"Koen Stroeken's work is fascinating, thought-provoking,
theoretically challenging and ethnographically penetrating. It is
anthropology, yes, and very true anthropology for that matter, but
it is also a deep and unsettling experience finding its voice." .
Per Brandstrom, Uppsala University
"The book is thoroughly engaging and a timely contribution to
the literature on witchcraft. It may be found too provocative and
controversial for some, but I appreciated the analysis as a useful
interrogation of the 'certainties' of much anthropological theory
and practice in the study of magic and witchcraft." . Joanne
Thobeka Wreford, University of Capetown
Neither power nor morality but both. Moral power is what the
Sukuma from Tanzania in times of crisis attribute to an unknown
figure they call their witch. A universal process is involved, as
much bodily as social, which obstructs the patient's recovery.
Healers turn the table on the witch through rituals showing that
the community and the ancestral spirits side with the victim. In
contrast to biomedicine, their magic and divination introduce moral
values that assess the state of the system and that remove the
obstacles to what is taken as key: self-healing. The implied
'sensory shifts' and therapeutic effectiveness have largely eluded
the literature on witchcraft. This book shows how to comprehend
culture other than through the prism of identity and politics.
Koen Stroeken is a Lecturer in medical anthropology at Ghent
University. He was initiated as a Chwezi healer in Tanzania before
writing about cosmology and medicine."
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