Magic, Sorcery, Fortune-telling

It is very difficult to draw a dividing line between what is magic and what is not, especially among the ethnic groups where each adult is in some way involved in magic activities, and such skills are considered obligatory for any respected member of the society. These people believe that magic helps to solve all sorts of everyday problems. For example, if a Kla-Dan man doesn’t have enough time to take away the dug-out manioc from his field, he hides a magical “guardian” under the pile of tubers. And if someone tries to steal his harvest, a cloud will soon appear on the horizon; everyone will recognize it by a pinkish ill-boding shade. And then the thief only has one way out: to rash to the owner of the manioc, to beg for forgiveness and to pay a fine. If he does not manage to do this before the cloud hangs above the village, he cannot avoid a deadly strike of lightening.

Some people are more skillful in magic, some are less so. Craftsmen and hunters are believed to be especially skilful magicians: a blacksmith has to tame fire and metal, and a hunter handles an infuriated vital energy that bursts from the killed animal’s body. They usually also serve as witch-doctors. In the practice of an African witch-doctor it is absolutely impossible to draw a line between medicine and magic, as no medicine is prepared without pronouncing spells and charms.

Of course, there will also be someone who uses sorcery to harm others – out of jealousy, rivalry or envy. That is why it is so important to protect oneself and keep a powerful amulet. An amulet guards from a bullet and knife, it can make its owner invisible or protect him from diseases. And if someone wants to destroy the amulet-owner with black magic, the amulet will repulse it like a shield, and it will strike the one who had sent it. It is especially important to protect children with amulets, as they cannot take care of themselves.

African magic does not disappear with the advent of world religions. However, traditional magicians now have powerful rivals, Marabout, or Muslim clerics, whose magic is based on the Koran and other Islamic books. Even the rulers of pagan empires, before embarking on a military campaign or building a fortress, often went first to pagan magicians who told their fortune by cola nuts or white roosters, and then to Marabouts who drafted magical tables on sand or looked for answers in their sacred books.

Auntie Some’s pharmacy.  Burkina Faso. The Bamana.  Ye. V. Perehvalskaya. 2005		A woman from the Traore clan is selling herbs at the Madina Kura market. Bamako, Vydrin V., 1996.