MAKING RAIN IN AFRICA.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5105, 25 March 1927, Page 3

MAKING RAIN IN AFRICA.

AID OF HUMAN SAfcIUFICE. A PERSISTENT SUPERSTITION. The story comes 'from Johannesburg of the kidnapping, in the Elysdorp district, of a massive yQUth by witch-doctors, who murdered him and burned the body on a hiU-top at night as a sacrifice to bring rain ; and we are told that the parents, who would have lodged a complaint if the drought had continued, now glory in the fact that the sacrifice o'f their child was successful —for rain fell immediately—and have refused to give any information concerning the culprits (writes a correspondent of the “Daily News”). This belief in the efficacy of human sacrifice to produce rain is probably one o'f the most persistent superstitions .that haunt the vast area of witch-bound Africa. The dreadful processes of the ceremonial have always been kept a great secret, as are the strange and horrible properties with which the blood o'f the victim must be mixed to produce the desired result. In some regions the wooden bowl used for the purpose was believed to have magic powers, and its possessed- was accounted mighty. Thus years ago, the chief of the Mambrikushu people, who owned such a bowl, acquired sa great a reputation for making rain, and even 'for controlling the Kubango River — which waters the northern Kalahari —that powerful kings like Khama of Bechuanaland and Lewanika, King of the Maroise, used to send him presents of slaves and ivory and cattle when petitioning that he Should make rain in years of draught.

One great tribe, or collection of tribes, however, the Bakaonde and their neighbours of Northern Rhodesia forms a. notable exception. For all that from birth to death their whole existence is hemmed abpiut with superstitions and controlled by witchdoctors, they have no belief in rainmakers, but hold that rain is a gift 'from Lesa, who is God, the Creator, the Giver of life, who made and animated the first man and t-hc first woman.