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Witchcraft, Power And Politics: Exploring the Occult in the South African Lowveld »

Authors: Isak Niehaus, Eliazaar Mohlala, Kally Shokaneo
ISBN-13: 9780745315584, ISBN-10: 0745315585
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Pluto Press
Date Published: May 2001
Edition: (Non-applicable)

Author Biography: Isak Niehaus

Isak Niehaus is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Book Synopsis

A fascinating and in-depth study of witchcraft in contemporary South Africa.

Booknews

An ethnographic study of witchcraft in contemporary South Africa, where witchcraft accusations and the killing of suspected witches appear to be escalating. Niehaus (U. of Pretoria) draws on fieldwork conducted since 1990 in Green Valley, a village with a population of 20,000 in the South African lowveld. The study shows how witchcraft was politicized under apartheid, and how the struggle for liberation and the establishment of the post-apartheid state have also affected conceptions of witchcraft. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

	Acknowledgements
	Notes on Terminology
	Acronyms
	Maps
1	Introduction: Exploring Witchcraft, Power and Politics	1
2	Society, Cosmology and the Making of Witchcraft: Continuity and Change in the History of Green Valley, 1864-1995	16
3	Witches of the Lowveld and their Familiars: Conceptions of Duality, Power and Desire	45
4	Witchcraft and Whites: Further Notes on the Symbolic Constitution of Occult Power	63
5	Witches, Cognates, Affines and Neighbours: The Changing Distribution of Witchcraft Accusations	83
6	'A Witch Has No Horn': Social Tensions in the Subjective Reality of Witchcraft	113
7	Witch-Hunting and Political Legitimacy: Chiefs, Comrades and the Elimination of Evil, 1930-1989	130
8	The ANC's Dilemma: The Symbolic Politics of Four Witch-Hunts in the 1990s	156
9	Conclusion: Witchcraft and the Postcolonial State	183
App. A	Fieldwork Revisited	194
App. B	Public Perception Map of South Africa	199
App. C	The Witchcraft Suppression Act No. 3 of 1957	200
App. D	Details of the Alleged Witches Violently Attacked, Green Valley, 1971-1985	202
App. E	Details Pertaining to the Victims of Witch-Hunts Organised by the Comrades, Green Valley, 1986-1989	203
App. F	Details of those Accused of Witchcraft, Green Valley, The Christmas Witch-Hunts, 1990	204
App. G	Details of those Accused of Witchcraft, New Lines, Arthur's Seat, October 1993	206
App. H	Details of those Accused of Witchcraft, Rooiboklaagte, November 1994	207
App. I	The Witchcraft Control Act as Proposed by the Commission of Inquiry into Witchcraft Violence and Ritual Murders in the Northern Province of the Republic of South Africa	208
	Notes	210
	References	228
	Index	241