Sangoma or Witchcraft? Why So Many Cannot Tell the Difference

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.

Ask ten people in Soweto to explain the difference between an igqirha (sangoma, diviner), an ixhwele (herbalist) and an igqwira (witch), and you may get ten different answers. Traditionally the igqirha is seen as a healer who protects the community, while the igqwira secretly harms. In practice, many people cannot tell where one ends and the other begins. This article explores why, from a Christian perspective.

Why the line is so blurry

• The same tools. Bones, roots, animal parts, incense, incisions (ukugcaba) and incantations are used by both. Only the stated purpose differs.
• The same source. Both say their power comes from spirits: the ancestors for one, familiar spirits for the other. Scripture does not divide spirits into “family” and “foreign” but into the Holy Spirit and unclean spirits (1 John 4:1–3).
• Protection needs an enemy. Much traditional healing is counter-witchcraft: sniffing out the witch, sending the evil back, strengthening a home. Sending something back is still sending something.
• Money and secrecy. When healing becomes a business, some practitioners sell harmful muthi to clients who pay. Many families tell such stories.

Why the Bible warns about these practices

Deuteronomy 18:10–12 does not separate “good” diviners from “bad” ones. Divination, consulting the dead, charms and omens are all named together. Many Christians therefore believe the problem is not only what a practitioner intends but the spiritual channel used. Acts 16:16–18 tells of a slave girl with a spirit of divination who even spoke true words, yet Paul cast the spirit out. Accurate insight is not proof that a spirit is from God.

How beautiful culture gets lost

Our heritage is rich: isiXhosa, praise poetry, beadwork, music, respect for elders, communal work, storytelling and ubuntu. When culture is reduced to rituals, fear and payments, these treasures are overshadowed. Some families are told every problem has a spiritual price, driving them into debt and suspicion of relatives. Accusations of witchcraft have led to violence, especially against elderly women. That is not the culture our forebears built.

Born into a cultural family or a family of witches?

Many people say, “I was born into a family with a calling.” It helps to separate two very different things:

• A cultural family keeps the clan name, the language, the stories, the customs of respect, and gatherings. Children are free to choose their faith and career. No one is forced to become a diviner.
• A family bound to witchcraft often shows a pattern: every generation is told it must take up the bones, illness is blamed on refusing the “gift” (intwaso), secrets are kept, and children are initiated without real choice. In such families it is said that everyone is expected to become a witchdoctor.

Exodus 20:5–6 speaks of generational consequences, but Ezekiel 18 and 2 Corinthians 5:17 promise that in Christ “old things are passed away.” A generational pattern is not a destiny.

Testing the spirits

Ask: Does this practice point me to Christ or away from Him? Does it bring peace or fear? Does it require secrecy, blood or payment for spiritual results? Does it harm anyone? Scripture invites us to bring every question into the light.

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).