Speaking of witchcraft (see “Court: DA’s Witchcraft Accusations Were a Bit Over the Line” (Feb. 21, 2025), the Associated Press reports that two men are on trial for that in Zambia. They are charged with using witchcraft in an effort to harm Zambia’s president, who as you all know is Hakainde Hichilema.

When I say “charged with using witchcraft,” I don’t mean that they are charged with attempted murder or assault or something like that and the case just happens to involve some unusual facts. I mean they are being prosecuted for violating the Witchcraft Act, Chapter 90 of The Laws of Zambia.

Like most statutes, this one has a definition section near the beginning. It starts out unremarkably enough, but gets interesting pretty fast:

2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—

“act complained of” includes any death, injury, damage, disease or calamity, whether of an accidental or of a tortious character;

“boiling water test” means the dipping into boiling water of the limbs or any portion of the body of a person;

“property” includes animals;

“witchcraft” includes the throwing of bones, the use of charms and any other means, process or device adopted in the practice of witchcraft or sorcery.

Based on a quick Westlaw search, not a single U.S. federal or state statute contains a definition of “boiling water test,” and I double-checked Mississippi to be sure. On the other hand, as we’ve discussed before, legal definitions of “witchcraft,” “sorcery,” or as it’s sometimes called, “crafty science,” are actually quite common in Anglo-American jurisdictions. See, e.g., “Canada to Legalize Witchcraft” (Oct. 31, 2018); “Crafty Science and the Law” (Mar. 31, 2017); see also “Hopefully There Will Be No Winners in Lawsuit Against Psychic” (Oct. 14, 2021) (addressing similar “fortunetelling” statutes). While there might be some very old statutes still on the books that presume witchcraft is real, in almost all cases the intent is to deter pretending to do witchcraft—i.e. fraud.

This Witchcraft Act was originally enacted in 1914, when the country was a British colony known as “Northern Rhodesia.” Of course, the British had lots of experience with witchcraft legislation, going back to at least 1542. See “Scotland Reportedly Planning to Pardon All Witches” (Jan. 6, 2022). But by 1914, they had more or less accepted that witchcraft wasn’t real, so the law for Rhodesia was more sensible than the older versions. It was aimed partly at witchcraft-themed fraud, for example making it illegal to use “witchcraft or any non-natural means whatsoever” to “pretend … to discover” where lost property might be. Later amendments emphasized this goal. But the Act also had, and still has, provisions suggesting that a lot of Zambians were, and still are, taking this witchcraft stuff pretty seriously.

For example, it is also illegal to accuse someone of “being a wizard or witch,” including, oddly, claiming “that any person has, by committing adultery, caused in some non-natural way death, injury, damage or calamity.” You wouldn’t have to make that illegal unless those accusations were happening and had serious consequences for the accused. It is also illegal to investigate a crime by administering “to any person with or without his consent any emetic or purgative or … the boiling water test,” which you already know about. And the Act makes it illegal to make or possess “any charm or poison or thing” intended for use in witchcraft. These provisions all seem pretty sensible, at least in a jurisdiction that has a witchcraft-belief problem.

Still, some Zambians hate this colonial piece of legislation, saying it attempts to outlaw a practice it does not understand.

“I hate that colonial piece of legislation that attempts to outlaw a practice it does not understand,” said Gankhanani Moyo, a lecturer at the University of Zambia. “Traditional Zambian societies and individuals believe in a strong relationship between the human world and the supernatural,” Moyo said. Well, that’s fine, generally speaking, and I guess it’s okay to also believe (for example) that natural disasters are caused by adultery. But nobody should be acting on such a belief. (Even if it might get you a top government job these days.)

But many Zambians apparently do, according to the report, which said the current witchcraft trial is getting a lot of attention “because many Zambians take witchcraft seriously,” citing a journalist “who has covered many such trials” in his 30 years on the witchcraft beat. Also, of course, these defendants are charged with trying to harm the president. How? Hard to say….

Police say the men in the current case were arrested in a hotel room in the capital, Lusaka, in December after a cleaner reported hearing strange noises. They were found in possession of a bottled chameleon and other items including a mysterious white powder, a red cloth and an unidentified animal’s tail. The men also face charges of cruelty to animals.

…. but it sounds pretty serious.

Believe it or not, there have been accusations that political motives have been involved here. Prosecutors allege the two chameleon-wielders were hired by the brother of a former lawmaker to curse President Hichilema, but some have claimed this is a stunt by the president to gin up sympathy in advance of an election year. Ironically, or not, Hichilema himself was accused of using witchcraft by former President Michael Sata, when Hichilema was in the opposition. It didn’t work, Sata reportedly said, because “the magic from his home region was stronger.”

Although the report describes him as “the late President Michael Sata,” so maybe it wasn’t.