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final part on Witchcraft, Sorcery, Magic, witch-doctors. A doctor in Africa 1960.

The witch-doctor’s place in mental health Witch-doctors do definitely fill a place, a need, in primitive society. They fill a gap which Western medicine completely ignores in the tropics and is hardly aware of even in our own society. It would therefore be unwise to condemn all witch-doctors outright unless they are really doing evil […]

Posted 12 years ago

Daft people and holiday reviews/trip reports.

Did you know that you can get a sort of “badge” for posting lots of reviews ? How can people be so daft ?!! Is seems there is some kind of feel-good factor involved in making your voice heard, even if what you are saying is unfair or even out-and-out untrue. I remember some friends, […]

Posted 12 years ago

The witch-doctor as an oracle. Sorcery, witchcraft continued. Doctors in Africa.

Most so-called witch-doctors could more properly be called diviners or oracles, since they are consulted not only on health matters but on all sorts of problems in addition, particularly questions pertaining to the loss or acquisition of luck. The witch-doctor’s opinion in invoked before undertaking any new enterprise, a journey or a trading venture, and, […]

Posted 12 years ago

Witchcraft, sorcery, magic continued ….

Organic disease It should not be inferred from this that the clearly organic diseases are therefore not attributed to witchcraft or sorcery. On the contrary, even a thing like a car accident may be blamed on some evil wisher. In Ibadan in 1958, when the leader of the opposition political party was killed in what […]

Posted 12 years ago

Don’t poo in the river ! A doctor in the third world.

Getting your message across can be so difficult. Even today so many people are very simple and the level of lack of education all over the third world is distressing. Not a lot has changed in the last hundred years, despite the efforts of so many. I remember being with my father in Africa. Part […]

Posted 12 years ago

Witch-doctors, witchcraft, sorcery & magic as written by a doctor … continued.

Even in European society at least 30 per cent of patients consulting the general practitioners are suffering from psychologically induced symptoms, or “psychosomatic” disease. In a society where the supernatural is so much more to the front, we would expect an even higher proportion, and this is very likely so. These cases, where there is […]

Posted 12 years ago

Trip reports, holiday reviews, opinions and places like Trip Advisor.

The season for holiday reports and trip reviews is in full swing and the response I have received after my last two blogs on the subject has prompted me in to blogging again. A friend owns a small hotel, quite a long way from me. He has six rooms and a small dining room. It […]

Posted 12 years ago

Witchcraft, sorcery and magic in Africa – continued

The practice of witchcraft, that is to say the use of magic to do such things as cause babies to die, crops to wither, or women or animals to be barren, is clearly impossible and can only exist in the imagination. On the other hand, sorcery or black magic is definitely practised and can have […]

Posted 12 years ago

Witchcraft, magic and sorcery in Africa – continued

Almost universal is the belief that there are certain unknown persons who can exert an evil influence of a magical nature. Sometimes the belief may be that they have the “evil eye” and that they can cause sickness in man or beast by a look. In other cases it is believed that they cast “spells” […]

Posted 12 years ago

Witchcraft and superstition in Africa – continued.

Whatever explanation of disease or disaster is given, it is certainly never a simple matter of cause and effect. Human nature is apparently such that we cannot bear to think we are so unimportant, that nature can take its course and catch us up in events without knowing or caring that we, as personalities, are […]

Posted 12 years ago

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