Witchcraft in Contemporary Bakweri Society by Rosemary Ekosso

The belief in witchcraft or liemba is very common among the Bakweri. It considered to be the art of influencing the lives of other people by occult means. Such influence is usually malevolent and affects a person’s spirit, and through that, his mind and body. Alternatively, it is benevolent, but requires the harnessing of such powerful and potentially ungovernable forces that its practice is shunned by many people. In the Western world, people who practise witchcraft can be referred to either as Wicca (male witches) and Wicce (female witches), or wizards and witches, also respectively male and female practitioners of witchcraft. For our purposes we shall use the latter terminology. Witchcraft shall be considered here to be good or bad witchcraft, depending on whether ‘black magic’ or ‘white magic’ is used. Among the Bakweri, bad magic is what is known as liemba. Good magic is often just called.

The practice of witchcraft seems to be intimately linked to the use of plants, which are used in combination with rituals to seek to achieve the desired effect.

A person who practises malevolent witchcraft among the Bakweri is called a mot’a liemba: a witch or a wizard. Witchcraft is practised by persons of both sexes and all ages. It is not clear whether any one sex is preponderantly active in witchcraft, but the general belief is that men are more proficient in witchcraft than women. Witchcraft can be passed on to offspring by either parent or to other persons, be they blood relations or not, by initiation. Initiation may be voluntary or involuntary.

Contrary to Western witches, who often worship goddesses like Hecate, Diana, Isis, Artemis, etc. and have declared their leanings in myriad publications, it is not known whether the Bakweri witches and wizards actually worship a deity, or whether they draw their power from any determined preternatural source. However, popular wisdom has it that witches and wizards are the servants of unknown spirits.

Because witchcraft is shrouded in secrecy, its classification according to forms is problematic. However, there is believed to be one form of witchcraft called nyongo. Nyongo consists in causing people to die, and subsequently taking them to another world where they work as slaves to amass wealth for the nyongo man or woman. The rapid and unexplained amassment of wealth by any person is usually taken as a sign that this person has joined the nyongo. The nyongo is believed to be a secret society where people of like mind come together to organise the enslavement of others for personal gain.

Nyongo people are believed to be completely ruthless in their choice of victims, often choosing spouses, siblings, parents and offspring. When a victim of the nyongo is to be enslaved, he is first caused to die. There is some debate about whether victims actually die or are drugged to simulate death, and their senseless bodies secretly recovered by the nyongo people for their own ends. Whatever the case, it would seem that the enslaved spirit or body is then transported to a place in a world similar to the one we know, though in another dimension, and put to work at menial tasks on farms, etc. to earn money for his/her master/mistress. There have been reports of people escaping this enslavement and returning to the land where they lived, but it is said of these escapees that they are unable to relate in any detail what they have experienced, and some of them are either struck with dumbness or madness by their erstwhile captors to prevent them from revealing the secrets of the cult.

Download Complete Article

Comments

[Mojoko Ewusi]

It is interesting to note the reaction of the people to those accused of being a "mwemba" or belonging in the "nyongo society". Sometimes children are cautioned not to pick up money found on the streets because this was thought to be another means through which those of the nyongo society were able to get their victims, which also presents a contoversy in that it is also said that one can only offer a relative to the society. I also remember as childen how we were cautioned not to look in the direction of the "mwemba's" house when passing by it, and sometimes we would even cross our fingers or hold on tightly to a small rock hoping that by so doing we would not become victims. Some families would even disfigure their children so that they do not look appealing or so that they are rejected if offered to the Nyongo soceity. In that case the person would get sick and recover.
It is not exactly known how or what makes one to be identified as a "mwemba". Sometimes it is simply due to some bizzare behaviours, like how some people just choose to seclude themselves. Interestingly, I also have reason to believe that some of the accused have been innocent victims as well, but when the whole village is outraged, by their suspicions , they can cause a person's life to be totally miserable. Some have been actually ostracised. I have had the occasion to witness an instance where a lady suspected of killing several relatives through witchcraft was ostracised by "Obasinjom" , so one tends to wonder....as Obasinjom" itself is such a mystery.

[Emil Mondoa]

Some of what you are describing is similar to what is called depression in Western medicine. It is treatable, and could only be made worse if the sufferer is stigmatized.

[Ngusum Akofu]

While I do not totally deny the posibility of the existence of black magic, I have and will always be a skeptic when it comes to witchraft particularly the nyongo phenomemon. I think all these bizzare beliefs have can trace back thier origins to the religious beliefs of our African ancestors. Our ancestors used these belief systems to explain the unexplainable. They found it very hard to comprehend natural phenomena especially misfortunes such as illness, accidents, epidemic etc. With thier limited knowledge of the natural world, all they could do was, rely on supernatural explanations. It is such a pity that even with the present advancement in medicine and other forms or scientific technology, our people still get too hung up on these old and out dated beliefs. Innocent people have been oustracised, banished from thier homes and have even been killed in some cases because they were suspected as witches or wizards. The fact that most of these innocent victims are women, should serve as an eye opener to us. Women are the more vulnerable sex in almost every society and they can easily be picked on as scape goats in such instances.
Let us not forget that thousands of women were burned as witches in Europe during the middle ages for witchcraft. Today, most of us will say without doubt that a majority if not all of those women were innocent victims of the bilief system that prevailed in Europe during the middle ages. The people of Europe in those days believed that people could obtain mystic powers from the devil by having sex with demons, and they could use these powers to bring harm and sorrw to thier neighbours. These people who stereotipically were women, were believed to have the power to ride on broomsticks to attend thier develish meetings known as sabaths. Today, such stories sound to us like fairy tales but in the middle ages, women were actually condemned to death on testimonies from others, who claimed they saw them riding on broomsticks. I am a Christian and I am sure a good number of you reading this article are, but I don't believe and I am sure you certainly don't believe that all those innocent women who suffered torture under fier at the stake, had anything to do with the devil.
Now, if Europe has come a long way to shun all such beliefs and practices, why don't we Africans do the same. I think it is time we emerged from the dark ages and seek practical solutions to our most pressing problems like poverty, corruption and the AIDS pandemic, rather than point fingers at each other every time something gets wrong.

[Lynda Becke-Makoge]

These beliefs may seem bizzare to the outsider, but for individuals who live and have witnessed some of these so called rituals, they may argue for the existence of witchcraft. We need to move away from all these and focus on the natural causes of death in our societies. We need to accept the fact first of all that there are so many ailments that people die of in Cameroon." No one dies of a natural cause or an illness.

[BERYL NALOWA ESEMBE]

My people,
Debying the existence of withcraft is like denying the existence of Satan the Devil. I would like to conceptualize the idea by giving the dimensions of witchcraft. See this 'For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.
1 Samuel 15:22-242

Chronicles 33:6
And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

As a sociologist, I read the book 'THE WAYWARD PURITANS' ... CHECK IT OUT IF YOU CAN.
Reading the above will make us understand that witchcraft existed, exists and will exist. Witchcraft is any form of obeying the devil...Spiritism, Horoscope reading, practicing divinations, any of those things that are communicating with the dead... You go on and make the list....
But on the other hand, We can be above this practices.... Not taking part in them, is just one way.
The Bakwerian is not stupid, but just wise.
Musango na'inyo wase!!!

[BERYL ESEMBE]

My People,
I went through the reactions again above and laughed because the world has changed so much in regards to what which craft really is. Those women who were burnt and the people banished in the old Massachusetts Bay, I cannot for sure say that they were or were not witches, but I can safely condemn the killing of people in that way.
I have been doing research on the lives of women in Foreign countries with and have published a book titled 'Because I am a foreigner - Migrant Women in Cyprus Speak Out'; During this researches that led to the publication of the book, I came across a woman whose identity will not be disclosed. We talked a lot about spiritual things and we dived into satanic worship. I began thinking that Satanism has been contextualized.

In England there are the churches of Satan when devil worshipers go for their religious activities. Now if anyone dares open a church in Cameroon and calls it the Church of Satan, for sure, that individual will not live normally again, or will be forced to leave the premises. The reason is that Cameroonians generally have a fair knowledge of evil and good. Evil is Satan as good is to the Creator God.

Mwemba, evil deeds, communication with spirits especially of the dead, the sacrifice of humans, cannibalism, and sometimes even the sacrifice of animals religious services with sexual pleasures, voodooist, are all forms of Satanic worship, (Watch the documentary titled ‘The Devil Made me Do it). The High priest of the Church of Satan tells you all these deeds and asks at the end leaves one with the question ‘Who says they are ‘bad’ and by whose standards?’. It may be called /devil worship in England because the individual meets with others physically, it may be the sacrifice of animals in Australia, in Cameroon it just has another form – Nyongo, Famla, Obasinjom; The point is Satan does not come to you and introduce himself as the one who turned the inversed the world from what it had to be, he gives all his ‘nivaquine well quoted with sweet’. That is what ‘Liemba’ is. Some people start by ‘going to protect’ them selves.
Finally brethren, what so ever is good, just, lovely, true, think on these things.

[iwould like to be rich]

hello,
look i would like to scamm and have money but i do not know how to do that pls you gus have to help me out i wnat to be rich and have money through mercattel.com

[black magic]

While I do not totally deny the posibility of the existence of black magic, I have and will always be a skeptic when it comes to witchraft particularly the nyongo phenomemon.

[aleister crowley]

Now, if Europe has come a long way to shun all such beliefs and practices, why don't we Africans do the same. I think it is time we emerged from the dark ages and seek practical solutions to our most pressing problems like poverty

[Charmaine Nokuri]

You know I was married to a Cameroonian man, although he maybe more Balundo than Bakweri because he and his family were most certainly into witchcraft. What I can't tell is if their deviling into witchcraft was out of ignorance or maliciousness. All I know is that I saw the man I once love change before my eyes for the past year into a wicked abusive man who refuses to take care of his childern so that he can pursue a licentious lifestyle that was clearly not in line with scripture. I may be wrong but he also may have blasphemed the Holy Spirit which is a HUGE no-no in scripture.

I took a course called Islam and Africa at UVA and to my understanding many African people practice something called sycrentism. I have a great deal of respect for African culture but I draw the line at witchcraft. Americans in general have no clue about spiritual warfare and think its a joke or away of being Afrocentric. Iyanla Vanzant is a Yoruba prietess and alot of Americans wear ankhs and the like. Yet again they have NO clue what these things are, because they have not actually been to Africa or even truly experienced African Culture. I have learned the hard way that just because someone says they are Christian doesn't make it so. Or as Joyce Meyer says "just because someone sits in a garage and says 'beep, beep'doesn't make them a car, anymore than sitting on a pew makes them a Christian."

Sycretism is not unique to Africans of course. Alot of the Catholic beliefs are simply whitewashed pagan practices. Christmas itself is actually the winter solictice. Where to draw line for me is when you are searching for a mate. If you are a true follower of Christ you do not want to yoked with an unbeliever. For Africans in America discerning this can be challenging if you do not understand the culture. It became quite apparent to me this last year that my ex-husband wasnot a Christian and the Holy Spirit brought back to my remembrance all the demonic things he was really into that I had ignored. Other Christians did not believe me because as Westerners they are ignorant of African culture. God hates divorce but as it is written:
1 Corinthians 7:15
But if the unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace.

Any student of the Bible knows that manipulation and rebellion is the spirit of witchcraft. Anything that does not glorify the Lordship of Jesus Christ is witchcraft. When my ex said that my God was not his God after 10 years of marriage I knew it was time to bail, because I was not going to be in an Ananias and Sapphira situation. (Acts 5) Women should only follow their husbands if they are following Christ, otherwise you will bring damnation on your whole house. Most Cameroonians are peace loving individuals and nice, but my family were clearly witches. Like a spiritual slueth my biggest clue is when one of the sisters went to a Benny Hinn convention and heard her own language when they started speaking in toungues:

1 Corinthians 14:22
Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is for believers, not for unbelievers.

This scripture clearly states that tongues are a sign for an UNBELIEVER. So what did I do ? I plead the Blood of Jesus around my childern and I and knew that the gates of hell would not prevail against us. We can talk culture all day long, but Ad-nia is a jealous God who will wipe out the wicked in an instant. He did it to the Canaanites and established Israel. Do you think he would not do the same to the Bakweri people ?

I fear no witches because if God be before me who can be against me ? I have the same anointing as Elijah who battled the prophets of Baal. So I leave you all with this

Ephesians 6:10-18
The Armor of God
10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.