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Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic Among the Azande
An abridged version of the 1937 an-thropological study of the Azande of the southern Sudan, the theoretical insights of which have proven increasingly influential among both anthropologists and others
298 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1937
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About the author
E.E. Evans-Pritchard
85 books58 followersSir Edward Evan "E. E." Evans-Pritchard (21 September 1902 – 11 September 1973) was an English anthropologist who was instrumental in the development of social anthropology. He was Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford from 1946 to 1970.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
December 22, 2019
Wow, what an amazing book. I had previously read Evans-Pritchard’s (hereafter E-P) other ethnographic classic, The Nuer. The subtitle of that book is ‘A description of the modes of livelihood and political institutions of a Nilotic people.” And yet in Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande, E-P says next to nothing about Zande modes of livelihood or political institutions. It almost seems as though the two books had distinct authors. On the one hand, The Nuer is about food and ecology, kinship and politics, and a subsistence economy. And The Nuer is about cows, the most significant possession for the men of this tribe. On the other hand, Among the Azande is about witchcraft and magic, belief and action, the social function of mystical rituals, and the psyche of the typical Azande. And it is about chickens used in oracles, oracles being the central quasi-judicial preoccupation of the Azande. It seems the two books are so different because the two tribes, Nuer and Azande, are so different. The Nuer and the Azande have contrasting ways of looking at the world, and they both revealed to E-P where their primary interests and concerns lie.
Witchcraft is very much a primary interest and concern for the typical Zande male. As E-P makes clear, witchcraft is the key to understanding many other aspects of Zande belief and behavior. Witchcraft explains all sorts of unfortunate events, even nightmares. The Azande treat all deaths as the result of witches. E-P’s classic example of witchcraft goes something like this: people were sitting under a granary to get away from the heat of the sun. At that point the granary collapsed and the people were killed. The granary fell on account of termites. However, “that it should collapse is easily intelligible, but why it should have collapsed at that particular moment when these particular people were sitting beneath it?” Thus, whenever someone dies in an accident or from another cause, an ulterior cause of witchcraft is imputed.
When a kindred dies or when a crop fails, witches are always to blame. The Azande believe that a substance called mangu inhabits the body of witches, perhaps unbeknownst to the witch. If a witch feels anger or contempt toward some person, and then that person dies or suffers a major mishap, the witchcraft substance mangu is said to be hot or active in the witch. The ‘witch’ himself does nothing to activate his mangu. In fact, it would appear that nobody with volition and intention ever acts ‘witch-like.’ If some misfortune occurs, one suspects witchcraft among the victim’s enemies, who might have unconsciously directed their active witchcraft substance against the victim.
In order to verify that someone is a witch, an oracle must be consulted. There are a number of different kinds of oracles, but the most reliable and most expensive of these is the poison oracle. The oracle is asked if so-and-so is a witch. A poisoned chicken is observed. If it dies, the question is repeated with a second chicken, and if that chicken dies the answer is no. And if the first one lived, and the second one lived the answer is also no. To be an affirmative response to the question, the oracle must be performed twice, with one chicken dying and one living in either order. Part of the reason this form of divination is preferred is that it is harder to cheat or fake an outcome, and so the poison oracle is felt to be the most reliable. If someone is found to be a witch, the wing of the dead bird is brought to that person. He will almost certainly claim that the he had no knowledge of being a witch and did nothing intentionally wrong. He then blows a spray of water over the ground, which cools his mangu, his witchcraft-substance, and removes the mangu’s potential to do harm.
If the oracle fails to identify the witch, then a witch-doctor’s vengeance magic is practiced on behalf of the kin of the injured or ‘murdered’ man. When a neighbor in the village subsequently dies, this is often taken as indicating the success of the vengeance magic in identifying the culprit and bringing him down. Interestingly, there once again appear to be nobody in Zandeland who admits to being a witch, and it is probable that nobody ever actually practices black magic there. The Azande freely consult witch-doctors and diviners and administer good medicines to help counteract evil witchcraft. But evil magic appears always to be imputed to others and not actually practiced. Witch-doctors are not themselves witches, but they are tasked with identifying and collecting magical vines and tree barks which are prepared into medicines. The fact that people usually recover from illness or misfortune is taken as evidence that the medicine is potent and effective. And if the patient dies despite the witch-doctor’s treatment, then that just shows that some witch’s mangu was even more powerful than the counteracting medicines.
The witch-doctors belong to secret associations, but they are not clergy. It would in fact be difficult and perhaps unwise to try to see the Azande as having anything comparable to what one might call organized religion. The Azande practice ritual in accord with their oral tradition. Being illiterate, they have no religious texts to consult. Yet these practices (witchcraft, oracles, and magic) fulfill a similar role to religion (and science) by providing a rationale for the unexplained. The witch-doctors’ specialized knowledge is maintained by witch-doctor lodges, which were made illegal by the British colonial powers. Now as an underground institution, this form of shamanism has become a counter-discourse against foreign powers and against the Zande princes, who fear secret associations as subversive and who are seen as being in complicity with the colonial regime.
The best part of this book is E-P’s reflections on fieldwork, found as an appendix to Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande. In it, E-P emphasizes the importance of linguistic research as the bedrock to effective fieldwork. For E-P, ethnography ultimately comes down to translation. And what is translated in the end comes down to what the natives are interested in talking about. In the field, you study what you can. And if your informants are into magic and witchcraft, that is what you write about. And if your informants are into cattle herding, then you write a book about that instead.
Like I said, this work is amazing. But I do have a few critical remarks. The reasoning and rationale behind Zande beliefs is presented without any kind of coherent psychological analysis. The reader is left to form his or her own opinion about what it feels like to be an Azande in the heat of mystical battle. Maybe that is a good thing. But E-P offers no character development or narrative about specific individuals (comparable to Turner’s Muchona, Griaule’s Ogotemmeli, or Crapenzano’s Tuhami). The emphasis is all on social machinery and not about subjective experience. Also, there is little trace of how the Azande gain a livelihood. If magic does not touch an aspect of their culture, then we simply do not hear about that aspect of the culture. Finally, the work does not offer much of a political analysis of either the Zande princes or of the colonial British. If Gluckman were writing about the Azande, I would expect to see more about how witchcraft regulates or channels conflict and about how missionaries are rending the Zande cultural fabric apart by prohibiting witchcraft, oracles, and magic for being in some way satanic.
But despite all that, I feel that E-P’s Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande would have to be in the top 50 at the ethnography hall of fame. The observations in the work are perceptive, sympathetic, and clear. And despite the lack of any cogent narrative, the writing feels crisp, and the analyses are seldom dull. Like E-P, I started out in the field of classics, and in this his first ethnography, this work about the Azande, E-P answers many questions about how witchcraft, oracles, and magic might structure belief and experience in any pagan culture, including classical pagan civilization. In conclusion, If the reader wishes to know how an African culture physically functions in a particular ecology, then you should go to The Nuer. But if the reader wants a classic account of how an African culture psychically functions in a web of social bonds and suspicions, then Azande is the way to go. You most likely won’t be disappointed either way.
Witchcraft is very much a primary interest and concern for the typical Zande male. As E-P makes clear, witchcraft is the key to understanding many other aspects of Zande belief and behavior. Witchcraft explains all sorts of unfortunate events, even nightmares. The Azande treat all deaths as the result of witches. E-P’s classic example of witchcraft goes something like this: people were sitting under a granary to get away from the heat of the sun. At that point the granary collapsed and the people were killed. The granary fell on account of termites. However, “that it should collapse is easily intelligible, but why it should have collapsed at that particular moment when these particular people were sitting beneath it?” Thus, whenever someone dies in an accident or from another cause, an ulterior cause of witchcraft is imputed.
When a kindred dies or when a crop fails, witches are always to blame. The Azande believe that a substance called mangu inhabits the body of witches, perhaps unbeknownst to the witch. If a witch feels anger or contempt toward some person, and then that person dies or suffers a major mishap, the witchcraft substance mangu is said to be hot or active in the witch. The ‘witch’ himself does nothing to activate his mangu. In fact, it would appear that nobody with volition and intention ever acts ‘witch-like.’ If some misfortune occurs, one suspects witchcraft among the victim’s enemies, who might have unconsciously directed their active witchcraft substance against the victim.
In order to verify that someone is a witch, an oracle must be consulted. There are a number of different kinds of oracles, but the most reliable and most expensive of these is the poison oracle. The oracle is asked if so-and-so is a witch. A poisoned chicken is observed. If it dies, the question is repeated with a second chicken, and if that chicken dies the answer is no. And if the first one lived, and the second one lived the answer is also no. To be an affirmative response to the question, the oracle must be performed twice, with one chicken dying and one living in either order. Part of the reason this form of divination is preferred is that it is harder to cheat or fake an outcome, and so the poison oracle is felt to be the most reliable. If someone is found to be a witch, the wing of the dead bird is brought to that person. He will almost certainly claim that the he had no knowledge of being a witch and did nothing intentionally wrong. He then blows a spray of water over the ground, which cools his mangu, his witchcraft-substance, and removes the mangu’s potential to do harm.
If the oracle fails to identify the witch, then a witch-doctor’s vengeance magic is practiced on behalf of the kin of the injured or ‘murdered’ man. When a neighbor in the village subsequently dies, this is often taken as indicating the success of the vengeance magic in identifying the culprit and bringing him down. Interestingly, there once again appear to be nobody in Zandeland who admits to being a witch, and it is probable that nobody ever actually practices black magic there. The Azande freely consult witch-doctors and diviners and administer good medicines to help counteract evil witchcraft. But evil magic appears always to be imputed to others and not actually practiced. Witch-doctors are not themselves witches, but they are tasked with identifying and collecting magical vines and tree barks which are prepared into medicines. The fact that people usually recover from illness or misfortune is taken as evidence that the medicine is potent and effective. And if the patient dies despite the witch-doctor’s treatment, then that just shows that some witch’s mangu was even more powerful than the counteracting medicines.
The witch-doctors belong to secret associations, but they are not clergy. It would in fact be difficult and perhaps unwise to try to see the Azande as having anything comparable to what one might call organized religion. The Azande practice ritual in accord with their oral tradition. Being illiterate, they have no religious texts to consult. Yet these practices (witchcraft, oracles, and magic) fulfill a similar role to religion (and science) by providing a rationale for the unexplained. The witch-doctors’ specialized knowledge is maintained by witch-doctor lodges, which were made illegal by the British colonial powers. Now as an underground institution, this form of shamanism has become a counter-discourse against foreign powers and against the Zande princes, who fear secret associations as subversive and who are seen as being in complicity with the colonial regime.
The best part of this book is E-P’s reflections on fieldwork, found as an appendix to Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande. In it, E-P emphasizes the importance of linguistic research as the bedrock to effective fieldwork. For E-P, ethnography ultimately comes down to translation. And what is translated in the end comes down to what the natives are interested in talking about. In the field, you study what you can. And if your informants are into magic and witchcraft, that is what you write about. And if your informants are into cattle herding, then you write a book about that instead.
Like I said, this work is amazing. But I do have a few critical remarks. The reasoning and rationale behind Zande beliefs is presented without any kind of coherent psychological analysis. The reader is left to form his or her own opinion about what it feels like to be an Azande in the heat of mystical battle. Maybe that is a good thing. But E-P offers no character development or narrative about specific individuals (comparable to Turner’s Muchona, Griaule’s Ogotemmeli, or Crapenzano’s Tuhami). The emphasis is all on social machinery and not about subjective experience. Also, there is little trace of how the Azande gain a livelihood. If magic does not touch an aspect of their culture, then we simply do not hear about that aspect of the culture. Finally, the work does not offer much of a political analysis of either the Zande princes or of the colonial British. If Gluckman were writing about the Azande, I would expect to see more about how witchcraft regulates or channels conflict and about how missionaries are rending the Zande cultural fabric apart by prohibiting witchcraft, oracles, and magic for being in some way satanic.
But despite all that, I feel that E-P’s Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande would have to be in the top 50 at the ethnography hall of fame. The observations in the work are perceptive, sympathetic, and clear. And despite the lack of any cogent narrative, the writing feels crisp, and the analyses are seldom dull. Like E-P, I started out in the field of classics, and in this his first ethnography, this work about the Azande, E-P answers many questions about how witchcraft, oracles, and magic might structure belief and experience in any pagan culture, including classical pagan civilization. In conclusion, If the reader wishes to know how an African culture physically functions in a particular ecology, then you should go to The Nuer. But if the reader wants a classic account of how an African culture psychically functions in a web of social bonds and suspicions, then Azande is the way to go. You most likely won’t be disappointed either way.
April 9, 2020
I had to study this book for Anthropology 101 at university. A really great and interesting read regarding the customs and beliefs of the Azande people. However, reading the book in public and wearing dark colored clothes made me look like a wicca.
April 16, 2019
A classic of anthropology for good reason; set the standards for field work for the 20th century. Obviously, some of his comments are racist and outdated, but surprisingly few of them are, which is nice.
March 22, 2017
Um dos melhores livros de antropologia que já li
June 23, 2007
This is wonderful, classic anthropology.
July 1, 2020
Libro studiato per un esame universitario. Ho trovato questo libro di antropologia molto bello ed interessante. Non è pesante da leggere, il linguaggio non è complesso. Consiglio a chiunque di leggere il libro.
July 21, 2013
A classic and truly seminal work.
December 15, 2020
I read this for Anthropology 101 and honestly, I found it so interesting! I wasn't expecting to like this one as much as I did. Great read for school!
Read
April 28, 2023ha i finished
was lowkey interesting lmao
was lowkey interesting lmao
Read
April 19, 2025NF pag.190
October 14, 2018
As an anthropological work, you cannot say he hasn't done a good job. It is very detailed and Pritchard shares everything he knows about the Azande practices. You don't see much of him in the text although a little bit. At the end of the book, he speaks of his experience in the field which is worth a read. As per Pritchard, the Azande in Sudan are a well-mannered people who have explanations that are wider than the usual western explanation of misfortune. However, I found it hard to focus past the first half, maybe because I was eager to finish the book that is prescribed by my curriculum, and maybe because of the style of writing. Pritchard tends to have short sentences in this book and I think as with any anthropological work, one can get lost with all the references to foreign ways of doing things.
February 12, 2011
I'm currently re-reading this with my students in Religion and Anthropology. After the theory I made them read they're sinking their teeth into EP's ethnographic treatment of Zande reasoning about witchcraft and defense against it. When first published, this text confronted colonial era assumptions about the intellectual capacities of colonized people.
April 28, 2023
todos os dias eu agradeço o viveiros de castro por essa tradução
May 4, 2025
È stata un’opera interessante ed esaustiva, chiara anche nei passaggi che avrebbero potuto suscitare più difficoltà in un lettore inesperto. Ho conosciuto grazie al libro di Evans-Pritchard gli Azande e le loro credenze riguardo la magia e la stregoneria. I riti per capire se qualcuno è stato colpito da uno stregone, il fatto stesso che tutti potrebbero essere stregoni – l’oracolo del veleno e le sue problematiche.
Un mondo a me lontano che con un libro è diventato appena più vicino e comprensibile. Immagino sia stato difficile ed insieme bellissimo, fare questo genere di ricerca sul campo – scoprire i dettagli d’un popolo e come vive la sua quotidianità, spesso così diversa dalla nostra. Lo consiglio vivamente, nel caso ci sia un reale interesse nell’ambito dell’antropologia o anche solo una curiosità per questo popolo perlopiù sconosciuto.
Un mondo a me lontano che con un libro è diventato appena più vicino e comprensibile. Immagino sia stato difficile ed insieme bellissimo, fare questo genere di ricerca sul campo – scoprire i dettagli d’un popolo e come vive la sua quotidianità, spesso così diversa dalla nostra. Lo consiglio vivamente, nel caso ci sia un reale interesse nell’ambito dell’antropologia o anche solo una curiosità per questo popolo perlopiù sconosciuto.
June 28, 2023
Especially given the period this work was written in, Evans-Pritchard did an excellent job describing the believes and customs of the Azande people.
Other than many anthropologists, EP is making the effort to give an inside perspective and actually adopt the believes instead of just giving an descriptive, outside account. By inheriting; believing what he is researching/wirting about, he can report on that matter precisley.
Very helpful are also his thoughts and recommendations for ethnologists in general.
Other than many anthropologists, EP is making the effort to give an inside perspective and actually adopt the believes instead of just giving an descriptive, outside account. By inheriting; believing what he is researching/wirting about, he can report on that matter precisley.
Very helpful are also his thoughts and recommendations for ethnologists in general.
February 27, 2019
I read this book for an Anthopology class, and was surprised how much I enjoyed it. It also kinda cracked me up to have a "Witchcraft" book around the house. It was eye-opening for me to see similarities between my own culture and one that seems so "different" and "primitive". It seems like humanity really thrives with beliefs - be they religious or more "superstitious" that help fill the gaps of coincidence, chance, and what we can't explain.
April 30, 2024
This was my required reading for Anthro 101 in Uni, but I actually found myself incredibly interested in the lives and beliefs of the Zande people. If you like history and mythos studies, this is an amazing book to explore the concept of human behaviour and faith in a setting that we don’t usually see or talk about.
April 15, 2021
This was a really good ethnography. I even thought of giving it five stars. But, I didn't really enjoy reading it because I wasn't ready for the book. The book was forced upon me by the college syllabus.
I'll try and write a proper review if I ever come back to this.
I'll try and write a proper review if I ever come back to this.
August 26, 2024
Simplesmente fantástico. Um livro com diversas camadas, como o interessantíssimo conflito entre a crença do antropólogo e o mundo que ele habita quando com os Azande.
Muitos dos aspectos que até hoje foram tratados sobre a magia já se encontram presentes, de alguma forma, na obra de 1937.
Muitos dos aspectos que até hoje foram tratados sobre a magia já se encontram presentes, de alguma forma, na obra de 1937.
September 7, 2025
A solid early example of ethnography that makes some important points towards recognition of the equality of cultures previously dismissed as “primitive,” though it is of course still dated in many ways.
November 2, 2019
An academic reading for cultural anthropology, interesting analysis
Read
November 14, 2020I liked his notion of ritual as a social way of responding to suffering, perhaps and aspect forgotten in today's technical medicine limited to handling the biomedical aspects of misery
Read
June 1, 2021tudo pra mim, que saudade de antropologia 2
December 25, 2021
I read this for my religion in society class
December 16, 2022
Un po’ troppi polli per i miei gusti ma non male.
October 20, 2023
Fuck James Frazer. All my homies hate James Frazer.
November 7, 2023
Ho dovuto leggerlo per un esame universitario, non mi ha attirato troppo
February 12, 2024
Opened my eyes to new ideas and ways of thinking. As a non-westerner, this seems extremely refreshing and somehow familiar
April 25, 2025
It was an interesting book, I learned a lot about the Azande and how they interact with the world.
September 23, 2025
3⭐ An academic reading for my cultural anthropology study. Very interesting to read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews