Reflections On The Psychology and Motive Of Murders: African Traditional Society

MUTARE- Murder in the society occurs due to different reasons, and there is an
interconnection of various factors that motivate individuals to commit crimes.
Key factors for this phenomenon are social, economic, and political. Murder
within societies can be investigated or analysed from a jurisdiction point of
view, which evidently leads to the conviction of the perpetrator as well as a
sociological approach since those who commit the crimes have to undergo a
decision-making process for them to identify who to commit their heinous
crime or whether they are justified to do.
At law, murder is a form of violence that does more harm than just destruction
of property but leads to a loss of life in the process, and that makes it more
severe than other forms of violence that may just end at injuries to people or
destruction of property . The sociological approach to murder in society
highlights how the environment increases the cases of death or reduces them.
This is so where there are few cases of murder and how the revelation would
relatively contribute in mitigating matters of violence
As such, societal beliefs and traditions come into play as to how justified the
perpetrator is and how society views the conviction of such individuals.
Before the introduction of criminal law and the existence of courts, the
Zimbabwean African societies had a systematic means of dealing with all types
of practical and moral questions, including the killing of human beings by
others.

Zimbabwe however, has several ethnic groups that evidently have different
norms and values but a collective summary of such norms reflects common
threads on how murder and its conviction is viewed in the traditional African
societies.
Murder in traditional law is considered a crime against society as well as a
violation of divine law, since all life comes from God, (Musikavanhu).
In extreme instances, where the perpetrator has been found wanting, he/she is
expected to hang himself/herself, failing which he/she is banished from the
society.
The perpetrator’s family is thus excluded from most community privileges until
compensation has been paid and the bloodline has been cleansed of all ills.
Authors Oscar Mönnig and Claire Harries speak of various kinds of
compensation for a killing and these are based on whether the death penalty is
an option or not.
The models of reparation range from giving cattle to enable a male member of
the victim's family to marry a wife or the giving of a daughter as procreator, to
the delivery of a token number of beasts to the deceased's kin 'to dry the tears'
‘kunyaradza’, sometimes allocated by the chief from the fine received at his
court.
Part of the fines paid to the chief’s court are also used by traditional leadership
as well as traditional healers/herbalists to undergo purification rites for the
murderer and his family.
The Ndebele have been reported to prescribe the death sentence for murder but,
in certain circumstances, a fine or even corporal punishment.

In these responses to homicide, it is interesting to note the defences that are
allowed to a charge of murder, as they throw some light on which killings are
viewed as 'lawful' or in any other way excusable.
Self-defence is the most common explainable factor, and is found among most
ethnic groups of Southern Africa. This excuse is closely followed by the killing
of a witch or wizard (someone identified as such by a divination) or a thief
caught in the act.
It does appear that, for many indigenous communities, the killing of a suspected
witch mitigates the sentence, is treated as a version of self-defence or, as in the
case of the Tiv of Nigeria, is characterised as a form of insanity.
Other common defences include the killing of a wife's lover, or a killing during
conflict with outsiders or in obedience to a lawful command. Amongst, most
societies in Zimbabwe, provocation, which had the possibility of being fatal is a
recognised defence while among indigenous societies, generally, drunkenness is
hardly ever acceptable as a complete defence.
As for the Ndebele of Zimbabwe, their attitude to homicide mirrors much of the
values of other Nguni groups in the region. They divided crime into two
categories, amacala amakhulu (serious crimes which included murder, treason
and witchcraft) and amacala amancane (less serious offences such as theft and
domestic conflicts).
The more serious offences are heard before the Chief, while the latter could be
dealt with by any tribunal within the hierarchy of household heads, headmen
and village heads.
Both murder and witchcraft were punishable by death, with banishment being
the norm in the case of unproven allegations of witchcraft.

However, murders in modern day Zimbabwe have more or less become
economically motivated without any plausible defence or justification for the
intention to kill rather than that of the desire to accrue wealth.
Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers' Association, (ZINATHA) Mbuya Clara
Dhliwayo said the love of money has become the sole motivation behind
murders which have now been termed ‘ritual murders’ based on the belief that
body parts of the murdered individual will be used in rituals to attain abundant
wealth.
“We now have a number of individuals that masquerade as traditionalists who
are capable of helping one accrue wealth and for such to occur they demand the
blood of a human being. These are what we call unclean invocations ‘matare
asina kuchena’ and are mostly out to deceive people as they do not yield the
deired results. However, these so called ‘traditionalists’ go on to demand annual
payments for the work they would have undertaken for wealth seekers to attain
wealthy lifestyles making money for themselves in the process,” she said.
She however highlighted that traditionally such actions were condemned and
that those true to working with the spirit world ‘mashavi’ seldom request such
absurd provisions.
“Society has been blinded by the desire for wealth to such an extent that those
seeking wealth and those offering such are entering into a web of social ills that
have consequences on the traditionalist as well at the murderer’s kin and
bloodline. This is when such issues such as ‘ngozi’ come into play. Human life I
sacred and nomatter how concealed a murder may be, it shall always come to
the surface and demand justice, ‘munhu haarove uye haurayiwe sehuku’, she
added.
In instances were no logical reason for murder has been attained or whereby the
perpetrator pleads not guilty, traditional courts leave it to the ‘gods’ to seek their

revenge. As such the spirit of the departed will hence seek justice through
haunting the perpetrator of his family until a confession is made.
Upon a confession of murder or spirit medium intervention on the cause of
mishaps due to a locked away crime, the perpetrators family is again subjected
to a traditional court for compensation.