The Nature of the Murders
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The murders which are the subject of the Report have been referred to as ritual murders. This is incorrect, as they have no connection with any religious or magical ritual but are committed for the sole purpose of obtaining from the victim particular portions of his flesh. These portions are now called diretlo and are believed to possess special properties which can be transformed into protective medicines (lenaka), which are used to advance the interests of those for whom they are made. These murders can therefore best be styled medicine murders.
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The outbreak of these murders is probably due to revival of a belief in a type of medicine used in the early and middle nineteenth century, but whereas the human flesh (ditlo) used for this came from the bodies of enemies killed in warfare, the modern diretlo is taken from members of the murderer's own community who are belived to possess specific qualities required for a particular medicine.
Details of 93 of such murders or suspected murders have been obtained dating from 1895. Twenty-three of these happened before and 70 after 1938. Of these 70, 30 remain undetected or still under investigation and 2 are awaiting trial. Convictions have been obtained in only 19 of the remaining 38. A summary of a typical murder case is given in the Annexure to this summary.
The murders follow a regular pattern. They are always premeditated and they are committed by a group of people for the specific purpose of obtaining diretlo, which has to be taken from the body of the victim while still alive. If the operation itself does not cause the victim's death he is killed and his body is then hidden for a short period, after which it is exposed in a manner suggesting an accident.
The victims have been persons of either sex, of any age and drawn from every clan or group in Basutoland except from the ruling class of chiefs and headmen. The murderers are predominantly members of this latter class and their followers.
Causes
The medicines for which the murders are committed are prepared by native doctors known as ngaka, a term which includes diviners and other specialists in native medicines whose functions are not merely to discover witches but to cure all forms of physical and mental disease. It is probably because people are losing faith in those medicines which are intended to relieve anxiety that some ngaka and their clients are turning to stronger varieties, in particular those protective medicines containing diretlo.
A variety of theories have been put forward to explain the prevalence of these murders. For example, certain Christian Missions claim that Basuto initiation schools are responsible for encouraging diretlo murder on the grounds that they make use of human flesh in their initiation ceremonies. The opponents of the Roman Catholics have suggested that there must have been some connection between the Roman Catholic doctrine and these beliefs in diretlo as the Christian chiefs involved in diretlo murders have all been Roman Catholics. It has been suggested that Basuto soldiers were responsible for introducing or reviving these diretlo murders. There is also a widespread belief that human flesh is used in making native beer in Johannesburg. Some have asserted that crimes involving mutilation are inspired by white examples in the Union of South Africa. There is, however, no real evidence to support any of these theories and it seems clear that the probable causes have been, first, friction arising from a disputed succession and the disturbance of the balance of power which has followed the appointment of a woman Regent and second and most important a deterioration in the position of the lesser chiefs and headmen.
Basutoland was until 1940 ruled by a line of strong Paramount Chiefs and the succession had never been disputed. On the death of Chief Griffith, however, in departure from Basuto custom a younger son Seeiso was chosen in preference to Bereng, Griffith's eldest and favourite son who, he had intended, should succeed. On Seeiso's death shortly afterwards his senior widow was chosen as Regent, until Seeiso's son comes of age.
This was an even greater departure from custom, for the Basuto had no tradition of female regents. It led to friction between the Regent and Bereng. The Regent moreover is not strong either in health or character and the absence of a strong Paramount Chief led to intrigue and friction among the leading chiefs. These unsettled conditions have afforded temptations to powerful chiefs to resort to protective agedicines fursuit of their ends.
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Page 136 Bereng himself was executed and the murders for which he was convicted and others which occurred in the Regent's own ward are regarded by many as having been part of a struggle in which both sides resorted to protective medicine and set a fashion for the lesser chiefs.
The lesser chiefs and headmen have been adversely affected by the abuse of the Basuto system of "placing," under which ward and sectional chiefs can place as subordinate authorities in their territory any number of their sons and paternal relatives at the expense of lesser chiefs and headmen already there. The system caused little hardship when Basutoland was sparsely populated and spare land was available, but as the population increased (from approximately 125,000 in 1875 to 560,000 in 1936), it bore heavily on lesser chiefs and headmen who had to give up lands and privileges to support the relatives placed over them.
In 1938 the Basutoland Government sought to check the abuse and to control the development of the system by recognising officially the existing subordinate authorities but in the identification and selection of these authorities it was com- pelled to depend largely on the ward chiefs. This led to the mistaken omission of some and the wrong inclusion of others, thus adding to the insecurity of the lesser chiefs and headmen.
Between 1943 and 1946 the Government introduced various reforms designed to make the Basuto political system more democratic and to bring it into line with systems of local African self-government in British colonial territories else- where. The effect of these reforms has been to make the Paramount Chieftainship less autocratic and personal and to subject the Regent to more control by the greater chiefs, exercised through the National Council and personal advisers. They have given the greater chiefs more authority, but they also had the effect of still further worsening the status and economic position of the lesser chiefs and of making them more than ever dependent on the greater chiefs.
Moreover, while the greater chiefs were consulted and took an active part in framing the reforms, the majority of the lesser chiefs and headmen and their people were not, and this has led to much misunderstanding and resentful distrust of the Government and the Native Administration. It is in these circumstances that many of the lesser chiefs and headmen, and their followers, in whose ranks most of those accused of medicine murder have been found, seem to have turned more and more to protective medicine to strengthen or retrieve their position.
There is a tendency amongst all classes in Basutoland to blame the Government for any misfortune which may befall their country. Their natural resistance to change made them feel that the political reforms introduced by the Government were unnecessary and to attribute to the reforms the murders which followed their introduction.
Punitive Measures
The determined prosecution of chiefs charged with this crime and in particular the principal chiefs, Bereng and Gabashane, has aroused in very different quarters strong feelings of resentment. Coming so soon after the reforms it supported the view of those most directly affected, particularly the most conservative elements, that the Government had turned against them. Extremists interpreted it as a plot to destroy the chieftainship and betray the country to South Africa while the reaction of many "moderates" and chiefs was to focus this resentment on the police, who were accused of forcing witnesses to give false evidence against their chiefs.
It has not seriously been contended that third degree methods have been used, nor is it likely that any chief or commoner has been convicted on fabricated evidence. What they complain of is mainly that " unfair" methods have been used, for example, the detention of witnesses for the prosecution for long periods at police stations, a practice resorted to by the police because only if isolated from their communities would witnesses say what they had seen.
To many of the common people, however, from whom all the victims have come, and who still live in fear of being chosen as victims, the prosecutions have brought relief.
Remedies
(a) Punitive
The methods so far employed to deal with these murders have been propa- ganag both by the Administration and by the Parambagte Chief and police prose- cutions. Prosecutions have had some success, for there was only one confirmed
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case of medicine murder in
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diag 37a5871950. Moreover the Regent, previduage dick € Þ ¥ Jr chi¥Jr not taking action to stop the murders, has now been taking positive measures. Nevertheless, suppressive measures are not enough in themselves, and action will have to be taken to remove the political causes.
(b) Political
The political situation in Basutoland has left both greater and lesser chiefs uncertain of their position and has led them to resort to protective medicines to cure their uncertainties.
For the greater chiefs, the solution should lie in making them appreciate the increased political power given to them by the reforms and by further increasing their responsibility in the councils of the nation. This will provide an outlet for their ambitions.
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To cure the uncertainties of the lesser chiefs and headmen the Administration should set out to identify the local communities, of which they are the leaders, and ascertain their nature so that they can be fitted in as integral parts of the system of local self-Government. They should be given a well-defined and well- understood place in it, which will give them the opportunity of managing for themselves those affairs which are primarily their own concern, and of bringing to bear a due influence on the administration of the wider communities of which they form part. The precise manner in which this should be done calls for further detailed enquiries. These enquiries should be conducted with a further and equally important object, that of bringing the British Administration and the Basuto native hierarchy into closer contact with the Basuto people, so that every local community can appreciate the problems that the Administration are trying to solve and can make its own contribution to their solution.
ANNEXURE TO APPENDIX A
Summary of Typical Medicine Murder Case (taken from Mr. Jones's report)
On a Saturday evening in January, 1948, Mochesela Khoto sat in a hut drinking beer with Dane Rachakana and a number of other people who had come to a wedding feast in Moloi's village. While the party was proceeding the Chieftainess of his ward arrived with a number of her men; others were summoned from the party and when they came were told: "I want you to kill Mochesela for me, because I want to make a medicine horn (lenaka) which I will use in the placing of my son. Any one of you who disobeys this order will be killed." One of them was then sent to let Dane know that all was ready and when he saw him Dane got up and said to Mochesela, "Cousin, let us go outside for a while." Mochesela followed him to where sixteen men were waiting for them with the Chieftainess and two of her women attendants. She greeted Dane, reminded him that he had already had her orders, and told the men to seize Mochesela. As one of them caught hold of him, Mochesela cried out: "My father Pholo, are you going to kill me? and when he did not reply, continued: Let me free and I will give you my black ox." I am not your father and I want you, not your ox,” replied Pholo. He started to shout, but they gagged him and marched him off away from the village, while Dane threw stones to drive off some boys who had been attracted by his shouting. When they reached a satisfactory spot they removed their blankets, stripped deceased of his clothes and held him naked on the ground. An oil lamp was produced and by its light they proceeded to cut small circular pieces of skin from his body with a knife. Pholo cut a piece from the calf of his left leg, another man a piece from his groin, a third from beneath his right breast, a fourth from the biceps of his right arm. The pieces as they were cut were laid on a white cloth in front of Mosala the native doctor who was going to make the medicine, and one of the men held a billy-can to collect the blood from these and later wounds.
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Then Dane took the knife and with it removed the entire face of Mochesela. He cut right down to the bone, beginning at the forehead and ending at the throat and he finished by taking out the throat, the tongue and the eyes. Mochesela died while his throat was cut. The Chieftainess, who had stood by watching, is then reported to have said: "I thank you, my children, for having killed this man for me. I know the anodice willf one here to investigate this matter andage dße muist8tell
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