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Ashforth, Adam. 2000. MADUMO: A MAN BEWITCHED. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 255 pp.
Adam Ashforth has presented a fascinating study of the role of witchcraft in postapartheid South Africa. His work is an interesting combination of reflexive ethnography and analytic ethnology. The blend works exceedingly well, far better than in most "personalized" field accounts, providing a model for future blends of humanistic and scientific field studies. It is also a cracking good story, worth reading for its own sake.
Madumo, the pseudonym for Ashforth's young friend, believes that he is bewitched. Ashforth accompanies him on his trek to find a cure for witchcraft. Along the way, Ashforth discovers a great deal about the meaning...