Innovación y Transferencia de Tecnología en el Sector Productivo

I am watching television in the dining room. A couple of players are also watch- ing whatever is on television. Others are chatting in the lobby, others still are probably playing cards in their hotel rooms.

The other day when I was visiting Zé, we got talking about something that was neither witchcraft nor sorcery but which was related to both nonetheless. This was football magic, and it may well be one of the most important aspects of Cameroonian football. It is the core activity of this spiritual adviser’s profession.

He is hired by clubs for match preparation – and he is said to be pretty good at it as well.

Whereas yesterday’s stories had more to do with witchcraft, sorcery and other very negative powers, magic is generally speaking a rather more positive or inno- cent way of getting certain powers as a player or a team. ‘Witchcraft and sorcery are always evil,’ Zé said, ‘but magic hardly ever does evil.’ His magic is mostly harmless to the players but it does make the team win its matches. That is also the reason why he does not like to be called a witch doctor. ‘The word sounds so negative,’ Zé explains. ‘Besides, I don’t do “witchcraft”. I’m merely an adviser in spiritual affairs. That’s why I like to be called a spiritual adviser.’

Zé told me many things about magic, as did team manager Kalla of Olym- pique de Buea, Ashu and Essomba, and many others. But what is football magic anyway? ‘Magic is the skill to make the impossible possible in a very short period of time by using herbs and spirits,’ Ashu told me. Zé has the following statement about magic. ‘When you look at a white object and somebody changes it to blue – just now as we are sitting here – that is what we call magic. When you make things happen that are impossible in the eyes or the mind, that is magic.’ Magic, however, is not considered to be a trick but is thought to really ‘do’ something in the real world.

Magic is, as I said before, not the same thing as witchcraft. Witchcraft is a natural force that is found within people. Magic is not necessarily found within people but since it is a skill, just like bricklaying, it can be mastered and practised by people. In this case, magic is very similar to sorcery. Both magic and sorcery are man-made spiritual powers in the sense that someone knowingly has to call upon such powers. Evans-Pritchard (1976: 176-177) argues that ‘… magic and sorcery alike involve magical rites using objects fashioned from trees and plants. These objects are what we have called “medicines”’.

In a sense, sorcery lies closer to magic than it does to witchcraft because of the skills involved, but sorcery also lies further from magic and closer to witchcraft because of its evil proposition. But to complicate matters even further, magic too can be used for good or for evil. Evans-Pritchard (1976: 188) states that certain ‘… medicines are classified as good, certain medicines as bad, while on yet others there is no strong moral opinion …’ Thus making the opposing team play poorly throughout the match is usually considered to be good or white (and thus harmless) magic because the opponents will feel quite alright when the match is over. Causing a player to break his leg or to feel suddenly extremely ill is con- sidered to be bad or black magic for obvious reasons. The latter, in turn, cannot really be distinguished from sorcery and, perhaps, witchcraft.

The difference between good and bad magic is subjective and depends on the actors and the context within which it occurs. As Evans-Pritchard (1976: 193)

argues, ‘… whereas subjectively there is a clear division of magic into good and bad, objectively there are only medicines which men use when they consider that they have good grounds for employing them’. In other words, you have to look at how and why someone uses medicines to determine whether it is good or bad. ‘Good magic,’ Evans-Pritchard explains, ‘is moral because it is used against unknown persons’ (Ibid.: 189). Although sometimes players’ names are written down on a piece of paper, football magic really is meant to weaken an entire team regardless of the personality of specific players. ‘Bad magic,’ Evans- Pritchard continues, ‘is made against definite persons …’ (Ibid.: 189-190). We have seen that witchcraft and sorcery are directed against specific people in one’s own surroundings.

The most important distinction between good and bad magic is that practitio- ners of the former are labelled as magicians, while practitioners of the latter are called sorcerers. Magicians prepare white magic, sorcerers employ black magic. In Malinowski’s (1984: 421) case, the Trobriand Islanders certainly are afraid of sorcerers who are ‘... feared as ghosts are feared by us, as an uncanny manifest- ation. One is afraid of meeting him in the dark, not so much because he might do any harm, but because his appearance is dreadful and because he has at his bid- ding all sorts of powers and faculties which are denied to those not versed in black magic.’

While the image of a sorcerer is similar to the monster under the child’s bed or in the closet, the image of the magician or spiritual adviser may be one of an artist who is asked to do something without hurting anyone. Sorcerers always operate at night but the work of spiritual advisers is generally not associated with the night and with darkness. ‘The other magicians and their art do not inspire such strong emotions in the natives,’ Malinowski (1984: 422) argues, ‘and of course in any case the emotion would not be that of dread. There is a very great value and attachment to systems of local magic, and their effects are distinctly considered as an asset for a community.’

An example, as told by Zé, is that of the magic involved in constructing a specific bridge in Limbe. In the transitional period between the dry season and the wet season in 2003, local government officials employed traditional doctors who were supposed to stop any rainfall while construction workers were building this very important bridge. Although it did rain occasionally in an otherwise exceptionally dry period, the example gives us an idea of the beneficial functions of magic in society.

I already said before that players in Buea do not really make any distinction between all of these spiritual forces. Some scholars even fail to distinguish witch- craft from sorcery and magic. In discussing juju practices in Tanzanian football, Leseth (1997: 159) starts out with the concept of ‘football magic’ but then conti-

nuously speaks of ‘witchcraft’ and ‘witch doctors’. But there is a difference and it would not be fair to Zé to put him in the same category as witches and sor- cerers. He definitely would not appreciate that.

The fact remains, though, that there is white and black magic being prepared in football. We will now see some examples of both.