Zande People - Traditional Beliefs

Traditional Beliefs

Most Azande traditionally practiced an animist religion, but this has been supplanted to a large extent by Christianity. Other traditional beliefs include magic and witchcraft. Among the Azande, witchcraft is believed to be an inherited substance in the belly which lives a fairly autonomous life, including performing bad magic on one's enemies. Witches can sometimes be unaware of their powers, and can accidentally strike people to whom the witch wishes no evil. Because witchcraft is believed to always be present, there are several rituals connected to protection from and cancelling of witchcraft that are performed almost daily. When something out of the ordinary occurs, usually something unfortunate, to an individual, the Azande may blame witchcraft, just as non-Zande people might blame "bad luck".

Oracles are a way of determining from where the suspected witchcraft is coming, and were for a long time the ultimate legal authority and the main determining factor in how one would respond to the threats.

E. E. Evans-Pritchard and other anthropologists have paid special attention to Zande stories about Tule, also known as Ture. Tule (pronounced )(Ture), which means "spider" in Zande, is sometimes portrayed as a trickster, similar to Anansi or Br'er Rabbit.

They believe the sky will fall.

(Mr. Migihe Lawrence Enosa Mbaraza) According to my late Grandfather Rev.Canon Enosa Mbaraza, he said the Azande population was 1.1 Million before the British came into the Azande Kingdom. There was no boundary between the Azande beginning from Rafai,Zemio and Obo in Central Africa, part of Congo(formerly Zaire) along Uele River and Western Equatoria Province in South Sudan.

Azande territory covers a vast expanse of land from the fringes of the Upper Nile basin in the South Sudan to the Semitropical rain forests in Congo and part of Central Africa Republic.