Witchcraft and traditional healing, long associated with the Fipa people of Tanzania despite their conversion to Catholicism over one hundred years ago, continue to intrigue other Tanzanians, and outside observers. Several police reports last week from the Rukwa Region of southwestern Tanzania, the traditional territory of the Fipa people, concerned… Continue reading…
Witchcraft and traditional healing, long associated with the Fipa people of Tanzania despite their conversion to Catholicism over one hundred years ago, continue to intrigue other Tanzanians, and outside observers. Several police reports last week from the Rukwa Region of southwestern Tanzania, the traditional territory of the Fipa people, concerned… Continue reading…
About 130 years ago, Roman Catholic priests from Germany moved into southwestern Tanzania and started converting the Fipa to Christianity, a process that began to change their culture, though they still retained their peacefulness when Willis did his field work in the 1960s. When Smythe was doing her field work… Continue reading…
A faith healer who has gained a significant following in East Africa over the past 20 years won an important court victory last week in Sumbawanga, the major city of the Rukwa Region of Tanzania. Roman Catholic evangelization in the Rukwa Region and the surrounding areas of southwestern Tanzania have… Continue reading…
A faith healer who has gained a significant following in East Africa over the past 20 years won an important court victory last week in Sumbawanga, the major city of the Rukwa Region of Tanzania. Roman Catholic evangelization in the Rukwa Region and the surrounding areas of southwestern Tanzania have… Continue reading…
A mob in a village near Sumbawanga, in southwestern Tanzania, attacked and killed a suspected witch last week. Numerous earlier reports of sorcery and traditional healing have surfaced in recent years in Fipa territory, but the murders of suspected witches have not been as common. Maria Jorah, also known as… Continue reading…
A seemingly bizarre news story about a predatory traditional healer emerged from rural Tanzania last week. According to the Sunday Citizen, an attack by the healer sent the manager of a guesthouse where he was staying and four of his other guests to a local hospital. The healer was staying… Continue reading…
A seemingly bizarre news story about a predatory traditional healer emerged from rural Tanzania last week. According to the Sunday Citizen, an attack by the healer sent the manager of a guesthouse where he was staying and four of his other guests to a local hospital. The healer was staying… Continue reading…
Superstition and witchcraft among the Fipa people of Southwest Tanzania have attracted the attention, and condemnation, of the Prime Minister of the nation, Mizengo Pinda. Speaking in the Sumbawanga District, he expressed surprise that, in this day and age, people still accepted superstitious beliefs. Apparently a common superstition is that… Continue reading…
A serious confrontation between farmers and pastoralists in the Rukwa District of Tanzania has left one man seriously wounded from a gunshot wound in his stomach. According to a news report this past weekend in the Daily News of Tanzania, six sons in the family of Kilomela Shigela pastured about… Continue reading…
