Printed for the Cabinet. March 1951
CONFIDENTIAL
C.P. (51) 92
27th March, 1951
CABINET
Copy No. 31
BASUTOLAND MEDICINE MURDERS
MEMORANDUM BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR COMMONWEALTH RELATIONS
During the past few years there has been in Basutoland a series of particularly horrible murders, popularly described as "ritual" murders. This description is inaccurate and misleading as these murders form part of no "rite." The epithet “ritual,” moreover, tends to give a semi-respectable colour to the murders. I therefore propose to call them in future "medicine murders" and to do what I can to get this name generally adopted.
2. These murders received much publicity and are indeed a matter of grave concern. The outbreak was clearly a symptom of some deep-seated trouble and with my approval the High Commissioner asked Mr. G. I. Jones, Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, to undertake an enquiry into its nature and causes and to propose remedies.
3. Mr. Jones's report, of which a summary is attached (Appendix A), shows that these murders were a revival in a new form of a Basuto practice of the last century in accordance with which flesh taken from the bodies of enemies killed in battle was made into "medicine" and used to increase the victorious warriors' own strength and courage. The recent murders were committed to obtain medicine" for members of the ruling class of chiefs and headmen who believed it would strengthen their position and powers and further their own political ends. The murders occurred sporadically up to 1938, but thereafter the rate of incidence steadily increased until a peak was reached in 1948 of twenty murders in a single year.
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4.
Mr. Jones has associated this rise in incidence with a steadily growing uncertainty and apprehension among the Basuto ruling class over the effect on their position of recent political developments in Basutoland. The appointment, after a succession of strong paramount chiefs, of a weak female regent in 1940 led to faction and intrigue among the leading chiefs, and created conditions which may have pre-disposed ambitious chiefs towards the use of such "medicines." It is, however, from the class of lesser chiefs and headmen that most of those accused of these murders have come. Abuses which crept into the indigenous political system led over a period to a deterioration in the status and economic position of the lesser chiefs and headmen. The introduction in 1946 by the Basutoland Administration of reforms, designed to liberalise the system of native self-govern- ment, had the effect of further worsening the position of the lesser chiefs and headmen. These reforms were, moreover, widely misunderstood and distrusted and therefore increased the feeling of insecurity already felt.
5. Vigorous prosecutions which led to the conviction, among others, of two principal chiefs appear to have checked the outbreak, since only one murder, known to be a "medicine" murder, was committed in 1950. Suppressive measures will, however, not in themselves be sufficient, and the political causes of the outbreak will have to be removed, particularly that uncertainty and apprehension among the Basuto ruling class to which I have referred.
6. Mr. Jones has proposed the following remedies. The leading chiefs should be persuaded that the reforms were essential and provided a proper outlet for their
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