Witchcraft and concepts of evil amongst African migrant workers in

Israel

Galia Sabar, Tel Aviv University, Israel

By way of Introduction

The witches are now in Israel, they are everywhere…. Before, when I just arrived in this country no one died…. Everybody worked and no one disturbed us. No one was stopped by the police, no one was deported … look what is happening now…. It is all because the bad spirits managed to enter Israel … the bad witches from home enter. They come from home … our families in Ghana send them (Charity, Tel Aviv, 2003).

Charity, a 35 year-old Christian migrant worker who came to Israel in 1994 from

the city of Tema, Ghana, experienced a maelstrom of emotions. In the face of

growing deportations together with the arrival of evil forces from home, she was

clearly terrified. Her fear, anger and misery had a clear object – her family at

home.

In recent anthropological theory, the association of witchcraft discourses in

Africa with ‘traditional’ thought and ‘irrational’ behavior has been supplanted by

the view that witchcraft signs and practices crystallize the experiences of the ;

modern world, including global migration (Ashforth 2001,Auslander 1993;

Comaroff & Comaroff 1993; Parish 2000; Shaw 1997). It is argued that modernity

has injected postcolonial witchcraft discourses with a new dynamic, which

reflects the ability of witchcraft beliefs to adapt to the modern nation-state and to

new types of entrepreneurship (Fisiy & Geschiere 1990, 1991, 2001 ; Geschiere

1999; Parish 2000). This paper will explore concepts of witchcraft and evil

1

amongst African labor migrants in Israel. We shall attempt to premise a

relationship between the power of the extended family, money, and sorcery in the

context of African labor migration, in the midst of deportation and harsh

economics, beginning in the 2000s. The analysis will suggest that juxtaposing

family, social tension, stress and witchcraft is significant in understanding the role

of witchcraft, evil forces and malicious spirits in the way African migrants

experience the modern world. 1

Anger, doubt, jealousy and negative thoughts reflect the dark side of African

family and kinship. Anthropologist Peter Geschiere (1997) claims that this is

manifest, among others, in magic and witchcraft. He expands on this

understanding in the context of African migration both within Africa and to the

west (Geschiere 1997; Geschiere & Nyamnjoh 1998; Ciekawy & Geschiere

1988). In my research amongst Christian African migrant workers in Israel

between 1998-2000, I rarely encountered witchcraft accusations or the dark side

of the extended African family, but rather its more supportive, though demanding,

features. As long as the African migrant workers were able to send money home,

they accepted and were deeply reconciled to the indissoluble bond with

everything and everyone they left behind. That was home, and that was what

they missed in sad and lonely moments. Most of them expressed their clear

desire to return home one day and to re-build their lives with their families.

1 I am grateful to Prof. Pnina Werbner, Prof. Beatrice Nicolini and Prof. Mika Vahakangas for their useful insights on my research, as well as to Prof. John Comaroff for his comments on this paper.

2

However, after early 2000, things changed. Tensions grew due to the threat

of war with Iraq, terrorist attacks, an economic recession and primarily the fear of

deportation; the migrants’ acceptance turned into distress and anger. Though

attached to their families back home, they had difficulty dealing with demands

from their extended families. This led to discourses about witchcraft and evil

spirits. The primordial fear of their family’s ability to cause them harm, and talk

about witches and evil powers crossing borders, became louder and more

frequent. Appeals to supreme powers – local and global, Jewish and Christian –

were vociferous and clear:

Last month many people died in our church community. This was a spiritual death … she was lying in her bed, she could hardly move or breathe … her body had no color … it was all twisted … only two days ago people from our church came to pray with her. They made a circle around her and started to pray. One said that suddenly she opened her mouth and a strange voice shouted: “the witch is in me … it came to take me.” You see, you understand what is going on? The witches are now in Israel, they are everywhere.… Before, when I just arrived in this country no one died. For years, no African died in Tel Aviv. Everybody worked and no one disturbed us. No one was stopped by the police, no one was deported.… Look what is happening now, in a short time five people died, many, many were arrested and deported. It is all because the bad spirits managed to enter Israel…. There is an area here [with her hands, she draws imaginary lines in the air] that is your area, here the bad spirits can't come in without permission of the local spirits.… I mean the powers in the sky, not your soldiers [she laughs] … before, your Rabbi did not let the bad spirits come in and harm people…. Now it has all changed (Charity,2 Tel Aviv 2003).

Trapped between control and total helplessness, between local and global

politics, between Jewish powers and African evil spirits, Charity was clearly

terrified. She spoke about how offended and betrayed she and her friends felt by

2 Names marked with an asterisk are pseudonyms. However, a few of my interviewees specifically asked that their names appear in my research. I respected their request though I only used their first names.

3

the actions of the Israeli authorities against her community on one hand, and

those of their families back home on the other.

The discourse about evil spirits and witchcraft exposes important layers in

Charity’s consciousness and her existential world, as well as her modes of

coping as an African and as an undocumented\illegal migrant worker. Though

she migrated thousands of miles from her home, her words reveal her belief in

the ability of the power of her extended family to send evil messages across

borders. This reflects what we shall call a global sense of evil developed by the

African migrants.3 From her vantage point, the physical distance from her family

did not stop them from trying to continue their control over her nor did it prevent

evil spirits from home from reaching her. The African witches and evil spirits

seem to have been drawn into the tensions created by her daily reality. Believing

that bad spirits from Ghana had no cultural, national, or any other kind of

borders, Charity used witchcraft as an explanation for her chaotic reality.

Throughout her stay in Israel as an undocumented migrant worker, Charity

worked as a house cleaner during the day and studied at night. She graduated

from a basic computer course and, in 2003, was ordained as a Pentecostal

pastor after graduating from a theological seminary in Tel Aviv. Charity was well

aware of how vulnerable and weak she and her friends were in the face of the

policy of deportation implemented in Israel and the attack by evil forces from

home. Nonetheless, beyond the fear, her words reflect a clear understanding of

3 I'm in debt to Prof. John Comaroff, who after reading a paper I preseented on this phenomena suggested to conceptualize it as the "globalization of the African sense of evil."

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the modern world and obstinacy, rather than the attitude of a victim. With her last

bit of hope, she continued working and praying to God: “If I talk to him and tell

him to talk to the rabbis … they can stop the deportation and let us live like we

used to live until now.”

Following a short introduction to the rather recent phenomena of African

labor migration to Israel, this paper will focus on exploring and analyzing notions

of witchcraft and evil amongst African migrant laborers. It will focus on the

relationship between the extended family, migration of laborers, funds, the

borderless nature of witchcraft and the sense of evil developed by African

migrant laborers. Finally, we shall explore how African migrants incorporated

local Jewish religious powers into their understanding of evil and witchcraft, thus

expanding the discourse on belief systems in the context of transnational

migration and globalization.

African labor migration to Israel – Historical and sociological milestones

Migrant workers began to arrive in Israel in the late 1980s, at the time of the first

Palestinian uprising (intifada). Until that time, few foreign nationals worked in

Israel and there were no clear regulations concerning international laborers. With

the defensive closures brought on by the intifada, the government licensed

manpower companies to import migrant laborers to replace Palestinian workers

who until then had formed the bulk of the workforce in agriculture and

construction. The first such workers to arrive were Turks, Romanians and Thais.

5

Along with these licensed workers, persons without valid working visas also

entered the country; among these were thousands of Africans.

By the end of 2001, there were some 240,000 foreign migrant laborers in

Israel, about 60% of whom lacked work permits; by 2003, due to stepped up

deportations of undocumented migrants, the number was reduced to about

189,000.4 However, in spite of the massive deportations, at the beginning of

2009, it was estimated that the number of International migrant laborers had

again risen to 300,000.5 Hence, migrant laborers made up some 9% of Israel’s

labor force and 3-4% of its total population.

This high percentage of migrant laborers is somewhat anomalous

considering that Israel, founded as a haven for Jews after centuries of

persecution, defines itself as a Jewish state. The Law of Return (1950) entitles

Jews from anywhere in the world to immigrate to Israel. The Law of Citizenship

(1950) grants them automatic citizenship upon their arrival in the country. Non-

Jews, by contrast, have almost no legal avenues to citizenship or even to official

temporary resident status. Although a democracy, Israel developed strict labor-

migration policies prohibiting residence without a work permit, not recognizing the

right of family reunification, and not guaranteeing access to housing and social

4 Foreign workers in Israel: Statistics for 2000-2003 (Central Bureau of Statistics, Jerusalem 2000, 2003). The massive deportation was carried out by special police units who scoured areas where migrant workers worked and lived. These units were well informed about non-documented migrants’ apartments and whereabouts. In addition, high fines were imposed on employers who hired undocumented workers, thus making it very risky for Israelis to employ them. In addition, free plane tickets were offered to those who "voluntarily" left the country. All this resulted in a rather large number of undocumented migrants workers leaving the country within a rather short time.

5 These unofficial numbers were provided by the spokesman of the Ministry of Interior and published in the Israeli media, HaAretz, Jan. 16, 2009.

6

benefits.6 One of the main outcomes of this self-definition as a Jewish state is the

prevalent perception in Israel that labor migrants are temporary workers and not

prospective citizens, hence outsiders, culturally, socially, and politically.

Despite the exclusiveness of the Law of Return, the risk of Palestinian

terror, and, beginning in the late 1990s, the government’s policy of deporting

undocumented migrant laborers, Israel became an attractive destination for

African migration. Driven from their countries by economic hardships, Africans

migrated to Israel (as well as to countries in Europe, North America, and

elsewhere in the Middle East). As most of them entered the country without a

work visa, there are no official figures of African labor migrants residing in Israel

at any given time; however, it is estimated that by the end of the 1990s, between

10,000 and 14,000 Africans were living in Israel.7 This number fell dramatically

when the deportations began in 2002; by the beginning of 2007, the estimated

number of Africans was between 1,000 and 2,000, mostly single mothers with

children, whose deportation was temporarily halted due to the lobbying efforts of

human rights organizations. Several hundred others, mainly from Liberia, Sierra

Leone and Congo obtained refugee status through the UNHCR (Hotline for

migrant workers, 2005). Since 2005, about 14,000 Africans, mainly from Eritrea

and Sudan, have entered Israel through its lightly guarded border with Egypt,

6 Only children of migrants have access to State education and medical care. 7 These figures were based on official records mainly those published by the Israeli Central

Bureau of Statistics (1999, 2000, 2003) and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001) as well as from personal communications with members of the African Workers Union, the General Federation of Trade in Israel, African church leaders and other NGOs.

7

seeking political asylum.8 The only other black Africans in Israel prior to the

arrival of the migrant laborers were Ethiopians. However, even they came to

Israel only in the early 1980s and as they were Jews, they were not considered

black, sub-Saharan Africans, but rather Jews returning home from the Diaspora.

The African labor migrants came mainly from Nigeria and Ghana, with

smaller numbers from other African countries. Most entered with a tourist or

pilgrim visa and then remained in the country, thus becoming illegal according to

Israeli law. They were absorbed by kin or country-mates who had migrated

before them. Most African migrants soon found menial work in the service sector,

working six days a week, 12 hours a day. Some worked in light industry or small

construction companies. A few created their own businesses, mostly to meet

needs of other migrant laborers. Over the years, they acquired basic furniture,

kitchen utensils, electric appliances and a cellular phone.

Like other African Diaspora communities in Western societies (Van Dijk

1997, 2002b, 2003; Adogame 2001, 2005), African migrants in Israel were

marginalized from Israeli society, but nonetheless created what Willen (2007)

termed "inhabitable spaces of welcome" that were based on a wide range of

informal associations: national, ethnic, religious, economic, labor unions, sports

clubs, and women’s organizations. At the heart of these were the African Initiated

Churches (Sabar 2004, 2005). By the year 2000, about 40 African churches,

mostly Pentecostal and Evangelical, had been established in Israel, with

8 This paper does not relate to these recent asylum-seekers, but rather concentrates on the more established West African communities.

8

membership ranging from a handful to a few hundred. Nearly all African migrants

in Israel were affiliated with, though not necessarily devoted members of, some

church. Churches served both individual members and the community of migrant

laborers as a whole, not only on a spiritual level, but also as an anchor of

belonging, a provider of emotional and practical support (Sabar 2004, 2007).

On a rather regular basis, African migrant laborers sent large sums of

money to their families back home – between two and three hundred dollars

each month on average, and in more prosperous periods, some managed to

send a thousand dollars or even more a month.9 Almost all the members of their

extended families wanted part of their wealth, and all of them – to different

degrees – demanded that they pay their age-long obligation, the unfinished debt

for the help they received when they left home and came to Israel.10

Literature and methodology

The literature dealing with African migrant workers in Israel is relatively limited

compared to research on similar diasporas in other western states. It focuses on

three main topics: (1) Israel’s immigration policy and the challenges that

9 Accurate data on monthly wages and funds sent by African migrants in Israel is difficult to gather. However, from our research and other sources, the average income of an independent housecleaner between 1997-2000 was between US$1000 and US$2000 per month, while the average income in Israel at the time was approximately US$1150. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics for 1999-2000, about 50% of the African migrant workers in Israel saved about US$300 each month, 34% saved US$300-500 a month, and 17% managed to save even more. In the course of 2000, it was reported that 40% of the Africans in Israel sent home up to US$1,000, 17% sent between US$1000 and US$1200, 25% sent US$2000 to US$3000, and 16% managed to send home US$3000 (MESILA report 2000, 2005).

10 It is beyond the scope of this paper to detail the current nature and characteristics of extended families in Africa; however, I did benefit from research on this topic, mainly Douglass et al. (2007), Finch (1989), Foster (2000), Locoh (1988, 1989), Mair (1953, 1969 ), Mwizenge ( 2003), Ntozi et. als. (1999), Oppong (2006) and Seeley (1993), Schatzberg (2001).

9

international migrant workers pose to its ethno-national character (Kemp &

Raijman 2003; Rosenhek, 1999); (2) The legal status of African migrants in

Israel, particularly their struggle in this regard vis-à-vis the state institutions

(Mundlak 2007; Kemp et al. 2000; Kemp & Reijman 2007; Willen 2007); and (3)

the socio-demographic characteristics of the migrants, including the ways in

which they have constructed full social economic and cultural lives for

themselves as they shifted constantly between the anchors of the “old world” and

the Israeli reality that demanded change and offered new opportunities (Harel

2004; Kanari 2005; Kemp 2004; Sabar 2004, 2007; Willen 2007). Their struggle

to build a new, somewhat autonomous identity in Israel, including their monthly

income and the funds they sent home, are only mentioned briefly. This is rather

surprising as there is ample literature on these topics relating to other African

migrants and Diasporas (Ammassari, 2005; Attah-Poku 1996a, 1996b; Black

2004; Russell 1992; Stark & Lucas 1988).

Furthermore, although the link between migration, extended family, money

and witchcraft has been studied (Comaroff & Comaroff 1992, 1993; Geschiere,

1997, 1999; Geschiere & Nyamnjoh 1998; Ciekawy & Geschiere 1988;

Geschiere & Meyer 1999 Van Dijk 2001b, 2001c, 2002),11 none of these issues

has been examined in relation to African migrants in Israel. Even studies

11 It should be noted that although the Comaroffs do link the extended family’s money and witchcraft in the context of inner African migration, most of their focus is on demonization of particular cohorts (elderly women), broadly speaking, within ‘modernity’ or ‘millennial capitalism. Recently there have been reports in the local and international press about Pentecostal churches (mainly Congolese, and a few South and West African) that accuse children of being possessed by the devil. See, for example, BBC online, December 20, 2006. For these same accusations amongst African migrant communities in the west, see "More children are victims of cruel exorcism," The Guardian, June 4, 2005.

10

focusing on the religious realm of African migrant workers in Israel, including

studies on transnational Pentecostalism and local African initiated churches,

scarcely mention spirits, witchcraft or sorcery, let alone analyze the trans-local

sense of evil that the African migrants developed.

This study is based mainly on qualitative research methodologies (Elor

1997, 2002; Lieblich, Tuval & Zilber 1998; Josselson & Lieblich, 2000; Sabar

Naama 1990,2001 ; Strauss & Corbin 1998). It is part of a large study based on

265 open-ended, in-depth interviews conducted in Israel and in Africa, and over a

thousand hours of observations of different activities carried out among African

migrants in Israel between 1998 and 2006. In this paper I have quoted in length

only 6 people though the analysis is based on the much larger data base.

Interviewees were located through a "snowballing" process that began with one

Ghanaian women who introduced me to others, who in turn introduced me to

other men and women from Ghana and Nigeria. The age of my informants

ranged from 20 to 40. Most of the interviews were conducted in English. The

interviewees were encouraged to talk freely about their lives in Israel, with

minimal interference. From the very beginning of their testimonies, it became

clear that the relationship with their extended families was one of their main

concerns. After 2000, their fear of witchcraft and evil spirits was one of the main

topics they raised. It became obvious that both these issues were fundamental in

any attempt to understand their daily realities, including their dreams, aspirations

and fears. It was only then that I began to ask about these specifically.

11

Participant observations of various church services and healing sessions,

social gatherings and countless home visits began shortly after the first

interviews were carried out. The testimonies were, insofar as possible,

transcribed verbatim in the course of the conversation or immediately afterwards.

The transcripts and notes were analyzed using the constant comparative method

(Benmayor & Skotnes 1994; Brettell 1995; Brettell & Hollifield 2000; Elor 1997,

2002; Lieblich, Tuval & Zilber 1998; Strauss & Corbin 1998).

The migrant and the extended family – "If I don't send money, bad… things

will happen to me… I'm afraid, so I send"

As she angrily slapped a dust cloth against the table she had just cleaned in the

home of her employer in Tel Aviv, Annie, a 29-year-old migrant worker from

Ghana, opened her heart, her voice filled with pain and fear:

You know me, I'm working all the time and at the end of the week I have no money to buy things.… Many times I find myself in a situation that I don't have enough money for food or for rent.… It is all because I must send money home all the time.… They helped me come here and now I have to pay.… If I don't send money …bad things will happen to me.… I'm afraid, so I send (Annie,* Tel Aviv 2002).

Annie dared to voice criticism of her relatives’ demands although her burst

of anger was soon deflated by the weight of her feelings of duty, guilt and fear:

One month has passed since I called home. I know that the first thing they will ask me is where is the money? …. They will tell me about their problems…. They think I'm a millionaire with an easy life…. They don't ask – they say – send me! and they know I have to do it.… My mom and my dad get money from me.… They … don't work now.… I love them very much but they never have enough money…. I also send my two brothers money.… It makes me angry that they think they can ask and always get.

12

She then went on to tell how her older brother bought land for her and is still

building her a house that, over the year, has tripled in cost. She hinted at her

inability to check the bills he sends her and the deep dependency she has on his

good will and honesty. At one point, when I asked her if she could refuse to send

such large sums of money, she replied, "If I refuse to send money it will kill them

and me … so I have no choice…. I stop calling them when I see I have no money

… and I don't feel good about it as I do miss them and they are my family.” When

I asked her if she has a savings account, she smiled sadly and said:

Sometimes one of my bosses asks me, 'What do you do with all the money you make…. Surely you have a lot of money in the bank'…. He surely doesn't know how it is in Ghana…. I have to pay everybody all the time for helping me come here.

Annie’s testimony provides a glimpse into her personal life, but also reflects one

of the strong foundations of a totally impersonal reality. Indeed, in all my talks

with African migrant workers in Israel – men and women, married and single,

urban or rural, more educated or less– they all expressed their loyalty to their

families back home and their plans to return one day. At the same time, they

pointed to a complex set of relations with their extended families, including their

obligations to them, even when I did not ask about this. While the interviews

revealed unique and individual life stories, various ways of coping with difficulties

and different priorities, when it came to attachment, dependence on and support

from the family, more than any other topic, the variance seemed to disappear12.

12 Many scholars have made similar observations on the complexities of attachment, support and dependence on the family back home on the one hand and independence from the migrant's family on the other. Two that I have found most interesting to my research were those of Van Dyke in his

13

As Annie said, it takes the help of many for one person to leave Africa and

try to realize, for himself and for them, the dream of defeating poverty and

becoming rich. Generally, the money, ranging from $4,000-$10,000 per migrant,

was raised by close and distant relatives. In return, as partners in the effort, they

demanded their share of the money the migrants earned.

Until the early 2000s, Africans in Israel managed to live relatively well,13 and

to faithfully pay what they perceived not only as the repayment of a debt, but also

as a basic obligation – a kind of supreme moral commandment – to their families

who remained in Africa. Like most labor migrants worldwide, beyond supporting

their families, these funds were supposed to be used by the migrants to build a

home and/or purchase a business – to ensure a basis for their return home.14

Though all informants related to money sent home as an obligation, some

clearly described their sense of longing for the home they left and to which they

hoped to return one day. Nonetheless, even when their economic situation was

good, nearly all the interviewees expressed – explicitly or implicitly – bitterness,

frustration and defiance when talking about their desires and those of their

extended family. As a result of their migration to Israel, the Africans, often for the

first time in their lives, were in a situation that offered them an experience of

research on Ghanaian migrants families in the Netherland (2002) and also by Werbner (2002) in her research on Pakistanis who migrated to Britain, to name but two. 13 The wages of African housecleaners and nannies in Israel were linked to the wages of local

Israeli maids, which, in the 1990s, were about $1000 per month. From 1990-1995, the hourly wage paid by private employers ranged from $7-10 per hour, from 1996-2000, between $10 and $12, and from 2000-2005, their hourly wages were as high as $15.

14 These observations are similar to the findings of studies on African migrants in other western countries. See, for example, Black (2004), Brettell & Hollifield (2000), Heisler (2000), Tiemoko (2004).

14

relative autonomy and a sense of personal and financial independence. Although

they worked hard from morning to night, doing menial labor that was often

degrading and hated by many of them, this gave them new freedom in the

conduct of their daily lives, and real opportunities to build a different future for

themselves. New opportunities for vocational training were opened for both men

and women, as well as leisure activities that were not necessarily connected to

the family, as they would have been back home.

Being far from their families, Annie, Charity and others could relate clearly

to the major elements of the complex, ambiguous character of the African family

today: the family is both a site of strong competition over resources and a

supportive social network. For many African migrants, migration did not offer a

path to escape these contradictions; rather, they found themselves trapped in an

extension of them. Within this existential ambiguity, the migrants’ fear increased

and, as conditions in Israel became more difficult, the complex relations with their

families back home took on dark, magical dimensions.

“They get angry with me … and then … bad things happen to me"

My meeting with Moses, a 28-year-old Nigerian migrant worker, took place in Tel

Aviv in the fall of 2002.15 The atmosphere in Israel at that time was dismal: an

economic recession, daily terrorist attacks including busses exploding in city

centers, and anxious preparations for the anticipated war between the United

States and her allies against Iraq and the possibility of missile attacks on Israel.

15 Moses came from a small neighborhood on the outskirts of the city of Bida, West Nigeria.

15

After a long talk about his life in Israel, I shared with him some of my personal

anxieties due to global and local events. I then asked him how he was coping

with the stress we all experience these days. He replied, "I don't know what to

do, sometimes I feel like the sky is falling over our heads … I have no idea …

how to solve all these issues." He then went on to tell me that he had lost many

of his jobs due to the recession and about his fear of "this crazy Saddam

Hussein." “What does all this do to you?” I asked. He replied, "I feel sick…. I feel

bad because my family is angry with me…. They make me feel so bad because

they want me to send them more and more money.… I know this is the reason. It

was always like this. But now, I have no energy, I have no money to deal with all

the issues” (Moses,* Tel Aviv, Sept. 2002).

Moses’ testimony clearly reveals the weakening effect of life in the shadow

of uncertainty and fear of the future – on the global, local and personal level.

However, from his standpoint, it seems that all the difficulties were dwarfed in

comparison to his economic straits and his inability to continue sending “more

and more money” to his family in Nigeria, which he loves and feels obliged to.

Moses had no protection from the barbs of anger hurled at him from there;

exhausted and “feeling ill,” he had no energy to cope. In his case, as in the case

of Charity, the human body became a vehicle of the spirit, and its manifestation

occurred through illness, bad luck and other misfortunes.16

16 Though analyzing a different context altogether, I found Nicolini's discussion of Zar practice useful in understanding this testimony and others. See Nicolini (2005), pp. 157-161 and Nicolini (2006): Introduction.

16

About a month after our meeting, I heard, once again, the main points of

Moses’ testimony, but this time from 30-year-old Brigitte, also from Nigeria.17

During long conversations held in her house and later in her church, I learned

how cautious and restrained Moses had been. Brigitte, clearly agitated, said:

Look, look around you … everywhere you go you see people that are so scared…. They have good reasons to be afraid…. First, this war with Iraq.… It’s bad for the economics of the country … people have no money to pay us.… If they don't want me to work I have no money and I have nothing to send home … then our families get very, very angry but what can I do?... They think I can make more and more money and send them…. I know we all need money and for all of us it is important but money can also kill you.… I try to explain it but they don’t understand. They don't want to understand … they get angry with me and I get sick. When I'm like that, nothing I do is good. I fail. (Brigitte,* Tel Aviv, October 2002).

When I asked Brigitte to explain what was happening to her, why everything was

bad, she raised her hand dismissively: “You’ll never understand.” But with

persuasion, she finally replied:

For us it is clear … these days I'm weak.… I have little energy … most of my energies are taken by others and I have little … very little…. When I have little food I can't send home food…. And then many bad things happen to me.… I'm scared.

I asked what she meant by "bad things," but she refused to continue the

conversation. Yet she did tell me about a special prayer that would be held for

her in the church. That week, Brigitte came to the church, after having fasted all

day. After the service, just before the congregants gave personal testimonies, the

pastor called Brigitte and said: “Our sister is suffering great pain, and we must all

pray for her.” The entire congregation broke into song, prayer and supplication.

17 Brigitte came to Israel from Warri in Southwest Nigeria, after spending almost two years in Jordan.

17

Afterwards, Brigitte herself began to pray. She spoke, cried and sang alternately.

The pastor and several women approached Brigitte and warmly embraced her.

Then the pastor asked her to explain what was happening to her. Brigitte replied:

For some time I have problems and I can't send money home like always.… I lost much of my work … but my family keeps calling … every week…. They want more and more…. When I say I have nothing they get angry with me.… Their voice is changing and they start talking badly to me…. Now it is hard for me even to walk. I wake up in the morning and I can't go to work. My whole body hurts.… I'm praying to God to protect me from the bad spirits they send me.… They send very, very bad spirits on me … oh God, please help me.18

In contrast to her conversation with me, in church, Brigitte skipped her

introductory explanation of the objective reasons – global and local – for her dire

economic straits. The situation was, after all, well known to all those present.

Speaking to her congregation, she was open and explicit: pointing an accusing

finger at her family members as responsible for her situation, her weakness, her

pain, Brigitte pleaded for God’s help and protection against the evil spirits they

had sent against her.

The congregation listened to her words. Many nodded their heads, leaving

no doubt that they too were trapped in a situation where migration was by and

large an extension of the ambiguity of the African family in which evil, jealousy

and fear can thrive and do harm. This fear, similar in some ways to the basic

understanding of witchcraft developed by Evans Pritchard (1937), further

18 Brigitte spoke English mixed with Urhobo. Her words were translated for me by a fellow church member.

18

explains the great fear and physical weakness that Brigitte and others felt and

the fact that they attributed it to their angry and jealous families back home.19

In Brigitte's case, the African Pentecostal theological acknowledgement was

immediate. The pastor laid his hand on her head and asked those present to

pray with him:

Let us cast away the demons, the evil spirits … let us give God our hearts.… God can do all … he can help us in our war against evil power…. Help us God in our fight against jealousy and evil…. Sometimes our own people at home don't understand us … they think we are all rich … they want a share of our fortune … when we can't send money home they are angry. Our sister … Brigitte is suffering.… They have sent on her the bad witches. They have attacked her (Pastor Ezekiel,* Tel Aviv, October 2002).

The pastor went on to ask for God's mercy and protection. He asked God to

"make our families understand our situation … talk to them … get into their

hearts." He ended his prayer by saying that the situation was just "too difficult for

us."

The pastor, Brigitte and the members of the church were full partners in this

discourse, which involved supernatural powers, evil spirits, violent witches and

money, together with angry family members and the existence of a good,

benevolent God who helps his faithful followers. For them, evil powers at home

could send demonic spirits across international borders since mundane details

like physical distances and borders would not hinder them in their supernatural

pursuits; evil powers presumably have some means of locomotion. Yet the

church had the power to combat them.

19 Recently, refereeing mainly to Botswana, Durham and Klaits (2002) further expanded on these notions of bad feelings that can be transferred from one angry person to another.

19

In Israel, as elsewhere, the Pentecostal churches – embracing and

reinforcing a sense of global communality – offered ways of coping with sorcery,

and promised psychological and physical healing for illnesses and other

problems attributed to the forces of evil. When all was well, evil powers,

including witches, were rarely mentioned in African churches nor were local

Jewish rabbis. However, when the situation in Israel became less hospitable to

the migrants, the churches, as part of the attempt to accommodate the needs,

will and desires of their members, acknowledged sorcery as part of the day-to-

day reality, and conducted a lively discussion about various types of violent evil

forces.

In many ways, the African churches in Israel embody what Van Dijk (2001b,

2001c, 2002a), Gifford (2004) and others have analyzed: the link between

Pentecostal-Prosperity Christianity, modern economic systems and anti-

witchcraft rituals in Africa and in African Diasporic communities in the west.20

Indeed, the main reason for the success of these churches and of African

churches in Israel was the fact that they were able to acknowledge, explain and

contain their members' fears of witchcraft, and to offer them protection without

asking them to abandon their economic activities. On the contrary, these

prosperity churches encouraged their followers to get involved in global

economic ventures that enriched both the members and the churches. This

enrichment was, after all, at the core of what the believers perceived as the

20 On the various ways that Pentecostal churches in Africa accommodate such phenomena, see Anderson (2000, 2001), Ebaugh & Chagetz (2000), Corten & Marshall-Fratani (2001), Gifford (2004). On these churches' methods in an African Diaspora in the Netherlands, see Van Dijk (2001b, 2001c, 2002a) and Ter Haar (1998).

20

reason for being bewitched by people who were jealous, mainly family. In Israel,

the African churches not only managed to create an arena that encouraged and

blessed their followers’ economic success but also accommodated the belief that

jealous family members had bewitched them. Hence, the churches offered their

followers protection against witchcraft aimed precisely at those who were

financially successful.

Sickness from home or home-sickness

In his study of African religion, witchcraft and the war of liberation in Zimbabwe,

Terence Ranger (2006) links the existence of witches and manifestation of evil

powers with stressful realities, mainly tension and conflict within a society

predominately based on gender, generation and class.21 Similar understandings

of witchcraft in the context of the local churches are discussed by Ngwabi Bhebe

(1999), David Maxwell (1999) and Martinus Daneel (1995). Focusing on one

extended Zimbabwean family during the liberation war, Richard Werbner (1999)

underlines the connection between social tensions within the family and

witchcraft. However, Werbner points to the fact that even before the war, the

family expressed witchcraft suspicions but these were controlled "by elders

bound by the passions and responsibilities of close kinship" (1999, p. 150). In

spite of the obvious differences between the Israeli and the Zimbabwean context,

the comparison offers interesting insights. In both cases, a drastic change in the

political, social and economic situation appeared, which brought about, among

21 These arguments were also elaborated in full in Kriger (1992).

21

others, the collapse of most mechanisms of control within the family, and gave

rise to witchcraft accusations. As in Werbner's analysis, it seems useful in the

Israeli context to juxtapose family, social tension, stress and witchcraft as part of

our understanding of the rise of previously hidden or controlled witchcraft, evil

forces and malicious spirits.

Comaroff and Comaroff (1992, 1993, 2001) posited “family” and “magic” as

two opposed modes of discourse. They claim that the discourse on family and

kinship focuses on cohesiveness and attachment, on togetherness. In contrast,

the discourse on magic concentrates on lack and loss, because it exposes

cracks and rents within the extended family through which people and resources

slip out and are lost.22 Our analysis of the data from Israel points to the fact that

in the African migrants' realities, these two types of discourse were not

necessarily opposed but rather juxtaposed when the subject was money. The

pursuit of money, as my interviewees noted, stems from personal needs and

wants, but no less than that – from the obligation and need to support the

extended family. The economic hardships, on the other hand, intensely exposed

the personal difficulties and frustrations in the face of the family’s demands. In

the harsh reality of an economic crisis and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, lack of

money was felt most keenly. This lack gave rise to a bitter, divisive discourse of

22 There is an interesting explanation, not entirely new, for this contrast between the two types of discourse – “family” and “magic,” in Ori Schwartzman’s book, White Doctor, Black Gods. In his view, in African culture, which sanctifies absolute loyalty to the family and the community as a supreme moral value and the embodiment of good order, the witches fill a cardinal social-educational role, for the very reason that they represent the opposite and negation of the good, the correct and the moral. “In these distinctions there is a clear message to the individual … if you are not loyal to your family and your tribe, if you prefer alien people to them … alien interests, then you will roll into the black river of evil and drown in it.” Schwartzman (2006), pp. 176-180.

22

complaints, suspicion and anger on one hand, and of weakness, helplessness

and fear of sorcery, on the other. Hence, unlike Comaroff's interpretation that

puts "family" and "magic" as two opposed modes of discourse, we claim that for

the African migrants, as Brigitte explained: "Money is something we must have

and it is important to us … but money [or family] is also something that kills us."

In their research on migrants from Cameroon, Geschiere and Nyamnjoh

(1998) raise yet another argument. They assert that in the relationship between

African migrant workers and their families back home, sorcery is essentially an

element of connectivity. Despite the negative, violent acts it involves, sorcery

actually safeguards the family, including the transatlantic familial community.

Interestingly enough, in William’s personal interpretation,23 I found a bitter,

paradoxical confirmation that these seemingly conflicting possibilities may co-

exist. After we talked about his problems with his mother, mentioning witches and

evil spirits, I asked him to elaborate on what witches can do and how a person

knows they are attacking him. His reply, not surprisingly, was worded in the

plural:

We feel bad ... very bad and there is almost no way to cure it…. We know that Israel has the best doctors in the world…. You have the best medications, the best x-ray and CT machines … you know what is in the blood every minute…. Sometimes when we feel bad we go to your doctor…. He checks and makes all kind of tests and nothing. Still we feel bad. Every day it is becoming more and more painful. Then we know it is witchcraft. Here in Israel, there is no cure for this kind of

23 William, a 35-year-old migrant from the Ashanti region in Ghana, came to Israel in 1996. He was introduced to me by a Ghanaian woman who was one of my best friends and gradually William became a regular visitor to our house. I spent dozens of hours with William talking about life, about his dreams and aspirations. Some of these talks took place while he was at work and I came along, while others took place in our house or over beer in a local bar in Tel Aviv. After 10 years in Israel, he won the American lottery and now lives in Chicago.

23

disease…. Then what do we do? We go home. At home we have our spiritual churches that know how to cure this…. This is what they do … this is their expertise, but they can't do this to us when we are so far away…. If you don't want to die or you don't want to have so much trouble, you have to go home…. Here in Israel nothing works for that.... I know that others think in a different way, they think that in our church here people can help them.

Realizing that the origin of the spirit was both religious and geographical, and

that treatment required the local, Ghanaian specialist,24 I asked, “But if you return

home to be cured, you cannot come back to Israel to work, you will lose money,

your savings…. What will you do about that?” William seemed to have been

waiting for that question, and still smiling, he sadly said:

You are right. This is what will happen…. This is what they, at home want … they don't want us to be successful so they do this to us…. It is hard for them to understand what is happening to us…. It is hard for us to understand them … this creates balagan [chaos in Hebrew slang]…. If they think a bit about the future they will not do this because if they send the witches then we must go back home and then we will not be able to give them money any more (William, Tel Aviv 2003).

His words attest to one of the more crucial paradoxes faced by the immigrants

who experience illness as a result of the attack of spirits from home: they must

return home for a cure, simultaneously freeing themselves of the yoke of the

sending money and the envy from home, but at the same time losing their

chance to significantly improve their lives.

Furthermore, a careful examination of his words suggests that the longing

for home certainly influenced the formation of immigrant communities, but may

also be part of the psychic determinants of the larger phenomena of the complex

24 This realization follows Nicolini's (2005, 2006) analysis of similar testimonies by Swahili people of the East African coast.

24

relations between the migrant and his family back home. In other words, sickness

coming from home may also represent a transformation of ‘homesickness’ in the

migrant.

Global versus local evil powers – "I call all the Jewish rabbis to save me

from the witches and protect us like they did"

In their many and varied attempts to comprehend, rationalize and combat evil

and witchcraft that came from home, the African migrants sought not only the

protection of their own African churches but also that of Jewish rabbis. Feeling

pain, fear and desperation, some appealed directly to the local Jewish spiritual

powers. Charity explained that the drastic change in her and other migrants'

lives, stemmed from the reluctance of Jewish rabbis to protect African migrant

workers from evil powers sent from home. She said: "Before [years ago], your

rabbi did not let the bad spirits come in and harm people…. Now it has all

changed.… The Jewish rabbis have stopped protecting us…. They stop closing

this area to protect it, and then the bad witches from home enter" (Charity, Tel

Aviv 2003). After accusing the local Jewish spiritual powers of lifting their

protection, she related – in one breath – to her own Christian fellows and to the

Jewish rabbis in Israel:

Our families in Ghana send the evil spirits…. The only thing I can do against them is to work, go to church and pray…. If I pray and talk to God, if I tell him to talk to the rabbi, then maybe the rabbi will not let the witches in…. They can stop deportation and let us live like we used to live until now … in peace, prosperity with our friends and families here…. I call all the Jewish rabbis to save me from the witches and protect us like they did…. Without this, it will all fall to pieces (Charity, Tel Aviv 2003).

25

William was also present during my talk with Charity. After hearing Charity's call

on the Jewish rabbis to protect them, he told me that this represented the way

many other Africans in Israel experienced reality:

It is all around us … it is around here…. Everywhere you go people will talk about the witches who entered the country … not only in the churches they talk about it. There are stories in our community about it all the time. Even in Ghana, where our families live, they talk about it all the time…. Once we used to trust your rabbis because they were guarding the territory. This is their duty.… Every local spirit has to guard its territory. When they did it, we were also protected. …now with the war in Iraq and all the problems in the government and Wall St. falling down then they are not protecting us enough … then the witches enter…. Maybe they have other problems now … but they should know this is dangerous not only for us but also for you … maybe especially for you (William, Tel Aviv 2003).

There are no references in the literature to relations between African migrant

laborers and Jewish religious institutions. To the best of my knowledge, the only

direct comments made on this issue were a few remarks by religious leaders of

the Israeli Sephardic orthodox party SHAS who blamed the "foreign workers"

(ovdim zarim, which in Hebrew may also mean “those who worship idols”) for the

high rates of unemployment and crime in the country (Sabar 2008, p. 185). In

addition, on several occasions, they blamed the foreigners for deceiving young

innocent Jewish girls, and called for the deportation of all non-Jewish foreign

workers from the country. Most of these remarks were part of the election

campaign of 2001. No other Jewish religious leaders related directly to the

migrants’ religious life, though remarks about the need to maintain the Jewish

character of the state of Israel were indeed made by religious and civic leaders.

Leaders from within the African community knew about these remarks but

26

dismissed them as part of the racist agenda of SHAS. None, however, thought

that this was the policy of the rabbinical institution.

It is beyond the scope of this paper to analyze these remarks from the

standpoint of the Jewish rabbinical institution. It is, however, important to try to

understand how some African migrants related to the powers vested in Jewish

religious leaders and to the sense of protection that Charity and others felt from

them. Importing from home the notion that religious leaders protect their territory,

African migrants felt safe in Israel. As long as things went well, neither the Jewish

rabbis nor their duties to protect all human beings within "their territory" were

mentioned. However, once things changed, Charity and others blamed the local

Jewish leaders for no longer providing them with a protective canopy.

The pastor, Charity, Brigitte, William Moses and others were part of this

complex and changing discourse on local, African and global supernatural

powers, evil spirits, violent witches and angry family members. For them, the idea

of local spiritual powers defending their territory and taking full responsibility was

juxtaposed with the idea that evil has no borders and can "travel" long distances.

Hence, the spiritual world that African migrants created was complex and

constantly shifting, echoing and relevant to their changing daily social and

political realities. Interestingly, in a study of Ghanaian concepts of witchcraft in

relation to modern global markets, Parish (2000) claims that African

businessmen in Europe who experience witchcraft attribute it to the doings of

fellow African businessmen in Europe. Though they connect witchcraft with

jealous members of their extended family, they believe that the European arena

27

is out of reach of the parochial witches at home. In this sense, African migrants in

Israel, including very many Ghanaians, had a different perspective.

By way of conclusion

Following others who tried to understand the rationality of witchcraft and its

underlying moral dynamics, we too reject attempts by some to cast light on

witchcraft merely as part of the irrational, the exotic and the other, in Africa and

among Africans. Like Meyer (1992), Geschiere (1997), Geschiere & Meyer

(1999), Werbner (1999), Ranger (2006) Nicolini (2005,2006), the Comaroffs

(1993), Mbembe (1992, 2001, 2007) and others, we believe that the world of evil

powers, with its numerous, disparate manifestations, plays an important role in

the way many African labor migrants not only viewed their world, but also

explains how they lived their daily lives.

The existence of witchcraft was sometimes concealed, repressed, relegated

to the sidelines, and sometimes – particularly in situations of stress and crisis – it

moved to the forefront. For many Africans, witchcraft is an ongoing part of life

with which people have to deal in one way or another. Ciekawy and Geschiere

(1988) claim that "Understanding witchcraft is an essential element in any

attempt to comprehend people's mundane realities and thoughts…. In everyday

life in Africa and elsewhere it is a discourse about action and the urgent

necessity to handle these dangerous but hidden forces" (p. 3).

In her study of occult forces in colonial Africa, Luise White (2000, 2002)

suggests that we need to be “subtle and specific … about Africans’ concepts of

28

evil and the invisible world” and try to find “subtle and crucial distinctions”

between witches and others (2002). Our data calls for a rather different

perspective. For the African migrants in Israel, there was no clear definition or

clear separation between evil spirits, evil powers and witches. There was,

however, a clear connection between the migrants’ bad luck, illness and failure,

and the envy of the families, lack of protection by the Jewish rabbis and an

extensive list of global forces of evil.

Unlike White, who emphasizes the importance of a precise notion of what

people mean when they refer to evil, our data suggest that these notions are

extremely diffuse; they can easily take on new aspects and slide into related

conceptions. It is precisely this diffuse character that can explain why they are so

resilient and so easily grafted onto new situations and new contexts. All

conceptual distinctions and classifications are in practice undermined by the

'subversive' tenor of discourse on witchcraft and evil.

Though at times the explanations of the African migrants in Israel may

seem vague, the fear they expressed was real and so was the belief that the

most violent, harmful forces come from their families, with the help of witches and

evil spirits. They believed that the endless demands, envy and anger would

eventually catch up with them. For them, anger that crossed borders became an

accepted and rational reality that could harm them wherever they were.

Achille Mbembe (2007) claims that in order to enter the “living space” of

Africans and to understand it, "one has to use their own terms, explanations,

dreams and images, and avoid falling into the trap of interpreting it according to

29

western concepts and with an external judgmental view." According to Mbembe,

sorcery needs to be understood "from the standpoint of those living with and

within it. In this living space, the discourse on sorcery is extremely significant

because it encompasses life experiences of unemployment, illness, misfortune

and avarice, but also creative modes of coping with all these." Indeed, our

analysis concerned the migrants’ public and private discourse on witchcraft. The

former related to Israel’s international and economic crisis and how it impacted

migrants’ ability to earn. It concerned the inability of people back home to

understand or believe the migrants’ predicament and the consequences of the

tensions created. The private, interpersonal discourse related to suspicions of

specific individuals back home who, the migrants believed, wanted to harm them

because they had not sent money. In addition, it touched upon the possibility of

returning home, possibly with no resources, in the face of what seemed a

hopeless situation. The discourse about evil forces and witchcraft provided not

only an explanation for the chaotic reality, but perhaps a solution as well.

Processes of economic and political change, both global and local, spiritual

struggles between local and external spirits, and power struggles within complex

family and community systems – are all blended in the attempts by the African

migrants to provide a full, detailed explanation for their situation. As African

migrant workers grapple with the dire realities of massive deportation, the

discourse on witchcraft turned out to be an interpretative framework that created

a connection between many diverse elements – objective and subjective, political

and personal.

30

Since 2003, the African labor community has disintegrated altogether due to

stepped-up deportations of undocumented migrant laborers. For some of those

deported, the power of witchcraft was manifested in the deportation itself. Still, as

witchcraft represented an occult world with different laws, the signs testifying to

its presence naturally held varied, even contradictory, meanings. Generally, the

interpretation of these signs was personal, varying from one person to another

and from one context to another; it did not necessarily lead to clear operative

conclusions. Thus, even among those who shared a similar perception of reality,

they remained alone, with their own anxieties and decisions.

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