Dealing with ‘Remote Control’: Ritual Healing and Modernity in Western Kenya. By Ferdinand Okwaro Supervised by Professor William Sax Second Examiner: Prof. Hansjörg Dilger A PhD Thesis submitted to the Fakultät für Verhaltens- und Empirische Kulturwissenschaften, Ruprecht-Karls Universität Heidelberg. September 2010 ii Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge several persons and institutions that have enormously supported me for my PhD studies and in the preparations of this dissertation. I am grateful to the KAAD (Katholischer Akademiker Ausländer Dienst) who provided me with the scholarship to begin my PhD studies at Heidelberg University. I acknowledge the enormous support and encouragement from Frau Simone Saure, Dr. Thomas Scheidtweiler and Dr. Marko Kuhn. My Sincere gratitude go to Prof. William Sax who not only accepted to be my supervisor but assisted me to fit within the academic community at Heidelberg. This PhD has benefited greatly from his guidance and encouragement. I am also grateful to Prof. Sax for inviting me to join him as a Wissenschaftlischer Mitarbeiter in the prestigious SFB 619, Ritual Dynamik from where I received enormous academic and financial support for my studies and Fieldwork. I would like to especially acknowledge the support from Prof. Axel Michaels, Dr. Udo Simon, Dr. Alexander Heidle and Dr. Brigitte Merz within the SFB 619. Staff and Doctoral colleagues at the South Asia Institute have also been quite helpful to me in the course of my PhD studies and I wish to acknowledge their support. I am especially grateful to Dr. Gabrielle Alex and to the late Margarete Hanser-cole for their enormous support and encouragement in the course of my studies. I wish to mention Mr. Michael Knaf for his patience and support in the preparations of the various videos and photographs included in this dissertation. My sincere thanks go to the healers and their clients from Western Province in Kenya without whose permission and patience there would be no data for this dissertation. I would like to acknowledge the support of Prof. Wandibba Simiyu and Prof. Isaac Nyamongo of the University of Nairobi for their useful insights and comments in the course of my Fieldwork. I am aware that there are many other persons and institutions who supported me in one way or another in the course of my PhD but who I have not been able to mention. To all of you I say, thank you very much. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ iii Table of contents .................................................................................................................... iv Chapter 1 Ritual Healing and Modernity in Western Kenya . ............................................................ 1 1.1 Introduction and background to the study. ........................................................................ 1 1.2 Ritual healing and Modernity. ......................................................................................... 18 1.3 Ritual Healing and Traditional African Medicine. .......................................................... 31 1.4 Methodology. .................................................................................................................. 38 1.5 The Healers. ..................................................................................................................... 42 1.5.1 Mtumishi Patrick.Barasa. .............................................................................................. 43 1.5.2. Francis Shisia. ............................................................................................................. 48 Chapter 2 ‘You Are Accused!’ ............................................................................................................. 56 2.1. Introduction. ................................................................................................................... 56 2.2. Mtumishi Barasa and his X-ray Divination Method. .................................................... 57 2.2.1. Entry into the Ritual Space and Arena. ....................................................................... 57 2.2.2. Initial Consultations and Divination with MB. ........................................................... 60 2.2.3. Encountering MB: Consultation and Divination. ....................................................... 61 2.2.4 Beyond MB’s tentative divination: The X-ray or Courtroom. ..................................... 68 2.2.5. Constituting the ‘Court’ or X-ray Sessions. ................................................................ 70 2.2.6. The ‘Mention’. ............................................................................................................. 76 2.2.7. The ‘Hearing’. ............................................................................................................. 77 2.2.8. The judgement. ............................................................................................................ 78 2.2.9. The Outcome. .............................................................................................................. 81 2.3. MB’s divination and redress mechanism. ...................................................................... 82 2.4. The abandoned X-ray session. ........................................................................................ 93 2.5. Summary. ....................................................................................................................... 97 Chapter 3 Inside MB’ courtroom: Skepticism, Liminality, Drama and ‘War’ with the Devil . ... 102 3.1. Introduction. ................................................................................................................. 102 3.2. The Unresolved murder case. ....................................................................................... 107 3.3. Absconding wives and children. .................................................................................. 131 3.4. Commentary. ................................................................................................................ 166 3.5. MB and the Supernatural. ............................................................................................. 169 iv Chapter 4 Ritual Healing and the Variety of Clients . ...................................................................... 171 4.1. Disobedient sons, bewitching fathers and MB’s Intervention. ................................... 171 4.2. Land disputes, Witchcraft Accusations and Premeditated Murder. ............................. 179 4.3 Fluid connubiality, Child custody and envisioned benefits. ......................................... 196 4.4. Disputed Polygyny within Polygyny. ........................................................................... 206 4.5. Reuniting children with their parents and cornering crafty boyfriends. ....................... 215 4.6. Dishonest debtors. ........................................................................................................ 229 4.7. Conclusion. ................................................................................................................... 243 Chapter 5 Cleansing, Charms Retrieval and Ritual of Prophylaxis. .............................................. 250 5.1. Introduction. ................................................................................................................. 250 5.2. Kusafisha : the Cleansing ritual. .................................................................................... 251 5.3. Kusafisha: the case of Karama. .................................................................................... 252 5.5. ‘ Kuvuta ’: Ritual retrieval of charms. ............................................................................ 262 5.6. Anatomy of ‘ Kuvuta ’. ................................................................................................... 264 5.6.1. The Church Service. .................................................................................................. 266 5.6.2. Commentary. ............................................................................................................. 272 5.6.3. Collecting the charms. ............................................................................................... 272 5.6.4. The Identification of charms. .................................................................................... 274 5.6.5. Unpacking the charms. ............................................................................................. 275 5.7. Charms and the Ethnographic cases. ............................................................................ 281 5.7.1 The case of Jael. ......................................................................................................... 281 5.7.2. Case 2. Ben Oruko: Djinns, Erectile Dysfunction and a troubled Life. .................... 282 5.7.3. The case of Julius Oboya. .......................................................................................... 288 5.8. Commentary. ................................................................................................................ 291 5.9. Ritual prophylaxis. ....................................................................................................... 295 5.10. Conclusion. ................................................................................................................