Rant Number 569 15 January 2014
‘I practiced witchcraft on whites during apartheid’. South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma said so, addressing his fellow Zulus.
Disbelief? Why? Clearly, voodoo worked. Apartheid crumbled. With a bit of extra-help from arms, Castro’s Cuban units and Western sanctions, of course. Still, the proof of the pudding is in the eating: Jacob did it.
Witchcraft. Primitive, silly and superstitious? A peevish view held by anthropologist Sir James Fraser in his study of magic, The Golden Bough. The ‘savage’ simply is ignorant of causal connections, Fraser contended. ‘Primitive man’ is stupid. He does not grasp that his ritual reaches out to no actual mechanism in nature, poor thing. Indeed, the Oxford Dictionary defines superstition as ‘unjustified idea of the effects or nature of a thing’.
Problem: President Zuma and the Zulus are no ‘primitives’. They fully understand that weapons do have causal power. The ANC struggle against the Boers included effective guerrilla tactics, missiles, bombs and the like. They shot lead bullets at their enemies, not lilies. All that evinces plenty of causal knowledge, methinks. Hence Fraser’s argument leaks.
Ludwig Wittgenstein would have agreed. In his reflections on Fraser’s condescending theory the philosopher pointed out how ‘the savage’ knows pretty well how to sharpen up his arrows and build his hut so to keep rain out. So-called primitive man is no ignoramus of what goes on in the natural world. Fraser, the ‘civilised’ Western observer, is the one who is stupid. Because he hugely misunderstands the real function of practices like witchcraft, voodoo and magic in the drama of human life…
What worries rationalist critics of magic is the matter of mechanism or its mode of operation. How exactly is magic supposed to work? A medical scientist will explain to you how a drug, say, Levothyroxine Sodium, operates. Very rational. The Voodoo priest invokes a supreme God but also the loa, or African spirits, and then goes into a trance. All rather fishy and irrational, detractors opine.
The mechanism of any miracle is also beyond human reason, however. Of course, miracles unlike witchcraft are ‘white magic’. Effected by God through for beneficent purposes. Their modus operandi is hidden from human eyes. And their purpose too is not always easy to discern. St Joseph of Cupertino was seen by hundreds worshipers flying one metre high over people’s heads, from the church door directly to the altar. Unless the servant of God wanted to glorify the miracle of transubstantiation…a bit of a holy stunt?
Still, voodoo may work in more than one way. It would have enhanced Zulu fighting spirit. Heightened their motivation to shake off Boers’ rule. Much in the same way in which Germanic warriors howled fierce cries at Roman legionaries, to enervate them. Besides, the white Boers are Africans too. They may have subconsciously absorbed some of the voodoo belief system and so been vulnerable to it. Note that in certain cultures after a medicine man recites a certain ritual a man will lie down and die. The mechanism may be unknown but not the result. And even amongst Western ‘civilised’ people someone jilted in love may lose the will to live. Perhaps not ‘scientific’ yet human, all too human.
The English monarch used to be able to do white magic, healing or the royal touch. For centuries the custom of touching for the King’s evil, i.e. scrofula, was followed. Dr Johnson as a child was himself touched by Queen Anne. And as late as the 19th century the Young England movement, of which Benjamin Disraeli was part, proposed to restore the sacred practice. Maybe something a future King Charles might consider.
The Catholic Church has a rich spiritual tradition and rituals of exorcism, discernment of spirits and thaumaturgy. May they longer thrive and endure.
Is there an Anglican voodoo ritual? There is, after a fashion. I kid you not. Pray, consult Cranmer’s wonderful Book of Common Prayer. You will discover there the service of ‘Commination, or Denouncing of God’s Anger and Judgment against Sinners.’ A series of prayers to be used on the first day of Lent. The prayers are actually curses. God’s indignation against evil-doers is the point. If vicious and filthy people will not repent…they have been warned! God is not mocked. He will repay.
Confession: when the invasion of Iraq started, boiling with anger I resolved to don my cassock, alb and stole and in that fashion march to 10 Downing St. I then intended to recite the Commination, the whole dreadful cursing ritual against Tony Blair before the black gate. Hoping either to induce him to repent or…else. I got as far as Westminster Cathedral where I ran into my ancient spiritual director, Father A. ‘Where are you going, my boy, so liturgically attired?’ he mildly inquired. I told him. He invited me for a cup of tea and advised me to desist. Well, I obeyed him. Maybe I shouldn’t have but….water under the bridge. Possibilities for future use are wide open though.
Naturally, the trendy, moribund Church of England deeply detests the Commination and so it is hardly ever used. The sainted bishop of London, Graham Leonard, who ordained me, said that he didn’t like it. Pity – he was otherwise sound in many things. But I guess the whole business of the supernatural embarrasses a church which is so apostate that it has jettisoned references to sin and the devil from the new baptismal service. Will Christ be next? Never mind. God is ultimate judge over his erring children. Like the ancient Hebrews in the wilderness, if Anglicans reject his love they will feel his wrath. They have been asking for it.
What about some interfaith, political voodoo, after the manner of Jacob Zuma? I once asked an Imam whether he would be willing to conduct such a ritual together with me, on a public matter that will remain undisclosed. He demurred. Well, we can't all be bold revolutionaries, can we?
Revd Frank Julian Gelli
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