[Among the Azande] all people who perform an act of magic are magicians, whether they are professional departmental experts or merely amateur practitioners of sporadic rites. Amongst these magicians there are some who are criminals, who magic is illicit, and it is to identify these men that we are devoting this essay. We shall use the word "sorcerers" to symbolize these criminals and the word "sorcery" to represent their criminal activities. Actually the Azande have no single lexicographic expression to denote sorcery and sorcerers, but they use the same terms for all acts of magic and magicians, ngwa and ira ngwa; but the context of utterance makes it clear whether they refer to magic in general or to its legal or criminal uses respectively. If they wish to specify they will either speak of a magic as being good or bad (wene or gbigbita) or they will us a circumlocutory expression referring to the method or function of the magic by which the listener will know at once whether it is regarded with approval or not. We shall do the same, using the adjectives "good" and "bad" to denote the moral qualities of magic rather than the terms "black" and "white."

For the guild or association of magicians who are found amongst the Azande in common with most African peoples we shall use the good old expression "witch doctors," since their main function amongst the Azande is to detect witches and to combat witchcraft. . . .

We shall first have to make a short analysis of the purposes of Zande magic. These may be considered from four aspects—oracular magic, productive magic, protective magic, and destructive magic, though it must not be supposed that the Zande makes an abstract functional analysis on three lines. The Azande have several types of magic which function as oracles. The most important of these and the one which we will therefore choose as an example is benge. Benge is a poison made from the roots of a creeper which grows between the Uelle and Bomokandi rivers in the Congo. A man observing special tabus gives the poison to small chicken in a stereotyped manner. When the medicine benge is in the stomach of the fowl he addresses it about the business upon which he wishes information and asks it to kill or spare the chicken by way of answer to his questions. A typical example of productive magic is togo. When the eleusine, the staple crop of the Azande, from which they make their daily porridge and their beer, is ripening in the gardens, an old man who knows a good togo medicine will collect the necessary ingredients and after having burnt them into soot will place the soot in a twisted-leaf funnel. Before setting off to his garden he will place a little water on to the soot so that it becomes a saturated paste, and when the leaf is squeezed a drop of black liquid will ooze out of the narrow end of the funnel. He will walk here and there amongst his eleusine, and will now and again stoop over a head of ripening grain and squeeze a drop of medicine on to it, uttering a wish as he does so that his eleusine will multiply and bring forth abundantly. Protective magic is exemplified by the medicines which a man will bury in the threshold of his hut, near the door post, to frighten away witchcraft. A destructive magic of the Azande is bagbuduma, which has now entirely taken the place of the old blood feud. On the death of a man one of his relatives, chosen by the oracle to undergo the tabus of mourning, will accompany a magician (ira ngwa) who knows the various medicines which compose bagbuduma, and together they will perform various magical rites on the dead man’s grave and on a special kind of termite mound. This is done to kill the man who by means of witchcraft or bad magic has been responsible for the death.

Whilst we have used the terms "oracular magic," "productive magic," "protective magic," and "destructive magic," it must be remembered that only in the instance of oracle magic are the rites confined to one exclusive function; for the words productive, protective, and destructive simply define three aspects or functions of Zande magic which we have isolated for the purpose of analysis. It would be difficult to find any Zande magic which possessed only one of these aspects. Thus togo has protective functions as well as productive ones, since it is employed not only to make fruitful and increase the eleusine crop, but also to protect it from mangu (witchcraft) which takes the form of bats to injure the corn. It also has destructive functions, since it kills the bat, and this leads to steps being taken to kill the witch from whom the animal emanated. In the same way medicines buried on the threshold of a man’s house not only protect him from injury but may even kill the witch who perseveres with his malpractices in spite of them. As a matter of fact, since in Zande opinion the reason for failure of any kind is to be looked for in the workings of witchcraft or bad magic, all his productive magic also has the functions of protecting the venture from these evil forces, and furthermore to destroy them. Probably all good Zande magic has these three distinct aspects, which emerge from any native spell or commentary on the same. Therefore, whilst we may say that because magic is destructive, it is not thereby stigmatized in native opinion as bad magic, though bad magic has usually an exclusively destructive function.

Character of Legal Magic. The Azande stigmatize bad magic as such, not because it is destructive to the health or property of others, but because it circumvents or flouts the legal and moral rules of their society. This good magic does not do, but on the contrary it acts in accordance with the recognized modes of behavior which are expected of every good citizen. This moralizing action is apparent in the examples which we have given shortly above: a man may, often must, consult the oracles about his affairs; it is his good fortune if he knows some effective medicine for his eleusine crop and he does no one an injury by its use; every sensible man will protect himself and his family against the insolent crime of witchcraft; public opinion and his own honor compel a man to use the deadly medicines of bagbuduma to slay the slayer of his kin. Nor is Zande magic considered as illicit because its rites are performed privately, for it is only esoteric in the sense that knowledge of the medicines, which must be employed if the rites are to be efficacious, is often restricted to a number of specialists and that they perform the rites in secret. But it is well known who possess these medicines, because the practitioners do not conceal their knowledge. Also knowledge of many types of magic is widespread; thus everyone consults oracles, uses magic to multiply his crops, and to protect his homestead against witches. Rites are performed in secret because the Zande strongly objects to others knowing about his private affairs, especially if they happen to be witches or sorcerers, and one can never be too careful if one does not wish one’s intentions thwarted by their malign powers; and not because there is any shame or illegality associated with the rites. Privacy, though not prescribed, nevertheless, is one of the conditions of the magic rite in Zande culture. Neither on account of its destructive energy nor its secret performance is magic condemned, for even when it is definitely homicidal and carried out in some secluded spot, as in the case of bagbuduma, its role is honorable.

Its dignity and respected place in Zande culture is due to its impersonal and impartial role in the maintenance of justice. The medicine is addressed in a long harangue and is exhorted to proceed without delay to discover who has slain the dead with witchcraft or sorcery, and to track and destroy the murderer, and leave others in peace. Bagbuduma is the sole judge between you and a person or persons unknown with whom, by the law of blood, you have a feud, and it may be relied upon to track the criminal as relentlessly as any sleuth, to weigh the evidence against him and condemn him to death as conscientiously as any judge, to execute him as surely as any hangman. Indeed, such kinds of legal magic as bagbuduma or medicines to protect homestead or gardens from witches (ngwa kisa kpolo and ngwa kisa ati) are often referred to by the expression ba sapu ngbanga, the one who decides cases, and as often they are compared to chiefs; such and such a medicine, says the Azande, na sera ngbwanga wa kina agbia, "settles cases as judiciously as the chiefs." In the same way benge, the oracle magic, is exhorted in the traditional phraseology of the country to give judgments as acutely as those of Zakili, Monagbwondi, Bazingbi, and Gbudwe, either semimythical or famous historical figures in the annals of Zande chieftainship. Of all Zande magic which to some degree or other is injurious to the lives or property of others (has destructive functions)—and this includes the vast majority of Zande magic—we may say that it receives the sanction of public approval and the permission of the chiefs so long as it acts impartially according to the merits of the case between the magician and the object of his vengeance. Of such magic the Azande say, si nape zunga, "it gives a judgment."

Were a man maliciously to use a medicine like bagbuduma to kill a personal enemy out of spite where the man had committed no offense against the established laws of the community, then not only would it be a completely ineffectual weapon, but it would prove dangerous to the magician himself, who would run a grave risk of being hoist with his own petard. The Azande think of the medicine searching in vain for the criminal, and eventually turning back on to the performer of the rite who will attempt, before it is too late, to put an end to its activity by throwing it into water. If it also should prove that the man whose death is being avenged by the mechanism of bagbuduma had himself died a victim to an avenging medicine on account of some crime which he had committed, then bagbuduma having searched in vain for its prey, for the magician who had killed him cannot be its prey since he acted legally in ridding the world of this witch or sorcerer, will return pregnant with undelivered judgment to destroy the magician who sent it out, or, if he is acting on behalf of someone else, his employer. For this reason it is customary, according to doctrine if not always in fact, before embarking on the rites of vengeance to ask the oracles whether a dead relative has been murdered by witchcraft or bad magic, or whether he has been legally executed by good magic. A breach of the tabus of mourning may, in the same way, cause the medicine to turn against those who performed the rite which sent it on its mission of vengeance, instead of against him who should have been its victim. The great spirit, Mboli, whom the Azande reverence, is thought to have given magic to men, to control its mission, and to be the final authority for its judgments. . . .

Character of Illegal Magic. Sorcery, on the other hand, does not give judgments, si na penga zunga te, it has none of the attributes of justice. It is not only gbagbere ngwa (bad medicine) but also mumunga ngwa (stupid medicine), for it acts blindly against the established principles of justice in this community, that no man should be punished who has not committed an offense against the laws. It is generally a personal weapon aimed at some individual whom the sorcerer dislikes, against whom he has a grudge but no case of even a quasi-legal nature. . . .

The most feared of these bad medicines is menzeli, which is the prototype of all black magic in this community, and the one with the oldest history. Exactly what kind of plants (probably the nucleus is a parasitic growth) forms the medicine in an act of menzeli magic we do not know. The rite itself consists, according to our information, of the sorcerer going by night to the homestead of his victim when all the inmates are asleep, usually at time of full moon, where he buries the medicine, either on his threshold or in the center of his homestead, or on the path to his clearing. As he buries it he utters a spell over it, directing it to the murder of his enemy. Menzeli is a very potent medicine, and even should another step over it as it lies in ambush for its special victim named in the spell, he will fall temporarily sick, whilst he for whom it is intended is certain to die, unless he had been able to employ some counter-medicine, for there are many ways of combating this dreadful enemy. The use of menzeli is regarded with abhorrence by all, and against it are brought to bear the full rigors of the law. Those who killed by mangu (witchcraft) were more often than not allowed to indemnify the relatives of their victims by payments of women and spears, but a similar privilege was never allowed to the user of bad magic (gbagbere ngwa). Those who used menzeli as the weapon of their crime were invariably executed unless they could claim the privilege of noble blood. The chiefs, even the most powerful, were in terror of death by black magic, and month by month they used to consult the oracles whether it would be practiced against them, either by aggrieved commoners or by ruthless and ambitious relatives. For menzeli has an ancient and distinguished history in the annals of the noble Avongara house, amongst whom it has been the instrument of many parricides and fratricides. It is thought by many that Ngima killed his father Bazingbi by this means. Others say that this was how Renzi son of Wando murdered his brother Bazugba. The chief within whose territory the writer is privileged to live is Gangura, son of the great Chief Gbudwe (d. 1905). Across the border, in the Belgian Congo, lives Ngirima son of that Renzi who is said to have murdered his brother. These two chiefs used to be on excellent terms and were constantly exchanging presents until one day Ngirima sent his cousin Gangura a fine bundle of bark cloth, which was taken to the home of Kpiaku of the Akpura clan. This subject of Gangura consulted the oracle benge as to whether Ngirima had made medicine with it. Upon the oracle revealing the presence of medicine in the bark cloth it was ordered by Gangura to be buried in a marsh to destroy its magical energy. No more exchanges were made between the two chiefs. . . .

It may be well to point out that a medicine need not have homicidal functions to be considered as criminal, since sorcery offends the moral sense of the community not only by attempting to injure good citizens for private reasons, but also by trying to circumvent and make void the traditions and legal machinery of the country. Consequently the magic zelengbondo benge . . . is disapproved of by public opinion, and constitutes a crime, The object of this magic is so to affect the oracle benge that it will give erroneous judgments in favor of the sorcerer. As benge plays an important role in native justice a magic to prevent the accuracy of its judgments is tantamount to bribery, corruption, and perjury.

Another and different type of bad magic which is condemned by all will be sufficient illustration for our short analysis of sorcery in its relation to public opinion. There are a group of medicines, the chief of which is called gbarawasi, which are employed either out of pure malice, or with the further purpose of obtaining another man’s wife, to break up the peace of a neighboring family. The sorcerer goes at night, taking every precaution not to be seen, and performs a number of rites in the homestead of his neighbor. The result of these rites will be that the previous happiness and contentment of the family gives way to violent quarreling between husband and wife. He becomes ill-tempered and hasty in his words, she becomes disobedient and sulky. Angry words lead to blows, blows lead to litigation and divorce.

We have mentioned only three forms of sorcery, and we may note that of the vast sphere of magic in Zande culture only a very small section is held by sorcery. Probably not more than a dozen types of magic can be definitely and surely stigmatized as sorcery. All these have certain features in common as do all forms of licit magic. Good magic is directed towards ends which conform to the rules of society; it is harmless to good citizens and injures only criminals, witches, sorcerers, adulterers, thieves, and so forth; there is no shame in its practice since it is buttressed by public opinion and by the authority of the chiefs; its aim is to carry out certain essential social, economic, and cultural ventures, and not to injure or retard the plans and undertakings of others. The practitioners are known to all, but the performance of the rites and knowledge of the medicines is secret, because medicines are a form of private wealth, and publicity of rites would lead to interference and frustration of the endeavor with which they were associated. Bad magic or sorcery, on the other hand, is directed towards ends which do not conform to the established laws of the community; they are crimes committed against fellow citizens for private and socially pernicious reasons; their practice is shameful and criminal, condemned by the moral opinion of society, and penalized with death by the chiefs; its aim is to destroy the social, economic, and cultural enterprise of others, and the secrecy of its rites are due to fear of righteous punishment.¹

¹Evans-Pritchard, E.E.n/an/an/an/a, "Sorcery and Native Opinion," , 4: 27–40, passim.