Witchcraft Around the World, and What Xhosa Nations Don’t Realise

This article is written from a Christian faith perspective as part of Khwalo Production’s conversation about faith and culture. It is not an attack on any person or family; many traditional healers mean well, and many families hold both church and custom. Our aim is to help readers think, pray and choose with understanding.

Witchcraft is not only an African story. Across the world, people have sought hidden power through spirits, herbs, spells and the dead. Seeing these patterns side by side helps Xhosa readers recognise practices at home that many accept as “just culture”.

Witchcraft around the world

• West Africa: Juju and Vodun in Nigeria, Benin and Ghana use charms, shrines and spirits for protection and harm. Mami Wata, the water spirit, promises wealth and beauty at a cost.
• Haiti and the Caribbean: Vodou and Obeah use spirit possession, offerings and potions. Stories of zombies closely mirror our imikhovu.
• Latin America: Brujería and Santería mix spells, saints and spirits; curanderos heal with herbs and prayers to spirits.
• Europe: Medieval witches were accused of potions, familiars (often animals, like our impundulu lightning bird or baboon) and flying at night. Modern Wicca revives spells and nature spirits.
• Asia: Spirit mediums, ghost marriages, amulets and offerings to ancestors for wealth appear in many traditions.
• The ancient world: Egypt’s magicians resisted Moses (Exodus 7), Babylon’s enchanters served kings (Daniel 2), and the city of Ephesus was a centre of magic books (Acts 19).

The common threads: familiar spirits, potions, contacting the dead, curses, and power for wealth or revenge. Scripture addresses all of them.

Things many Xhosa people don’t realise are linked to witchcraft

From a biblical perspective, these common practices share the same roots, even when they feel normal:

• Luck charms and “lucky” muthi for business, taxis, gambling or exams.
• Washing or steaming with muthi to attract a partner, money or favour.
• Protection strings, bangles and incisions given by a diviner to ward off evil.
• Sprinkling the yard or burying objects at the gate to protect a home.
• Isichitho remedies: muthi to remove or to send “bad luck” that makes people reject someone.
• Love potions (ubulawu used to bind a partner) and drinks to make a husband obedient.
• Consulting about dreams through a diviner instead of prayer.
• Fortune-telling with bones, cards, horoscopes or palm reading.
• Muthi in a newborn’s or a bride’s ritual meant to bind them to spirits.
• Curses spoken in anger: words sent with intent to harm.
• Keeping fees or items “for the spirits” that must never be thrown away for fear of punishment.

Not every plant remedy is witchcraft. Herbs used openly as medicine, like rooibos or aloe, are part of God’s creation. The concern is spiritual power through spirits, secrecy and control.

Light for every nation

Revelation 7:9 pictures people “of all nations, and kindreds, and tongues” before God’s throne. The gospel does not erase nations; it frees them. When the Ephesians turned to Christ, they burned their magic books (Acts 19:19) but kept their city and their language. Xhosa people can do the same: keep the culture, and lay down the charms.

Khwalo! Mzangwa! Ncuthu! Mlanjana! Culture is a gift worth keeping. Our prayer is that we keep what is beautiful – ubuntu, respect, language and family – and test every spirit by the Word (1 John 4:1).