Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-05-12
FcTlcHISM KILLS THOUSANDS.
Crimes of Witch Doctors In Darkest
Africa.

Crimes of Witch Doctors In Darkest
Africa.
The whites in barbarous Africa say
that in spite Of the evils the white race
has inflicted uron the natives, the good
they are receiving, especially the pro-
lection to life and property which the
new governments are giving them,
vastly outweighs the evil.
All authorities have much to say of
the horrible misery which fetch doc
tors impose upon the natives. They
assert that fetichism is the cause of
more crimes and suffering than all the
native wars, epidemics and cannibal-
ism that aff1ict parts Of the dark con-
tinent. These brutalities can be eXcus-
ed only because the people have al
ways lived in savagery.
Lieut.. Poupard of the French army,
who has been travelling thousands of
miles in the French Congo, says that
the victims of fetichism are falling
every hour all over that vast domain.
Many of the victims drop in their
tracks and are dead in a few minutes.
They know who dealt them their
death and so do all the natives, but
they do not dare to breathe his name.
1t Is the fetch doctor who has caused
poison stealthily to be mixed in their
food.
In January, 1906, while Poupard's
party was passing through a little vii
lage they saw a vigorous young man
surrounded by natives, who were ac-
cusing him of crime. A bowl filled
with a red fluid was given to the
young man, who drained it.
A few minutes later he fell on his
face and was soon dead He was the
victim OF the poison test. If his stom-
ach had refused to retain the liquid
and he had lived his innocence of the
crime would have been proved. The
poison killed him, and this was clear
proof Of his guilt.
Some days later at MbetO the same
party heard a great hubbub and found
a woman on the ground covered with
wounds. Her left shoulder and her
right forearm had been cut to the
bone, there was gaping wound in her
hip and her body was covered with
contusions.
She had received no care, though
her injuries had been inflicted several
days before The white men came in
time to save her life. They dressed her
wounds and cared for her until she
was well.
She told them that her husband had
died and in the course of his inter-
ment the fetch doctor cried out to the
people that their friend had not died
natural death, but his wives had kill
ed him. All the men in the village
Immediately set upon the unfortunate
women and only one of them lived to
describe the crime.
Poupard on another day came
across some women running at top
speed with babies on their backs, pur-
sued by a crowd Of men who were
hurting poisoned javelins at them. The
fetch doctor had accused these wom-
en- of looking upon the bier, sacred
object that had been taken out of it's
box for an airing. Any woman who
even inadvertently should look upon
this object would be put to death.
On the river NUM- lives an old man
with twenty-five wives some Of them
are young and attractive. For two
years past it has been observed that
every young man who has attempted
to settle on the adjoining lands has
mysteriously died. There is no doubt
that the aged husband, in league with
the local fetch doctor, has brought
about their death.
Most of the tribes do not believe that
a man dies naturally. Some enemy is
always the cause Of his death, and the
fetch doctor is brought into the case
and points out the criminal.
Mr.. Bret found at Ndombo in Octo-
ber last three natives weighed down by
stones at the bottom of a box where
they had fingered in agony for days
because the fetch doctor suspected
that they had cast spell upon boat
man who had been drowned in a ship
wreck.
On February 13 last Commandant
Moll in a lecture before the Paris
Geographical society told Of bereaved
widows who had been compelled to
take the poison test to show who were
responsible for their husbands death.
Some of the women survived because
their friends gave presents to the wiz
ard, who thereupon mixed an innocu-
Gus dose for them. The bodies of the
murdered women were eaten.
These are not isolated cases, but far
and wide over Africa superstition Is
still claiming the lives Of thousands.
But the influence of the fetch doctor
is already beginning to decline because
it is now q crime severely punished
under the laws of the Congo Free
state, the French Congo and all Rho
desia to practise the black arts of the
fetch doctor. The bonds in which he
has held the helpless people will some
day be broken.
MINING ROMANCES.