In one incident, a bolt of lightning hit the village of Tshitale. Neighbors used garden hoes to beat an elderly woman, Nyamavholisa Maduwa, to death for causing the storm. Religion scholars and anthropologists say as many as 75 percent of sub-Saharan people believe in the power of witchcraft to some degree, although they acknowledge precise numbers are unavailable. He has just completed six years of research in African spirituality, traveling from Nigeria to Zimbabwe. It's seen as a weird bunch of superstitions, rather than as the sordid part of a complex spiritual system that has sustained a continent of people for centuries.
Societies worldwide have faith in invisible, holy beings that affect human life on Earth.
Monotheistic religions such as Christianity, Islam and Judaism have their own ways in which religious powers are made manifest. Below God and above man is a pantheon of lesser gods and a teeming world of ancestral spirits. The latter are family members who have died but who see the physical world, take part in it and can be consulted by spirit mediums or traditional healers. For centuries, these healers have held powers other societies associate with priests, medical doctors, herbalists, faith healers and psychics. The spirit world they consult has its dark side, much as Christianity has the dualism of God and Satan.