Africa is rapidly developing in this modern world that we live in and yet there are still strong ties to the traditions of the past. There is no clearer example of this than the influence that witchdoctors still hold over Africa. Witchdoctors are a unique group of people whose influence expands the boundaries of countries, the influence of political parties, major religions, and even go as far as to supersede family ties. There is no other group of people who has so much influence over the people of Africa.

Even though many people throughout the world think that witchdoctors are something of the past, the majority of African people still strongly believe in their powers. The reason for this phenomenon is that witchdoctors have the widest range of influence. Presidents, for example, or generals, judges, religious and village leaders all have a great amount of influence over the people in their specific area of power. However, the witchdoctor has influence over every area of life and over every person in every position.

Most of the African people including those who are powerful leaders go to the witchdoctor for healing, protection, and good fortune. Therefore even the majority of the people’s leaders are also under the influence of the witchdoctors. Another unique quality about witchdoctors is that many of them are women. This is very unique in that most of Africa on a political and religious level is controlled by men. 

Let us talk a little about what a witchdoctor is. There are two different types of witchdoctors in Africa and they are called by different names in the many languages that exist in Africa. Therefore in this article we will distinguish them by using two English words which are “witch” and “traditional healer”.

In this article a “traditional healer” is someone who uses natural medicine and the spirits to heal, strength, or enrich others. A “witch” is someone who makes people sick or hurts others in order to get wealthy themselves or simply to watch others suffer. These are the two types of witchdoctors under discussion. However, it gets complicated as some witchdoctors take on the roles of both traditional healers and witches.

Let’s look at some examples of the influence that traditional healers hold over many Africans. In a recent civil war the soldiers from one side went to the traditional healers to receive a medicine that was supposed to make them bullet proof. When they went into battle they as well as their enemies thought that they were invincible because of this medicine.

Also in the political realm traditional healers have a great influence. For instance, in political elections most of the candidates have their own traditional healers who give them protection from curses and good luck in the elections as well as create ways to hinder the other candidates. The influence of these traditional healers even extends as far as to some of the leaders of major religions that have come to Africa. Some leaders of churches and mosques have their own powerful traditional healers who take care of them. These traditional healers are specially selected because of their great power.

Often the traditional healers also act as judges. When someone dies “before their time” the family will go to the traditional healers to find out who killed them.

When he exposes the supposed murderer they will either kill the murderer or at least charge a large fine. The traditional healers even influence the mind of the person they convict. The “murderer” may know that he did not physically kill the person. However he will start to remember dreams that he had and think they were the result of him leaving his body as a spirit or transformed into an animal and killed the person. He then thinks that he returned to his body before he woke up the next morning. This is what the traditional healer says happened and therefore he believes it.

Traditional healers also influence the way people think about sickness. Many people think that what causes sicknesses are curses. They think spirits are used by some people to curse others. For instance, many people in Africa do not believe that AIDS exists because the witchdoctors tell them that it does not exist. Other witchdoctors have been known to tell men who have AIDS that they must sleep with a virgin in order to get rid of this curse. This can obviously have a drastic affect on the spread of AIDS as that young girl goes on to marry someone else. These are just a couple of the areas of influence that traditional healers have over the people of Africa.

Witches also have a great amount of influence over the people of Africa through the fear that they spread. They are not respected nor appreciated as are the traditional healers; rather they are feared and hated by all. No one knows who the witches are because they do all their work in secret and at night they appear in the form of an animal. They are accused of stealing household items, money, food, and pretty much anything else you can imagine. They are said to cause sickness and diseases and ultimately death. They kill others in order to appease the spirits so that they can get rich.

Even though no one knows who they are it is possible to find them out by various methods. If someone was robbed or their crops didn’t grow well and yet a neighbor has reaped an abundant harvest they will get very suspicious. They will find a traditional healer and will ask him who stole from them. When they find out they will then try to discover if the person used a traditional healer to steal or if they are a witch. If they find out that their neighbor used a traditional healer to steal they will most likely fine them for large sum of money.

On the other hand, if they find that their neighbor is a witch, they will kill them. It just so happens that old widows are the ones who most often get accused of being witches and they are quickly killed and their house is left to ruin. They make for an easy target because they have no one who will defend their case or retaliate for their death.

It can get complicated in the areas of wealth and curses because a traditional healer does whatever a person asks them to do as long as they have the money to pay for it. This could include cursing another person so that they get sick and die or asking the traditional healer to turn them into an animal at night so that they can steal crops or household goods from someone else. By doing this the traditional healer is actually doing the work of a witch but since it is for someone else he is not blamed. If the cursed person finds out who put the curse on him he will try to either kill the guilty person or demand a payment from him because he went to the traditional healer to curse him. They will not try to punish or accuse the traditional healer because he was just doing his job.

In conclusion, the witchdoctors of Africa have an incredible amount of influence over all of Africa. They are regarded with much respect and greatly feared as they are believed to have the power over the physical and spiritual realm. Nowhere else in the world will you find any one group of people who have such a great influence over the local population. It is only in Africa where you find people from all walks of life and all positions of power following the witchdoctors with such devotion.