A curse originates from a harmful intention or wish, which can diminish another person’s vital force and dismantle the unity of the elements that comprise them. If the person wishing evil is part of the life force circle, this dismantling is seen as taking place from within.
This is achieved in two stages. First, the intention to harm someone requires one to withdraw spiritually from that person. This withdrawal prevents the vital energy of the person harming someone from increasing the vital energy of the intended victim.
Secondly, according to magical thinking, if the image of a person is taken in by the intellect thanks to the process of knowledge, and if the knower intends to do them harm, they will be affected unless they have the power to protect themselves.
Africans believe in the power of words. This power works to varying degrees according to the age, sex, personality and social position of the person. People are responsible for how they use words, as they can be beneficial or harmful depending on the speaker’s intention and the circumstances in which they are spoken. Words have the power to transform and transmute life forces.
Some African social systems are based on the power of elders to bless or curse. In gerontocracies in particular, curses are a form of social control. It is believed that the curse of the elders cuts the person off from the circle of vital energies, interrupting the flow and exposing them to all possible dangers.
This is how elders, despite having no physical power, can control young men and women and ensure they observe social norms. The young would rather accept punishments or fines than be cursed by the elders.
A person who has been cursed in Africa no longer understands themselves because, separated from the community of the living and the dead, they cannot find the words to describe themselves. It is believed that, in order for a curse to take effect, the person being cursed must be guilty, although sometimes the guilt of one person can affect an entire clan or family.
Dua za kuku hazimpati mwewe (The curses (or prayers) of hens do not affect kites). This Swahili proverb refers to curses that are invalid because they are intended for someone who is innocent. Offences such as murder, incest, disrespecting elders, neglecting ancestors, oppressing helpless people, violating strong taboos involving spiritual entities, blood pacts or in-laws can incur curses. It is believed that curses from mothers to their own children are fatal, and in patrilineal societies, curses from paternal aunts are feared greatly.
In Buganda, Uganda, the worst curse one can receive from one’s parents is called kuzaalukuka. Kuzaalukuka is the reflexive form of the verb kuzaala, meaning ‘to give birth’, ‘to beget’ or ‘to procreate’; it cancels one’s past rights from the moment of conception. The person becomes the son or daughter of no one. Whatever one inherited from one’s parents or forefathers, from physical features to character, voice, way of walking, etc., is reduced to mere appearance.
These hereditary traits are usually signs of authenticity and are embraced with pride. Now, however, they have lost all significance, reducing the person to a mere statue! They become mere imitations, like the voice of a parrot or the movements of a monkey.
The person is no longer worthy of the name they carry. Ceasing to be a child of one’s parents leads to exclusion from the clan (kuboola), which officially cuts the person off from their ancestors and their life-giving influence.
Even worse, it is believed to prevent the person from being accepted among the ancestors after death. Instead, they will become a wandering ghost, incapable of reincarnation and condemned to endless wandering. They will also be denied a positive role in human society, instead becoming a negative presence.
This is an eternal punishment. However, it should be noted that the parent who does this to their offspring will remain poor and mutilated. Undoing the good that was done reduces their fatherhood or motherhood — the greatest of all African qualities and the greatest thing one can ever be. It is the only true richness.
It involves the destruction of both sonship and parenthood, which is why it is so rare. A curse can rightly be called a necessary evil. In fact, what we have described above is the official declaration of the consequences of grave sin for the perpetrator in African societies. It destroys the person. Committing a grave offence destroys the person, and the sanction merely confirms this; the declaration is a verbal intensification of its effects, given the belief in the power of the word. (Edward Kanyike)
