Supernatural Counterinsurgency in the Congo This unusual document, "Witchcraft, Sorcery, Magic, and Other Psychological Phenomena, and Their Implications on Military and Paramilitary Operations in the Congo," was prepared for the US !rmy in #$% The report is a treatise on paranormal com&at, discussing "counter'magic" tactics to suppress re&els who are &ac(ed &y witch' doctors, charms, and magic potions SP)CI!* OP)+!TIOS +)S)!+C- O..IC) The !merican Uni/ersity COUT)+ISU+0)C1 I.O+M!TIO !!*1SIS C)T)+ 233 Wisconsin !/enue, W Washington, 4C 533$ SO+O6CI.!C6$'$% 7 !ugust #$% WITC-C+!.T, SO+C)+1, M!0IC !4 OT-)+ PS1C-O*O0IC!* P-)OM)! !4 T-)I+ IMP*IC!TIOS O MI*IT!+1 !4 P!+!MI*IT!+1 OP)+!TIOS I T-) CO0O 8ames + Price Paul 8ureidini 9end of co/er page: ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
WITC-C+!.T, SO+C)+1, M!0IC !4 OT-)+ PS1C-O*O0IC!* P-)OM)! !4 T-)I+ IMP*IC!TIOS O MI*IT!+1 !4 P!+!MI*IT!+1 OP)+!TIOS I T-) CO0O This report has &een prepared in response to a Magical practices are said to &e effecti/e in conditioning dissident elements and their followers to do &attle with 0o/ernment troops +e&el tri&esmen are said to ha/e &een persuaded that they can &e made magically imper/ious to Congolese army firepower Their fear of the go/ernment has thus &een diminished and, con/ersely, fear of the re&els has grown within army ran(s The pro&lem, therefore, which CI.!C was as(ed to e?plore is the role of supernatural or superstitious concepts in a counterinsurgency in the Congo !ny reply to this
the &asis of pu&lished studies It is also necessary to gain some insight as to the roles played my magic in other !frican re/olutionary uphea/als !nd finally, it is suggested that today@s insurgency situation should not &e studied in a /acuum, &ut should shou ld &e considered as part of a continuum stemming from the pre'independence Aelgian administration, the impact of Western culture upon !frican tri&al systems, the circumstances of the &irth of the Congo +epu&lic, and the nature of the struggle for power within the Congo since #$3 ! re/iew of the a/aila&le literature indicates that in !frica, uprisings em&odying supernatural practices ha/e tended to occur generally whene/er the continued physical safety or internal power structure of a tri&e or tri&es has &een seriously threatened Manifestations of witchcraft and sorcery in these instances can &e said to reflect, in part, a return to traditionalism ! tri&e unites more readily when a threat is e?plaina&le and solutions are propounded in terms of tri&al common denominators of &elief In order to determine the degree to which such a generaliBation is applica&le to the current situation in the Congo, a &rief recapitulation of certain aspects of recent Congolese history will ser/e as a useful point of departure '5' Origins of Congolese Political Insta&ility The tri&al uprisings which ha/e erupted in the +epu&lic of the Congo =*eopold/ille> since its independence in #$3 can &e traced to situations which appeared to threaten the /arious tri&es &oth in terms of their physical well'&eing and their p osition within the structure of Congolese national society With independence, these tri&es found themsel/es lac(ing the &asic ser/ices which the colonial administration had pro/ided '' alimentation, hygiene, medical care, schools, and physical security '' while at the same time the future of the tri&e and its organiBation was &eing de&ated &y the new go/ernment at *eopold/ille Ay and large, howe/er, it was the disruption in go/ernment machinery which forced the younger mem&ers of the tri&es to see( the ur&an centers cen ters in an effort to impro/e their situation, and pushed the older o lder mem&ers &ac( towards traditionalism and its &eliefs in magic and witchcraft The actual disintegration of the Congo was caused &y two main factors the a&sence of associational groups which could replace the departing colonial administrationD and the power struggle that too( place &etween those Congolese political parties fa/oring centralism and those fa/oring federalism this conflict pre/ented any attempts &y Congolese go/ernments to restore some sem&lance of administrati/e order The apparent docility of the Congolese people had led the Aelgian colonial administration to &elie/e its regime would endure, and that it could ta(e its time in preparing the country for an e/entual peaceful transfer of power It was not until the &loody riots of 8anuary 2, #2#, that the Aelgian go/ernment realiBed that it would ha/e to gi/e freedom to the Congo much sooner than it had en/isaged In the ensuing agreements &etween Congolese representati/es and the Aelgian 0o/ernment, pro/isions were made for the utiliBation of
Aelgian colonial ci/il ser/ants in their former capacities until Congolese replacements could &e trained Such agreements were ne/er implemented On 8uly 7, #$3, eight days after independence, the Congolese Congo lese ational !rmy in the capital city of *eopold/ille mutinied against its Aelgian officers, and in less than three da ys the mutiny had spread to the rest of the Congo where the position of all Aelgian ci/ilians &ecame serious Easai pro/ince was to follow suit in !ugust On 8uly 5, Premier Patrice *umum&a *umum&a called on the United ations to eFect the Aelgian troops and help restore 'G' order In the wee(s following the arri/al of U forces, *umum&a@s followers made repeated attempts to reimpose central go/ernment control on Eatanga and Easai These attempts, and the high num&er of casualties resulting from them, precipitated a power struggle &etween the centralist &loc of *umum&a and the federalist &loc of President 8oseph Easa/u&u which paralyBed all go/ernment acti/ity !lthough *umum&a was e/entually remo/ed from office &y the !rmy Chief of Staff, and a more or less .ederal set'up with a strong e?ecuti/e was esta&lished, the go/ernment remained /irtually paralyBed &y its effort to regain Eatanga pro/ince !narchy thus set in, pro/iding *umum&a@s followers with opportunities to set up their own political organiBations These were cast along tri&al lines, and the trappings of tri&alism, including manifestations of &eliefs in magic and witchcraft, &egan again to impinge upon politics at the natural le/el )lements of )ast'West confrontation entered the picture when the situation in the Congo was internationaliBed Ay calling in the United ations, *umum&a had hoped that it would help him in his efforts to restore central go/ernment control o/er Easai and Eatanga pro/inces while also helping him train ci/il ser/ice cadres to replace the Aelgians who had departed after the 8uly riots In the U, *umum&a had recei/ed his initial support from the !fro'!sian and Communist Alocs Aut when the United ations refused to accede to all of his demands, he turned against it and accepted the proffered assistance of the Communist Aloc countries, along with that of 0han a, 0uinea, and the United !ra& +epu&lic Communist machinations, and su&se
'%' that this process would &e less disrupti/e and would condition local societies to accept foreign rule more readily With particular reference to the tri&es, indirect rule resulted in the incorporation of the tri&al chiefs into the ad ministrati/e system With minor e?ceptions, the Aelgian administration came to control the tri&e through it chief, lea/ing the internal organiBation of the tri&e intact In a sense, a chief &ecame the principal agent &etween his tri&e and the colonial authorities Thus the Aelgians accepted the traditional &oundaries of the chiefdoms, reemphasiBed the hereditary character of tri&al chieftancy, and made the chiefs responsi&le for population registration, pu&lic health, ta? collection, security, and la&or matters within the respecti/e chiefdoms It was mainly in the field of Furisprudence, an d especially puniti/e actions, that the traditional powers of the chiefs were curtailed Too, the a&ility of tri&al mem&ers to appeal directly to colonial authorities on legal points, and the fact that )uropeans could disregard tri&al immigration &arriers esta&lished &y the chiefs and recruit la&or at will, tended to reduce the o/erall effecti/eness of the chiefs )?panding economic opportunities, missionary acti/ity, and the suppression of intertri&al warfare contri&uted in the long'run to the gradual erosion of the role or tri&al communities in the social structure of the Congo as a whole With the esta&lishment of maFor ur&an centers, and the close contact &etween )uropeans and Congolese which they afforded, a new class of Congolese &egan to emerge The longer they remained in the cities, the wea(er &ecame their tri&al attachments, until in the post World War II era many were to har&or strongly anti'tri&al sentiments The new class was ( nown as e/olues =literally e/ol/ed>, and most e/olue leaders came to regard the continued e?istence of a tri&al society as typifying &ac(wardness and colonialism With independence, most of the e/olues, of which Patrice *umum&a was one, &ecame identified with the centralist political &loc, while others, such as Moise Tshom&e and 8oseph Easa/u&u, tri&al chieftans in their own right, formed the federalist &loc of political parties The centralists /iewed any federal set'up as an attempt attempt to preser/e colonial influences and practices, while the federalists /iewed centralism as the attempted elimination of the political opposition and the esta&lishment of a dictatorship similar to that of 0hana and 0uinea The power struggle &etween these two &locs pre/ented the drafting of a constitution clearly defining the role and position of the tri&es, and it was not until recently that '2' this was resol/ed in the form of a federalist system with a strong e?ec uti/e This represented a compromise &etween centralist and federalist points of /iew It recogniBed tri&al structures, &ut underlines the authority of the central go/ernment Unfortunately, the persistence of political chaos and insurgency has hindered the restoration of effecti/e go/ernmental machinery, and until this machinery is restored no o&Fecti/e e/aluation of the compromise system will &e possi&le
Supernatural !spects of the Present Insurgency Situation We &egan this discussion with an o&ser/ation that threats to the concept or form of tri&al structures in !frica tend to generate uprisings characteriBed &y emphasis upon traditionalist elements in !frican life The current uprisings in the Congo, and for that matter elsewhere in &lac( !frica, gain impetus from the insurgent practice of employing magical procedures to con/ince tri&al insurgents that no harm can &e done to them &y forces of the central go/ernment These tactics are effecti/e, &ecause in the Congo and elsewhere in &lac( !frica &eliefs in witchcraft, sorcery, magic, and other supernatural phenomenon are deeply rooted among the people !lthough the manifestations of these &eliefs /ary widely according to tri&al and cultural circumstances, magico'religious causes are usually cited to e?plain misfortunes of any (ind, e/en those of clearly natural origin If crops are &lighted, if a hut ca/es in and (ills its occupants, if the chief &ecomes unfriendly, or if sudden illness or death occur, &ewitching is usually gi/en as the primary cause The people may understand that in fact the house fell &ecause termites ate away the foundations, &ut that it fell at the time it did was a result of witchcraft or sorcery Witchcraft is also sighted as a factor in personal disputes, especially where the relationship is inherently su&Fect to tensions '' as for e?ample, in the relationship &etween hus&and and wife, or &etween co' wi/es In these cases, not only physical ph ysical or direct remedies, &ut occult remedies as well are considered necessary to counteract the e/il influence ! distinction is drawn &y )/ans'Pritchard in his Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic !mong the !Bande =O?ford Uni/ersity Press, #GH> which is helpful for purposes of study is that &etween witchcraft and sorcery !lthough these two concepts often o/erlap, especially in application =the same person may &e thought to practice sorcery as well as witchcraft>>, they do represent two distinct theories of supernatural &eha/ior which are shared &y practically all !frican tri&al societies societies ! sorcerer is one who is thought to practice e/il magic against others '$' The techni
o&ser/ance, /er&al formulae, etc '' are idiosyncratic to particular tri&es, and e/en differing schools of thought within the same tri&e or su&'tri&e Witchcraft, on the other hand, is said to &e an in&orn trait which ena&les its possessor to harm other people merely &y wishing to do so "Medicines" play no part in true &ewitching operations Some tri&es &elie/e that witchcraft power is acti/ated acti/ated &y feelings of hostility or en/y e/en without conscious decision on the part of the witch '' or e/en without the witch@s (nowing that he contains witchcraft power within him In the Congo, &elief that the witchcraft power was em&odied as a physical su&stance in the &elly was so widespread that the Aelgian authorities had to &an the practice of tri&al elders@ performing autopsies upon the &odies of suspected witches In #5% the colonial administration also &anned use of the poison ordeal '' the other uni/ersally accepted method of screening suspected witches =+itually'prepared poison was administered to suspects in the &elief that the innocent would sur/i/e and the guilty perish> !lthough !frica@s infrastructure of supernatural &eliefs and practices has &een su&Fected to concentrated assault &y )uropeans '' primarily missionaries '' for as many as fi/e hundred years in some areas, few lasting inroads h a/e &een made against ingrained traditions In the Congo, practically all education since 7H7 has &een in the hands of /arious Catholic and Protestant missionary groups Missionary acti/ities ha/e succeeded in esta&lishing rather su&stantial church organiBations and church mem&ership, &u t closer e?amination re/eals that to the e?tent that Christian and other )uropean influences ha/e ta(en root in the Congo, they ha/e also often &een modified so as to merge with, not supersede, the traditional foundations of the country and its people )uropeaniBed Congolese 'H' may carry amulets and charms, consult oracles a&out the ad/isa&ility of &usiness transactions, and o&ser/e other rituals learned in childhood Others hold &oth traditional and Christian funeral ceremonies Institutionally, many syncretic sects '' often pseudo' Christian '' stand &etween Christianity and tradition, started &y prophets who &elie/ed they were di/inely inspired Most &egan as messianic cults &ut de/eloped nationalistic and anti')uropean characteristics along the way !mong the people, there is little e/idence that traditional &eliefs in witchcraft, sorcery, and magic ha/e &een diminished &y Western influences The e/idence is rather that the practice of secret magical rites is on the increase -istory indicates indicates that &eliefs in witches and magic die hard in all societies !nd &ecause of !frica@s particular cultural setting, it is unli(ely that these &eliefs will disappear other than as a result of generations of careful and gradual education in the Western mold Western education is not, howe/er, and immediate solution In !frica &eliefs in magic and witchcraft are used to e?plain ultimate causations '' the e?istence and origin of fortune and misfortune Western secular education does not pro/ide une
Western institutions ha/e, as a matter of fact, ser/ed in some ways to increase tensions and an?ieties in !frican societies, especially as these relate to superstitious &eliefs and practices the control of witches and sorcerers is of paramount importance importance to people who &elie/e in magic 1et the imposition of political systems systems of a Western type upon !frican tri&es has resulted in the elimination of the most efficacious witch'control measure '' the poison ordeal In addition, the e?ecution of con/icted witches and sorcerers is no longer allowed !s a result, many !fricans feel that western political systems such as the modern state ha/e aligned themsel/es on the side of e/il &ecause from their standpoint the "ci/iliBed" elimination of traditional control measures wor( to protect witches and sorcerers from retaliation &y their innocent /ictims The !frican man'in'the'&ush is, therefore, much more at the mercy of those who wish to harm him &y supernatural means than e/er &efore -e thus tends to rely more and more upon the witch'doctor who, in the a&sence of the poison ordeal and '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' The term witch'doctor is used in the popular sense for the con/enience of the reader ! more percise 9sic: &ut less familiar term would &e maFico'religious practitioner, since the practices attri&uted to witch'doctors neither necessarily necessarily include, nor are confined to witchcraft per se, &ut may include sorcery and other forms of magic as well '7' other drastic sanctions, pro/ides the main source of protection from e/il Counterinsurgency !nalysis In the conte?t of the current insurgency situations in Ei/u and Eatanga, where insurgents rely upon "medicines" and ritualistic o&ser/ances to protect them from firepower, the suggestion to de/ise and employ magical practices in counterinsurgency operations is o&/ious and tempting Aefore adopting this course of action, howe/er, the US counterinsurgency planner should gi/e serious consideration to se/eral pertinent factors ! In the e/ent that the US role, if any, in the Congo will &e of an ad/isory character, the ad/isors must rely upon the e?tent of their influence upon Congolese counterparts cou nterparts US policy recommendations must, therefore, &e accepta&le to Congolese leaders The Congolese leadership class is dri/en almost e?clusi/ely from a small elite group who, ha/ing o&tained Western education under the Aelgians, ha/e &ecome ")uropeaniBed" =a concept /irtually e to the e?tent that they are (nown as e/olues Easa/u&u, *umum&a, EalonFi, !doula, Mo&utu, and Tshom&e are all e/olues and as such are fiercely proud of their "ci/iliBed" status and image These e/olues can &e e?pected to resist any association with policies which might reflect endorsement of "unci/iliBed" &eha/ior, e/en though they themsel/es might &e to some e?tent dependent upon secret charms or other superstitious &eliefs or practices A !lthough &eliefs in witchcraft, sorcery, and magic are endemic throughout su&' Saharan !frica, these &eliefs /ary considera&ly in detail according to tri&e or su&'tri&e
*iterally, one man@s charm may &e another man@s poison, depending upon particular tri&al &eliefs It follows that the counterinsurgency counterinsurgency planner, should he desire to e?ploit the psychological potential of superstition, must &e a&le to compile and analyBe a large
cluttered path toward Congolese nationhood Should the central go/ernment successfully use occult methods to defeat a mo/ement &ased upon such methods, the /ery concepts of sorcery and magic which lend impetus to the insurgencies of the moment may gain g ain strength and ac Current pro&lems in the Congo as well as the *umpa uprising in orthern +hodesia today e?emplify the same superstitious manifestations !ny study of historical e?amples of uprisings supported &y superstitious practices, howe/er, will re/eal that /igorous military counter'measures of a con/entional nature ha/e produced optimum results in suppressing the insurgency If there are su&stantial political or economic moti/es &ehind the uprisings, these naturally must &e ta(en into account The reference here is to military tactics and their effects against magic 4espite the ingrained
charlatans, since they are aware that they really ha/e no magic power Aut an indi/idual witch'doctor is also li(ely to &elie/e that he alone is a charlatan and that his colleagues do indeed ha/e magical a&ilities In the Congo, as elsewhere in &lac( !frica, there is e/ery reason to &elie/e that disciplined troops, proficient in mar(smanship, and led &y competent officers, can handily dispel most notions of magical in/ulnera&ility It is , Special Operations +esearch Office, The !merican Uni/ersity, Washington, 4C #$5 !nderson, )fraim, Messianic Popular Mo/ements in the *ower Congo Sweden !lm Ter/uren Musee +oyal de l@!fri
.ortes, M J )) )/ans'Pritchard =edit>, !frican Political Systems, *ondon O?ford Uni/ersity Press, #27 *ea(ey, *S 4efeating Mau Mau, *ondon Methuen and Company, #2% Eenyatta, 8omo, .acing Mt Eenya, ew 1or( Kintage Aoo(s, #$5 Eir(wood, Eenneth =edit>, !frican !ffairs um&er Two, Car&ondale Southern Illinois Uni/ersity Press, #$ Middleton, 8ohn J )- Winter =edit>, Witchcraft and Sorcery in )ast !frica, ew 1or( Praeger, Inc, #$G Murdoc(, 0eorge P, !frica Its Peoples and their Culture -istory, ew 1or( Mc0raw' -ill, #2# Seligman, C0, +aces of !frica, *ondon The O?ford Uni/ersity Press, #2H Wilson, Monica, Communal +ituals of the yaEyusa, *ondon The O?ford Uni/ersity Press, #2# Congo Psywar -and&oo(, !n unpu&lished monograph prepared &y the School of !d/anced International Studies, 8ohns -op(ins Uni/ersity, #$, un der the super/ision of Professor Paul M! *ine&arger 9end of document:
