Witchcraft and a Life in the New South Africa

This biography casts new light on scholarly understandings of the connections between politics, witchcraft and AIDS in South Africa.

Isak Niehaus (Author)

9781108442695, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 November 2017

265 pages, 7 b/w illus. 2 maps
22.8 x 15.3 x 1.6 cm, 0.41 kg

'This is a powerful tale of one man's gradual conviction that witchcraft is behind his misfortune. As in Adam Ashforth's Madumo, a man bewitched (2000), South African witchcraft is elucidated through biography. … This is a moving and insightful account whose biographical form is used to compelling effect.' Maxim Bolt, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

Witchcraft and a Life in the New South Africa reconstructs the biography of an ordinary South African, Jimmy Mohale. Born in 1964, Jimmy came of age in rural South Africa during apartheid, then studied at university and worked as a teacher during the anti-apartheid struggle. In 2005, Jimmy died from an undiagnosed sickness, probably related to AIDS. Jimmy gradually came to see the unanticipated misfortune he experienced as a result of his father's witchcraft and sought remedies from diviners rather than from biomedical doctors. This study casts new light on scholarly understandings of the connections between South African politics, witchcraft and the AIDS pandemic.

1. Introduction
2. Early experiences, initial suspicions
3. Becoming a man
4. 'Then I did not believe'
5. 'My second initiation'
6. 'I see things differently now'
7. Seeking revenge
8. AIDS and Oedipus
9. Reconstructing an ideal life
10. Last words.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], HIV / AIDS: social aspects [JFFH2], Witchcraft [HRQX5], African history [HBJH]