WOMEN, WITCHCRAFT, AND FAITH HEALING: AN ANALYSIS OF SYNCRETIC RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT AND HISTORICAL CONTINUITY IN 20TH CENTURY ZIMBABWE A thesis submitted to the Kent State University Honors College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for General Honors by David Austin May, 2021 Thesis written by David Austin Approved by _____________________________________________________________________, Advisor ______________________________________________, Chair, Department of History Accepted by ___________________________________________________, Dean, Honors College ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………………………………..iv CHAPTERS I. INTRODUCTION…………….…………………………………………..1 II. ANALYZING WITCHCRAFT ACCUSATIONS AND CONFESSIONS HISTORICALLY…………………………………………….…………...7 The Process of Witchcraft Accusations in Colonial Zimbabwe…………13 The Role of the n’anga in muroyi Accusation…………………………...15 Ways of Resolving Witchcraft Allegations: Ordeals and Others………..17 An Example of Witchcraft Confession in Colonial Zimbabwe………….22 III. SPIRITUAL SISTERS: ANALYZING CONTINUITIES BETWEEN CHARWE/NEHANDA, MAI CHAZA, AND AMBUYA JULIANA………………………………………………………………...27 Historical Archetype: Charwe/Nehanda…………………………………29 Resurrected from the Dead: Mai Chaza………………………………….35 Vatagensi (Sellout) Phenomena During the War of Liberation and a Transformation of Witchcraft Accusations and Spirit Mediumship……..45 Repentance and Rain: Ambuya Juliana………………………………….49 IV. CONCLUSION…………….…………………………………………….58 BIBLIOGRAPHY.….........................................................................................................61 iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my deepest appreciation to the advisor of this project, Dr. Timothy Scarnecchia, for his thoughtful guidance and criticisms, without which this thesis would have been an impossible endeavor. I would also like to extend thanks to John, a fellow student and brother of mine whose friendship, sharp thinking, and camaraderie surrounding this thesis helped make it what it is. Next, I would like to give thanks to my family for their continued support in my academic pursuits, principally to Lynda, my mother, and Ashley, my sister, for their patience and love in the prolonged struggle to get to the finish, and my aunt Gayle and my cousin Ross, who have continually challenged me to reach higher heights in contemplative thought and educational achievement. I also wish to thank those serving on my Thesis Defense Committee, namely, Dr. Matthew Crawford, Dr. Davison Mupinga, and Dr. Suzy D’Enbeau who have graciously agreed to evaluate, critique, and challenge me in my defense of such a lengthy intellectual endeavor. iv 1 Chapter One: Introduction This Honors Thesis has its origins in my piqued interest surrounding gender, mystical experiences, marginalization, and empowerment that women have faced throughout history, especially taking shape after taking HIST 38595-002: Dangerous Ideas: History of Heresy, 900-1800 under Dr. Crawford, and HIST-41132 History of Africa: 1880-Present under Dr. Scarnecchia both from Kent State University’s History Department. After attending the Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURE) under the auspices of Dr. Scarnecchia and asking him to be an advisor for this project, was I able to narrow down the research focus to Zimbabwe, and then further to the topics of witchcraft, women, religious syncretism, and empowerment with his help. What follows is my own historical argument concerning incredible female figures of Zimbabwe’s history, namely Charwe-Nehanda, Mai Chaza, and Ambuya Juliana, all of whom will be discussed at length later. Before beginning, some context regarding terminology is needed. A variety of terms are referenced throughout this thesis that are drawn from historical accounts of traditional Shona religion. The Shona are the largest “ethnolinguistic group” in Zimbabwe “comprising the subgroups Karanga, Zezuru, Manyika, Tonga-Korekore, Rowzi, and Ndau”, with the other ethnolinguistic group being the Ndebele who exist as a minority in western Zimbabwe.1 Shona religious beliefs and 1 Oyejan Owomoyela, Culture and Customs of Zimbabwe (Westport: Greenwood Press 2002), 9-11 Austin 2 practices were documented and presented in academic literature predominately by colonial ethnographers who were European, and very often were part of the colonial machinery that oppressed the people they were scrutinizing.2 I rely on these sources to acquire a glimpse into the historical beliefs of the Shona, considering the positionality and assumptions of the authors who produced the material. However, a general understanding of the definitions behind many of the terms is still possible from these sources and will be explored here. First is Vadzimu/mudzimu otherwise known as the ancestral spirits of a person’s extended family or clan. These comprise both sexes, with the paternal grandfather (sekuru) being especially traditionally significant. Their purpose generally is to protect their family from illnesses, help each person develop emotionally and spiritually through the course of their life, and ensure proper behavior.3 These spirits do not physically manifest in a discrete form but are believed to be localized to certain natural places like caves or around the village the person is from.4 This connection between the spiritual and the land is a recurrent theme in Zimbabwean history and will be discussed later. Next is the mashave or foreign spirit, which can be male or female. These are said to originate from the spirit of a person who died away from their home, where it 2 This literature includes a variety of sources and authors documenting indigenous peoples within colonial Zimbabwe, but also the colonial literature produced that sought to explain the entirety of Africa and Africans at that time. Within this much larger matrix of sources and production of sources lies men like Gelfand and Crawford, of which they are a small representation of that literature. I will be predominantly using some of Gelfand’s and Crawford’s literature for this thesis. 3 Michael Gelfand, Spiritual Beliefs of the Shona: A Study Based on Field Work among the East-Central Shona (Gwelo: Mambo Press, 1977), 91. Hereafter, Gelfand, Spiritual Beliefs. 4 Gelfand, Spiritual Beliefs, 33. Austin 3 restlessly wanders “until it [finds] a host upon whom to confer its talent or characteristic feature.” As analyzed by Gelfand, a common trend was that women who were possessed would overwhelmingly be given the ability to heal others,5 another theme that will be discussed later in this thesis. Then, the traditional healer, or n’anga is next. Anyone can become a n’anga, but there has been historically a gendered component to the potency and fame one can achieve as a female n’anga,6 with women specializing in providing herbal remedies and divination services to understand the source of physical or social illness.7 N’angas have traditionally received their ability to heal from a mashave who was a n’anga previously in life who seeks to possess them as a child, typically making their demands manifest by making the child dream of making or discovering medicines. Alternatively, the mashave could make itself known by causing the child to fall ill and require medical consultation from another n’anga, whereby they will inform the child of the desire of the mashave to possess them to become a future n’anga. Beyond this, there are numerous other pathways of becoming a n’anga historically, though that has also changed over time which will also be discussed later.8 The n’anga has served as a spiritual intermediary between families and their vadzimu ancestors, providing continual medicinal and spiritual services to their communities.9 Becoming a n’anga also had the possibility of material and 5 Gelfand, Spiritual Beliefs, 36-38. 6 Michael Gelfand, Shona Ritual: With Special Reference to the Chaminuka Cult (Union of South Africa: The Rustica Press, 1959), 107-108. Hereafter Gelfand, Shona Ritual. 7 Elizabeth Schmidt, Peasants, Traders, And Wives: Shona Women in the History of Zimbabwe, 1870-1939 (Harare: Heinemann Educational Books, Inc., 1992), 24. Hereafter, Schmidt, Peasants, Traders, and Wives. 8 Gelfand, Shona Ritual, 99. 9 Ibid. Austin 4 financial remuneration, offering a vocation to women that could result in a higher status than previously available,10 a factor also important that will be discussed later. The most important and powerful spirit that has undergirded traditional Shona beliefs is the mhondoro spirit, or the royal ancestors of a given chiefdom. These typically have the responsibility of ensuring the overall health of the territory and people they were previously in charge of; hence, they have been called “guardians of the land” who are able to mobilize rainfall and maintain the fertility of the land and the people.11 Land, fertility, and spirit mediumship are connected, and especially pertinent for the life of Mai Chaza which will be explored later. Other spirits previously mentioned are not considered as powerful or efficacious as mhondoro, and it has been very rare for women to be mhondoro mediums.12 The witch, otherwise known as muroyi (sing., Varoyi pl.) is one that is usually gendered towards women, and denotes a woman who is “endowed with the power to manipulate the forces of Nature to the detriment of mankind” with their being a variety of ways for a woman to become a witch historically, though generally it has been through the possession by a vadzimu of a mother or grandmother who was previously a muroyi (and