African Magic: Traditional Ideas That Heal A Continent by Heidi Holland

African Magic: Traditional Ideas That Heal A Continent Reviews

• 
  Larissa

  Informative intro to African magic and ideas about witches and sorcery and traditional healing on the continent written by a white Zimbabwean journalist who set out to understand better the traditional African cultures and lay it out in a way that makes it comprehensible to readers who were not raised with these beliefs. Each chapter is a different topic in a different region. I learned about the mass suicide of the Xhosa of South Africa in the 1850s, the Lion children of Tanzania, how witch trials are conducted, about healers in various cultures, and about the use of spirit mediums in the guerilla warfare in Angola. I had not finished the book one day before I came across a real life incident of massive intercultural conflict, American witches protesting a Zimbabwean web page about witches, that only made sense to me because I had just read about witchcraft views in Africa. Just for the insight into that alone I would recommend this book.
• 
  Conrad K.

  A scholarly review of the superstitions and beliefs of the African people. How even the elite grow up in the rural areas under the supervision of their Grandmothers, who instill in them all the primitive rituals and superstitions that govern their society.