Can’t pay, won’t pay: occult conflicts over neoliberal social relations in contemporary Zimbabwe

Abstract

Based on interviews in Zimbabwe in 2016, the authors argue that stories about unsettled ngozi spirits are a powerful lens through which to understand grassroots experiences of neoliberalism. In the 1990s, ngozi symptoms of death and madness were associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and were instrumental in bringing families of victims and perpetrators together after war, to reconcile. Today, however, these symptoms are associated more with economic injustice. Resolving them has become a matter of payment, not reconciliation and human relationships. Anger is directed towards uncooperative family members and Pentecostal churches for perpetuating rather than healing this occult suffering.

Keywords:

• Zimbabwe
• ngozi
• witchcraft
• neoliberalism
• pentecostalism
• healing

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Shungu Mashinge for his logistical help and Headman Jairos Mashinge for his hospitality.

Notes

1. Knoema. A Gini index of 0 represents perfect equality, while an index of 100 implies perfect inequality.

2. World Bank. Adult mortality is the probability of a 15-year-old dying before the age of 60.

3. UNAIDS.

4. Muperi, “1.3 Million Zimbabweans Mentally Ill.”

5. Fieldwork was conducted in Shumba and Murape wards. Shumba consists of twenty-two villages and Murape of seventy-two. We spoke to people in Mashinge, Murape, Mazhani, Jasi, Ngwerume, Shumba and Ngandu. In addition, we spoke to the Mutota mhondoro spirit medium, various people associated with churches and with reconciliation work in town, and a traditional herbalist in Mapondera.

6. A n’anga is a traditional healer, who normally uses spiritual as well as medicinal and psychosocial healing methods.

7. Nzenza, “In the Shadow of Witchcraft.” Witchcraft accusation has been a response to HIV-related deaths in Zimbabwe for many years. See also “Tokoloshi Terror.”

8. Chigonga and Nyangove, “Open Market for Goblins.” The meaning of tokoloshi has regional variations and as a translation of chikwambo it is no more accurate than ‘goblin’.

9. Maodza, “Witchcraft lawsuit for ex-minister.”

10. Matsoni v Chikowiro, 26th April 1909, ‘Native Civil Disputes’, Melsetter District, National Archives of Zimbabwe [NAZ] S1069.

11. Nyikadzino interview.

12. Makwiramiti interview.

13. Gelfand, The Spiritual Beliefs of the Shona, 30ff.

14. Contrary to some misrepresentations in development literature, ‘spirits of the dead’ are not necessarily ancestral spirits. Attention to ancestral spirits is a very different matter from attention to ngozi, and different again from forms of necromancy believed to be practised by witches.

15. Tapfuma interview.

16. Jeater, “A European Obsession with Vengeance.” See also Vambe, “Crime and Deterrence” and Benyera, “Presenting ngozi.”

17. Jeater, “Their Idea of Justice.” Some offences, notably witchcraft, could not easily be resolved through the payment of reparation, but even here justice was not about revenge, but about protecting the community from further harm.

18. For example, following the accounts of anthropologist Michael Gelfand and sociologist Michael Bourdillon, Tonya Taylor says that ngozi are the ‘most malevolent’ of the spirits responsible for misfortune and disease. Taylor, “Healing Performance,” 307.

19. Jairos Mashinge; Gaha; Makwiramiti interviews.

20. Headman Shumba interview. Where the victim’s family is not known, the ngozi cannot be settled, but it can be appeased in other ways. Rituals differ from place to place. In Beitbridge, it can be brought into the family and given a ‘wife’ who will look after its shrine. It will protect the family and, after three generations, it will be settled. Musoni, “Cross-Border Mobility.”

21. Seke interview. Mapati said that the ward headman should also be present.

22. ”Liberators Suffer Mental Stress” See also Reeler and Mupinda, “An Investigation.”

23. Schmidt, “Healing the wounds of war.”

24. Ranger, “Healing the Land.”

25. Philip Mashinge interview.

26. National Institute for Clinical Excellence, Post-traumatic stress disorder.

27. The Gukurahundi operation, 1983–1985, was carried out by the Zimbabwe National Army’s Fifth Brigade, ostensibly to eliminate a suspected South African-backed insurgency amongst supporters of the opposition party, ZAPU, in the south west of the country. However, the operation was largely characterised by massacres of the civilian Ndebele-speaking population. Estimates of deaths vary, but 8000 is a widely-quoted figure.

28. Chikuhwa interview.

29. Seke interview.

30. Jeater, “A European Obsession with Vengeance.”

31. Jeater, “Chimeras and Chameleons” provides some examples of these cases.

32. Complaint by Mungukwai, 19th January 1910, ‘Native Civil Cases’, Belingwe District. NAZ NVC 3/1/1: 372.

33. See note 11 above.

34. Sekuru Shumba interview.

35. Gaha interview.

36. See note 15 above.

37. Muchichwa, Working Without Pay.

38. See note 25 above.

39. Moore and Sanders, Magical Interpretations, Material Realities.

40. Fisiy and Geschiere, “Sorcery, Witchcraft and Accumulation.”

41. See note 15 above.

42. Gukwe interview.

43. See note 15 above.

44. ibid.

45. Mpande interview.

46. See note 35 above.

47. Binuyure interview.

48. Sandel, What Money Can't Buy.

49. Jeater, Marriage, Perversion & Power.

50. See note 25 above.

51. Ferguson, Global Shadows, 72.

52. Maxwell. “Delivered from the spirit of poverty?”

53. See note 11 above.

54. See note 42 above.

55. Kleibl and Munck, “Civil Society in Mozambique.”

56. See note 47 above.

57. Gappah, “Your God is a God of Silver & Gold” and Jeater, “Masculinity, Marriage and the Bible.”

58. See note 11 above.

59. Mashonganyika interview.

60. See note 45 above.

61. Madondo interview.

62. See note 47 above.

63. Matshiya interview.

64. See note 34 above.

65. Alexander and Jeater, “Modernization and its Discontents.”

66. Smith, “Local Knowledge in Development (Geography).”