Isaac Kalambata

“Witch” is an exceedingly useful term. In fairy tales and folklore, the witch is often portrayed as evil, a villain by virtue of the audacity to live by their own rules. Magic plays a role in this, but more often than not, that magic is merely the means to slip the binds of society’s restrictions and regimes. For this reason, the term “witch” has historically been levied at individuals who posed a threat to existing power structures, be they political, religious, or socio-economic.

Recent scholarship has done much to redeem the term “witch” within the context of feminist economic discourse, identifying the branding of witches as part of the maintenance of capitalism. In Isaac Kalambata’s pair of new collages, the artist explores how these same mechanisms have also served colonialism. Both works draw from the Witchcraft Act of 1914, a legislation that expressly sought to entrench the colonial Christian church by curtailing alternative spirituality and healing practices within what is now Zambia. The ordinance reduced witchcraft to the attempt “to control by non-natural means the course of nature,” with particular attention to the use of charms.

Kalambata reanimates this symbolism in Bamucapi, which brings archival materials together with a cast of characters that include an excommunicated archbishop, two healers, and a prophetess. Centering on healing, Mizyu draws its title from the root sources of traditional medicine. Quoting a Bemba proverb “Ukwimba akati, Kusanka na Lesa” [To dig for medicine, you mix it with God], Kalambata surveys how property laws have denied foragers access to land, and thus to the ingredients they seek. The artist offers the figure of the Mwendanjangula, a mythical forest being associated with nature as an example of a sustainable relationship to natural resources.

Text: Kate Sutton