"I remember a case which occurred in Chiromo soon after we commenced the administration of the Protectorate. A series of murders and mutilations took place in the vicinity of the native village. At last they were traced to an old man who, it was found, concealed himself in long grass near the route to the riverside, and when solitary passers-by came near him he would leap at them unawares and stab them. He then mutilated their bodies.
He was caught almost red-handed and abundant evidence was given as to his being the author of every one of these crimes: but the old man himself talked freely about the matter and admitted to having committed the murders. He could not help it (he said) as he had a strong feeling at times that he was changed into a lion and was impelled, as a lion, to kill or mutilate.
[Johnston then noted that]: As according to our view of the law he was not a sane person he was sentenced to be detained 'dur-ing the chief's pleasure' and this 'were-lion' has been most usefully employed for years in perfect contentment keeping the roads of Chiromo in good repair."
H. H. Johnston's, British Central Africa (London, 1897)
This brilliantly morbid account of the treatment of a convicted Were-lion is taken from Megan Vaughan's article on the Zomba asylum in Nyasaland. It shows one of the many inconsistencies in colonial psychiatry. Vaughan notes that had his crime been to claim that he owned 15 bicycles or was the King of England then he would have been quickly incarcerated in an asylum. Natives taking on European discourse was seen as unsettling by Europeans who were always a bit wary of educated indigenes.
However, since his murderous rampage fitted in with traditional European images of African madness it was seen as less threatening. The 'self-proclaimed' Were-lion was merely put to work on the same highways where he had previously murdered and mutilated people!
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