Witchcraft is not a practice limited to one geographical area or ethnic group. It is a belief that developed in almost all societies in the world over the course of history independent of each other. The burning of witches happened during the Spanish Inquisition in Europe, for a long time. This had inspired great works of theatre and literature emanating from this period.

Frafra culture, like any society, developed its belief system regarding witchcraft long ago. Some of which differ from other belief systems, but the denominator is the same; the belief that witches and witchcrafts have special powers.

Frafras believe witches and wizards can “see”. This is not the typical seeing that we know, but a seeing that goes deeper and farther than just physical objects. Some claim that witches walk with their heads down and their legs up. Unless you can “see” you won’t be able to see the legs up and the head on the ground. There used to be a joke that if you kick sand into the legs of a person who can “see”, it is like throwing sand into their face and eyes. If they start to rub their eyes repeatedly and react in a hostile manner, then you have found your witch/wizard.

Witchcraft is believed to be passed on from mother to child so that if you accuse a child of being a wizard or witch, you’re not just accusing the child alone, but the siblings and mother as well. Indeed, it doesn’t end there. The mother’s siblings and her mother stand accused as well as every maternally related on the mother’s side.

As a result, unless one was sure, you simply don’t accuse anyone of being a witch or wizard. This where the vulnerable in the community are exploited. If an old woman has no family to protect her, she can easily be accused.

There is a caveat here too; even though witchcraft is believed to be passed on from mother to children, Frafras also believe that it can be acquired. This “bought” witchcraft is not as strong as the one passed on from mother to child. In this case, the related family members may disown the witchcraft if they confess.

Frafras believe that witches can turn into snakes, birds, bats, cats, and just about anything the witch or wizard wants to. Some claim they have gods they make regular sacrifices to. In the night when they go to sleep, they are not sleeping, but leaves their bodies and fly out of the house to their meeting place for a mission. To guard them in the movement, they shine a glowing light, hovering over trees where they congregate to hold consultations. If you’re walking in the middle of the night and see this glowing light from a tree or any other place, someone will visit you the next day to inquire where you were the night before. Unless you have an alibi, you must escape the village and never come back until the person is dead.

Others believe that they haunt you in your dreams, ride on you like a donkey while you sleep. They say that if you wake up in the morning with a crampy back and very tired bones, then a witch must have ridden on you while you slept.

While these claims sound fantastically unbelievable given what we know of science, it does sound familiar with the astral travel of the Monks of Tibet. The Monks of Tibet claim that they can leave their bodies and travel to the mountains to consult. One of them who called himself Lobsang Rampa wrote that he left his body in Tibet and travelled to the UK, took over the body of a man who was dying, and has been living in the man’s body since. It generated a lot of controversy with many people calling him a fraud. Today, astral travel has inspired many international works of literature and movies.

Frafras believe that there are good witches and bad witches. The good witches always try to save people while the wicked ones are on a killing spree or when they must settle a debt. It is believed that the witches have a certain code, whereby it rotates from one to the other. If it comes to your turn, you will have to sacrifice someone, maybe your child or someone else. However, since someone’s child might cause trouble, they may decide to choose their child or a part of their body. But what debt are they exactly paying and for what favour?

The mode of taking can be varied but it is always assumed to be happening in the spiritual realm which can affect the person in the physical realm, or cause them to become bad people and not live up to their expectations. The person can be afflicted by diseases that doctors have difficulty healing. They can turn you from hero to zero. It is, however, not clear if they can turn one from zero to hero.

It is believed that witches can travel far in their surreal state. They cannot use their powers to obtain material benefits for themselves. They are always impoverished, sometimes their children will flee away from them to a different place. It is said that witches and wizards live longer than any normal person. It often happens that everyone else of their age mates is gone and yet they are alive. This is probably the root cause of disaffection in society. If the supposed witch has no one to protect them, any natural sickness of a relative can easily be attributed to her.

Frafras also have witch-catchers, usually a good witch or wizard who stand against the actions of the bad witches. It takes a witch to recognise a witch and it is often the witch-catchers who reveal the identity of the witches although soothsayers can also “see” the actions of the witches.

 In today’s society, doctors can diagnose diseases and determine the cause of death which annuls any accusations of witchcraft. The courts do not admit as evidence of illegality any accusations involving spiritual matters.

While the existence of witchcraft is hardly contested in the Frafra area, the question that arises is what exactly do the witches do? If they exist, it can’t be that their only existence is to kill people or harm others with their powers. Maybe the stories we hear about witchcraft just scratch the surface and that there might be so much we don’t know about. Maybe they do some good works on our behalf while we snore away in the night, by way of saying, who knows?

If witches exist, maybe it is time to approach them from a different perspective. These days, books and movies about witchcraft are very popular – Harry Porter comes to mind. There are even online classes where people pay heavily to learn witchcraft and spell-making. I’m not kidding. Yes, you can google it. Some of these online coaches claim to be witches and wizards, don’t fall for the scam, but I do believe there might be genuine ones and they are making a lot of money from the thousands of students enrolling. Why can’t our witches and wizards do the same? Why is it such a dreaded topic? Can we ever see witchcraft differently? Other societies have been there and out of it. These societies now use it as a form of entertainment.  I believe that whatever knowledge they possess can be harnessed into potential beneficial efforts and yield them reward rather than keeping it within themselves. Do you not agree with me?

Written by: S.A.A. for My Bolga Online