'Muti' Ritual Murder in Natal: From Chiefs to Commoners (1900-1930)

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Periodical article

Title:	'Muti' Ritual Murder in Natal: From Chiefs to Commoners (1900-1930)
Author:	Turrell, Rob
Year:	2001
Periodical:	South African Historical Journal
Issue:	44
Pages:	21-39
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	South Africa Natal
Subjects:	homicide witchcraft History and Exploration Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Law, Human Rights and Violence
External link:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02582470108671387
Abstract:	In Natal, South Africa, 'muti', the ritual killing of a human, was required for the acquisition of extraordinary power. And extraordinary power was required to win competitive advantages in chiefly rivalries over people and land. Therefore 'muti' murders were closely associated with chiefly politics. Still these murders were exceptional in precolonial polities and were only committed in the face of an extremely serious challenge to chiefly power. Ritual killing became more common as the evil of colonial encroachment placed a range of social and economic pressures on Zulu chiefdoms. Between the 1900s and 1930s Natal chiefs lost their monopoly of ritual murder. By the 1920s the use of human flesh in chiefly politics had been overtaken by its use in strengthening ambitious commoners. 'Muti' murder had become a widespread practice outside the realm of chiefly politics. Notes, ref.