundaries of disciplines. Taking seriously the experiences of people afflicted by witchcraft, this dissertation uses anti-witchcraft practices as a means for making sense of uchawi in an urban, multi-ethnic environment. Anti-witchcraft, as I use it here, stands as an umbrella term for a wide variety of practices enacted by experts to diagnose, contain, combat, and prevent witchcraft. After historically contextualizing witchcraft in Mwanza, I offering numerous case studies that depict embodied experiences of witchcraft and the tactical repretoires assembled to treat affliction. Next, I devote individual chapters to describing and analyzing specific disciplinary practices located in traditional healing (uganga), revivalist Christianity (ulokole), vigilante violence, and state biopower (Foucault 1978). My analysis of these practices leads to a simple, but counter-intuitive argument: uchawi is created, sustained, and made meaningful through anti-witchcraft practices. In its focus on both the embodied experiences of afflicted persons (and their efforts to improve their suffering) and a wide variety of diverse anti-witchcraft practices, this dissertation offers a culturally-specific, historicized, and nuanced view of practice and experience. Uchawi, in Mwanza, is a lived reality made meaningful through a layering of epistemologically distinct practices that make and remake experience. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements vii Figures xi Tables xiii Stylistic Conventions xiv Glossary xv CHAPTER 1: UCHAWI UPO: AN INTRODUCTION Affliction in Mwanza – Mama Gervas – February 2007 1 Anthropologies of Witchcraft 7 Tactical Repertoires and Anti-Witchcraft Strategies 13 Attentiveness to Gender 16 Research Methods 17 The Research Setting: Mwanza, 2001- 2010 21 The Center of Sukumaland Witchcraft in Mwanza 32 Historicizing Witchcraft in Mwanza 41 Precolonial Witchcraft Management in Usukuma The Witchcraft Ordinance/Act Problems with Prosecuting Witch-killing: The Case of Maganga s/o Kingwanga Management of Witchcraft in Socialist Tanzania Outline of the Dissertation 56 CHAPTER 2: EXPERIENCING WITCHCRAFT: EMBODIED AFFLICTION, LOSS OF SENSE, AND FANTASTIC ENCOUNTERS Introduction – Her Illness “Came From Inside the Family” 60 Witchcraft as Embodiment 61 Involuntary Spirit Possession 63 Tactical Repertoires 66 Rose and the Dark Side of Kinship 68 Stories of Two Sisters 77 Mama Peter and the Jealous Neighbor 82 Maimuna’s Story 88 The House girl Who Couldn’t Get Up in the Morning 97 Fantastic Representations and Social Critique 100 Ibrahim and the Court Case 102 Theorizing Mitunga: Zombies in Mwanza. Gumbush, and Beyond 107 Nostalgia for What Might Have Been: Ujamaa and Capitalism 115 in Zombified Spaces Inversions of Race and Class Conclusion 122 v CHAPTER 3: “I AM A TRADITIONAL HEALER, BUT THE OTHER IS A WITCH”: UGANGA AS ANTI-WITCHCRAFT PRACTICE Experiencing Uganga 125 Chapter Goals and Methods of Data Collection 128 Defining Uganga in Mwanza 131 Forms of Uganga 134 Ancestral Healing Islamic Healing Healing Spaces Becoming Waganga 145 Distinguishing Between Uganga and Uchawi Strategies of Uganga – Diagnosing and Healing 150 Kupiga Ramli (Divination) 160 Other Methods of Divination Borders Crossed and Culture Clash Forms of Dawa 169 Dawa ya Kunywa (Drinking Medicines) Dawa ya Kuoga (Bathing Medicines) Dawa ya Chemsha (Fumigation) Chanjo (Vaccination) Hirizi (Talismans) Other Forms of Dawa ya Kinga Making Majini Beyond Witchcraft: Other Treatments Uganga in the Time of AIDS 185 Ibrahim’s Treatments 189 Competing Healers, Gendered Practice, and Mimesis 198 CHAPTER 4: “IN THE NAME OF JESUS, TOKA”: REVIVALIST CHRISTIANITY AS ANTI-WITCHCRAFT PRACTICE Introduction – What’s Wrong with this Revival? (July 2007) 202 Revival as Anti-witchcraft Practice 204 Language and Literature: A Discussion of Terminology 205 Witchcraft, Sprit Possession, and Revivalism 211 A Successful Revival (July 2010) 216 The Performative Grammar of Revivals 222 Healing Outside of Revivals 225 Revivalist Assumptions 227 From Wapagani to Walokole: Pastors’ Stories 230 Pastor Massawe’s Story: From a Follower of Majini to a Spiritual Healer Lucas’ Story: Competing Powers in One Family Testing Magic Conclusions 242 vi CHAPTER 5: “THESE BRUTAL KILLINGS”: VIGILANTE VIOLENCE AS ANTI-WITCHCRAFT PRACTICE Theft, Violence, and Witchcraft 244 Describing Violence 250 Anatomy of a Witch-killing 252 Documenting Witch-killings 254 Witchcraft Violence in Mwanza 258 Witch-killings in Historical Perspective 261 Containing Witch-killing 265 Identifying Witches 268 Interpreting Violence in Usukuma 270 Conclusions: Witch-killing, Priming, and Activation 273 CHAPTER 6: BIOPOWER AS ANTI-WITCHCRAFT Curtailing Witchcraft-2009 279 Uganga and Colonialism 282 The Nation and Its Healers 284 Uganga and the Law, 2007 288 Contestation: 2010 to the Present 289 Interstitial Alternatives: Mwanza’s Herbal Clinics 291 Hygienic Healers 295 Conclusion 298 CHAPTER 7: ESTHER’S TREATMENTS, CONCLUSIONS, AND LIMITATIONS Esther’s Illnesses and Treatments 301 Conclusions 315 Limitations 318 References 322 vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would have been impossible without the generous financial support of a US Department of Education Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Grant (for research in 2006-2007), University of Virginia (UVa) Summer language funds (for Kiswahili study during the summers of 2003 and 2004), UVa Department of Anthropology pre-field funding (for research in the summer of 2004), a UVa Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) Dissertation Year Fellowship (for writing in 2009- 2010), and a UVa Clay Endowment Fellowship (for research in the summer of 2010). I would have been unable to complete this dissertation without the permission of the Tanzanian Commission on Science and Technology (COSTECH) and the Mwanza Regional Government, as well as the Nyamagana and Ilemela District Governments. I am also grateful for the assistance that I received at both the main (Dar es Salaam) and Mwanza Regional branch of the Tanzanian National Archives. Dr. Simeon Mesaki of the University of Dar es Salaam proved to be a generous in-country research advisor and host. At UVa, I have benefited from a fantastic faculty and a supportive scholarly community. Peter Metcalf has been a supportive advisor since my earliest days at UVA. His course on modernity, training in grant writing, and general insights into British colonialism provided me with the foundation to do this research. Ira Bashkow has encouraged me to think critically and expansively over the years, and pushed me to write, rewrite, and reimagine my ideas. His courses on Whiteness and Prophecy and Power in New Guinea helped me to become a better thinker and stronger writer. I’m grateful for the insights that Adria LaViolette has provided me in understanding Tanzania. Her viii training in argumentation and scholarly writing have served me well since my “P&P.” Thank you to Cindy Hoehler-Fatton for agreeing to serve as my outside reader and for offering such generous comments on my work. While at UVa, I’ve also had the privilege to learn from Drs. Eve Danziger, Richard Handler, Jeff Hantman, Wende Marshall, Susan McKinnon, George Mentore, Hanan Sabea, David Sapir, and John Shepherd. Each of these scholars has forced me to think critically about anthropology. Thank you. In my years at UVA, I have been lucky enough to study alongside some amazing scholars. At various times, Todne Thomas Chipumuro Adam Harr, Jason Hickel, Suzanne Menair, Matt Meyer, Claire Snell-Rood, Clare Terni, and members of the Sociocultural Workshop have offered feedback on my work. I especially appreciate the support, friendship, and keen insights offered by Holly Donahue Singh, David Strohl, Sherrilynn Colby-Bottel, and Will Schroeder over the last 12 years. I am unable to name many of the people who helped to make my time in Tanzania productive, fun, interesting, and engaging, but I would like to thank a few. Steven Mayela Bugumba has been an outstanding research assistant and collaborator since 2004. Without Steve’s assistance,