Title: Medicine murder in colonial Lesotho : the anatomy of a moral crisis /
Authors: Murray, Colin, 1948-; Sanders, Peter, 1938-
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute,
Year: 2005
Subjects: Homicide; Witchcraft; Homicide history; History, 20th Century; Witchcraft history; Witchcraft Lesotho.; Murder Lesotho Religious aspects.; Violence Africa, Southern.; Blood accusation; Murder Investigation Lesotho History; Trials (Murder) Lesotho History; Traditional medicine Lesotho; Murder Investigation Lesotho Case studies.; Trials (Murder) Lesotho Case studies.; Human sacrifice Lesotho History.; Human sacrifice Lesotho Case studies.; Lesotho; Lesotho Social conditions; Lesotho Politics and government; Lesotho
Abstract: Murray amd Sanders investigate the rising trend in the late 1940s and early 1950s of the practice of 'medicine murder' in the British colony of Lesotho. They analyse the political, cultural and social circumstances which allowed the practice to thrive and the circumstances which saw its demise.
Contents: Introduction -- Part I: Medicine Murder: Historical Background, Political context and Case Studies -- 1. Basutoland: 'a very pickly hedgehog' -- Case Study 1: The case of the cobbler's head: Morija, 1945 -- 2. Medicine murder: belief and incidence -- Case Study 2: 'The chiefs of today have turned against the people's Koma-Koma, 1948 -- 3. Medicine murder: the debates of the late 1940s -- Case Study 3: The 'battle of the medicine horns': Mamathe's, late 1940s -- 4. Narrative and counter-narrative: explaining medicine murder -- Case Study 4: 'A most unsavoury state of affairs': Mokhotlong, 1940s-50s -- 5. Diagnoses and resolutions: from failure to recrimination to silence -- Interlude: Medicine murder and the literary imagination -- Part II: Medicine Murder: An Analysis of Process -- 6. Murderers and their motives -- 7. Plots, murders, mutilations and medicine -- 8. Police investigations -- 9. The judicial process -- Aftermath -- Conclusion -- Addendum: Towards frameworks of comparison -- Appendix: Summary of suspected medicine murder cases, 1895-1966 -- Notes -- Sources -- Index