Curse

In Africa, a curse is any attempt to use an invocation to cause harm to someone. An utterance whose cause is to do damage to the intended victim is a curse. It may be uttered by an individual with a particular religious or moral status. In such a situation, it is often considered necessary for the victim to invoke an ancestor, spirit, or deity to respond. Ordinary people have been known in some cases to curse their enemies, but for the curse to be accepted as significant and real, the maker of the curse must have credibility, that is, must be seen as capable of offering the curse.

In African thought, it does not take an expert to determine whether a person has been cursed, although it will take an expert to help a person overcome the curse. When physical or mental harm occurs in a person's life to a degree more than in the life of a neighbor, it is often said that the person is cursed. This means that the cursed person, in an African sense, has done something that brings about the curse. In the case of an entire village that does not seem to be able to succeed well, it may be that someone from the village has violated an oath or taboo and is responsible for the curse on the village. Of course, it may also be that a curser is jealous or envious of someone and therefore decides to curse the person or a whole village.

From the earliest times in ancient Africa, curses were used to frighten enemies and explain certain conditions of harm that came to people.

Those who believed they had been cursed, particularly if they looked around and saw that others were prospering and they were not, could easily be persuaded that they had been cursed. Although we have no evidence that a person could bring occult powers to bear on a situation, and therefore bring about a curse, we do know that those who believe they have been cursed have essentially been cursed. Acceptance of the curse on the part of the accursed is more than half the job of the curser.

When a group believes in curses, it makes it easier for ordinary people to accept that bad things can happen to good people who are simply the victims of curses. Thus, if a woman cannot have a child, a man is impotent, a child is killed by an animal, or someone is betrayed by a close friend, it seems likely that such people are candidates for the idea that they have been cursed. Among Africans, the idea of the cursed family is an active part of the process of determining who is legitimate and who is illegitimate so far as power is concerned. Keeping the avenues of power open and clear is a function of the spiritual leaders who are able to discern certain methods of control and power.

When one is cursed or when one believes that he or she is cursed, it is necessary to have the curse removed. This is the realm of the clairvoyants and the African psychic or mental doctor who is able to remove the curse if certain sacrifices are made. Once the accursed person has paid a fee or done the sacrifice, the curse could be removed and he or she lives a normal life afterward.

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