Witchcraft Roils South African Politics : Cultures: Old and new social structures clash in rural homeland. Many travel long distances to consult trusted healers.

When a witch doctor here was suspected of casting evil spells, Phusu Mmbobo helped to rally 600 villagers to burn the man to death.

Mmbobo, one of 15 people charged with murder after that incident, says he knows why he was acquitted last year: While in court, he chewed a special preparation made by a witch doctor he trusted.

Mmbobo, 25, said of the burning: “People wanted to act. We were worried we would be next.”

Witchcraft has a powerful hold in much of Africa, and its grip is unusually strong in the black homeland of Venda, a backwater in far northeastern South Africa.

Traditions such as ancestor worship and ritual killing, parts of the Venda culture for countless generations, now clash with Western practices in the courts, politics and medicine.

“The belief in witchcraft is stronger here than anywhere else I’ve seen,” said Edwin Hanisch, who teaches anthropology at the University of Venda and has studied tribal practices for 20 years.

More than 200 people were prosecuted in Venda last year for witchcraft-related incidents and 107 were convicted, most for murder and public violence.

“Once there’s a single incident, it touches off a frenzied reaction,” said Bruce Morrison, attorney general of Venda, one of four nominally independent black homelands in South Africa. “I’ve got at least 10 cases sitting on my desk.”

Venda has had two spells of witchcraft hysteria in recent years, both linked to political turmoil.

The first came when President Patrick Mphephu died in 1988. The second followed the release from prison of black leader Nelson Mandela in February, 1990, and culminated in a military coup in the homeland two months later.

In both instances, accusations of witchcraft ran rampant as political and business factions tried to discredit each other.

At the height of the pandemonium two years ago, about 200 people accused of being witches sought shelter in police stations. One man lives in a tent at a police station to this day.

Venda has a long history of ritual murders, in which small children are killed and their body parts buried or used in magic potions intended to protect a village.

Such killings are perceived to be for the good of the community and generally accepted, said the Human Sciences Research Council, a group financed by the South African government that compiled a report on witchcraft in Venda.

In recent years, the homeland has seen a rise in secret ritual killings by individuals, such as businessmen seeking to improve their personal fortunes, the report said.

If a businessman or farmer prospers, he risks being accused of witchcraft.

In one case, an agriculture official retired and returned to his old village. Because he used modern farming techniques, his crops flourished. Neighbors accused him of using zombies, the living dead, to tend his fields at night. He was burned to death.

Witch doctors, called sangomas or nyangas , are most prominent in rural areas, where they are often the only source of medical help.

An estimated 200,000 traditional healers practice in South Africa. They include herbalists, who rely solely on natural substances, and witch doctors, who supplement their medicine by invoking spirits.

A minority of witch doctors is thought to use black magic.

Jack Mavhungu, a veteran sangoma in Venda, said he divines cures through dreams and by casting animal bones.

“It’s like an X-ray,” Mavhungu said as he peered at the bones of lions, wart hogs and crocodiles tossed on the floor of his mud and thatch hut. “I can see exactly why a patient is suffering.”

But Dr. Frikkie Kellerman, acting superintendent of the Tshilidzini Hospital in Venda, said: “We see a lot of people who suffer from the complications of traditional medicine.”

To combat such practices, the hospital sponsors an annual meeting with traditional healers. Some now refer patients to the hospital.