Owls Used as Food and Medicine and for Witchcraft in Africa

Abstract

Wildlife has been used throughout the world since ancient cultures as food or medicine as well as heralds of events and in magic or witchcraft activities. Owl belief interview studies were undertaken in 20 African countries between 1996 and 2002. A total of 794 interviewed people reported reasons for 333 owl killings. In 17 percent of the cases, owls were killed because they represent an omen of death or disaster. In 16 percent of cases, owls were killed for food. Particularly in war-stricken countries, owls are often eaten, like in Sierra Leone, where 41 percent of owl killings were simply for food. Unfortunately, non-selective eating also hits badly some very rare species like the Anjouan Scops Owl (Otus capnodes), Grande Comore Scops Owl (Otus pauliani), Mohéli Scops Owl (Otus moheliensis), and Rufous Fishing Owl (Bubo ussheri). In Africa, owls and their body parts are also used for traditional medicine, representing 6 percent of killings. There are tens of ways how the owls are or have been used as traditional medicine. In recent times, many of these practices have fallen away or substitutes have been found, but some of the traditional uses persist because people believe they work. Primarily, owls were killed for magic and witchcraft, explaining 28 percent of the reported cases. Six interviewed witch doctors admitted that they had used owls for bewitching and even killing people often combining owl parts with poisonous plants and a lot of magic. Now, some of them said that owls should not be used for killing, because the victim suffers too much when death can take four weeks or more. By using lion, leopard, or even snakes and crocodiles, death is instant. The haunted house story from Mozambique is an example of how extreme owl superstitions still affect many people’s lives in Africa.