The recent sentencing of a Zambian and a Mozambican to two years in prison for attempting to use witchcraft to assassinate President Hakainde Hichilema invites reflection on how citizens respond to governance, sometimes even by taking their grievances into the ‘spirit world’.
Development Diaries reports that the two men, Leonard Phiri and Jasten Candunde, were convicted under Zambia’s Witchcraft Act after being arrested in December with charms in their possession, including a live chameleon.
According to the Ndola Magistrate’s Court, the men posed a threat to both the president and to all Zambians.
Curiously, the Witchcraft Act does not attempt to prove whether witchcraft works; it simply criminalises the practice or even the accusation of it, and in this case, intent was enough.
Yet the question lingers: why would witchcraft be mobilised against a sitting president? Hichilema’s 2021 election was hailed as a new dawn. Citizens hoped for economic revival, accountability, and real change.
Three years later, frustrations have crept in. Prices of mealie meal have risen, inflation remains stubborn, unemployment continues to plague young people, and rolling blackouts disrupt everyday life. For some citizens, hope in earthly institutions seems to have dimmed, and the temptation to seek answers in mystical realms has grown louder.
There is precedent. Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia’s founding father, often faced accusations of rivals plotting against him with supernatural forces. In 2006, the late President Levy Mwanawasa publicly dismissed claims of satanists being sent after him.
Even at the local government level, politicians have been caught sprinkling mysterious powders to ‘secure’ their offices. Witchcraft has long sat at the uneasy intersection of Zambia’s politics and culture.
But witchcraft will not lower inflation, stabilise the kwacha, or ensure the lights stay on when ZESCO cuts power midway through cooking dinner.
So, if some citizens feel compelled to target the presidency with charms and reptiles, it reflects belief in mystical powers and frustration with governance. And sentencing the men addresses the law, but it does not address the discontent that made such an act appealing in the first place.
Constructive engagement, not spiritual warfare, is the true tool for reshaping nations. Citizens, whether moved by faith, frustration, or folklore, have a constitutional right to demand better from their leaders. And while the Witchcraft Act may criminalise charms and incantations, no law has yet found a way to outlaw accountability.
For the president, silence may not be the best response. Dismissing the case as mere superstition risks ignoring the deeper message: that some Zambians feel unseen and unheard. Jailing sorcerers may protect the office in the short term, but only listening to citizens’ grievances and delivering on promises will protect the country’s democracy in the long run.
Photo source: Zambian State House
