Witchcraft in the world of cars in Uganda: Eddogo mu motoka.

“I was told to offer human blood as a sacrifice, so I went to the road along Wobulenzi and pointed at a pregnant woman who was about to cross. As she crossed, a vehicle suddenly appeared and hit her, killing her instantly.” That was a confession of a man on a radio giving a testimony of how he stopped witchcraft.  

In 2023, a Sino truck driver friend of mine told me a story. He said that one day, his fellow driver told his co-driver (the turn boy) that if he ever stopped being the main driver of that truck, the turn boy should immediately look for another job. The turn boy asked, “Even if you’re fired?” The driver replied, “Yes. As soon as the boss replaces me, you should leave that truck and find another job.” Time passed, and eventually, the driver was fired. The turn boy remembered what he had been told and found another job. Less than a week later, their former truck got into a terrible accident and was completely destroyed. I call that witchcraft, What do you call it?

Witchcraft involves casting spells, using charms, potions, or rituals to bring about a desired outcome which is either good or bad.

Witchcraft refers to the practice of using supernatural or magical powers often believed to influence people, events, or nature. In many cultures, witchcraft involves casting spells, using charms, potions, or rituals to bring about a desired outcome which is either good or bad.

In Uganda, as in many parts of Africa, belief in witchcraft or spiritual forces is evidenced in daily life. Such beliefs extend to objects, animals, people, and increasingly, to machines including cars. The belief is that witches, sorcerers, or traditional healers (witch-doctors) can use spiritual or magical means to influence, damage, protect, or control motor vehicles, drivers, or their journeys. Here is what is known or commonly believed about how, why, and where it happens, how to detect it, remedies, and attitudes.

How witchcraft in cars is done

According to folklore and local accounts:

• Spiritual agents or items are used. These include charms (fetishes), talismans, powders, liquids, dead animals or animal parts, herbs, bones, blood, feathers, or “medicine” from traditional healers. These items may be applied secretly (sprinkled or smeared) inside or around parts of a car.
• Hidden placement: Objects may be placed in parts of the car that are not easily seen under seats, under floor mats, inside tires, doors, engine bay, behind dashboards, or in the spare tyre spaces. Some believe spiritual items may even be mixed into fuel, oils, or lubricants.
• Invocation or rituals accompany the placement such as incantations, prayers, tying knots, using “medicine” (traditional herbal mixtures), or asking spirits to act when the car is driven or parked.
• Mutual consent or unethical competition: Sometimes rivals, business competitors, or jealous individuals are believed to hire witch-doctors to bewitch someone’s car to cause accidents, breakdowns, delays, theft, or misfortune.

Why witchcraft in cars is done? People believe witchcraft in cars is employed for many reasons:

• To protect a car or driver, especially when transporting valuable goods or money.
• To cause harm to another driver or competitor: e.g. to cause breakdowns, accidents, reduce business (if it’s a commercial vehicle), or theft.
• For spiritual cover against bad luck or perceived curses, especially when someone has had successive mechanical failures or accidents.
• To secure promotions, assignments, or favorable treatment drivers, transport business owners, or even politicians might seek “spiritual insurance” for their vehicular assets.

How to ‘reportedly’ Know You Have Witchcraft in Your Car

Signs that people believe a car is bewitched include:

• Repeated mechanical breakdowns of parts that should be fine (e.g., lights failing, brakes, engine misfiring) without plausible technical cause.
• Frequent accidents or near misses under strange circumstances.
• Car refusing to start intermittently, or doors locking out, steering failing, brakes failing.
• Car sounding strange, parts getting hot or failing when they should be okay.
• Strange smells, appearing of insects or worms inside, unexplainable substances.
• Driver’s feelings: fear, unease, dreams, seeing weird omens involving the car.
  

Because many of these are subjective, people often interpret them through spiritual lenses rather than mechanical diagnostics.

How Drivers Are Bewitched and For What Reasons

• Selection by envy or jealousy: Someone wanting what the driver has (money, prestige, good car) may hire a witch-doctor.
• Business rivalries: In areas where taxi or transport business is lucrative, competition is fierce. Some believe rivals resort to spiritual methods.
• Moral or relationship conflicts: e.g., spouses, relatives, neighbors may use witchcraft to cause misfortune.
• Accidents or misfortune: after a crash or repeated misfortune, many drivers wonder if spiritual causes are to blame.
  

Where in the Car Witchcraft Is Commonly Placed?

From folklore and anecdote (less from academic or technical investigation):

• On and Under seats (especially driver’s seat).
• Under floor mats.
• Inside the glove compartment, behind the dashboard.
• In spare tyre compartments.
• Inside tyres (often put in the spare wheel or sometimes in regular tyres).
• On the chassis or under the car (underside).
• Sometimes mixed in petrol or oil, or put in fuel tanks (though this is more speculative and harder to verify).
• Doors, door handles, mirrors, places that touch the outside or entrance points.
  

Form of Witchcraft: 

Witchcraft is so common in three forms which are; Powders, Liquid, and incense. But I will give you four.

• Powders: herbs, powdered bones, dust mixed with animal remnants or ashes.
• Liquids: herbal infusions, sometimes mixed into lubricants, petrol, brake fluid, or oil. Also “spiritual liquids” used to anoint certain parts (e.g. engine).
• Charms/fetishes: small objects, talismans, amulets, often wrapped in cloth, placed in hidden spots.
• Smokes, incense or burnt offerings: sometimes smoke or incense burned in car or around car, possibly to cleanse or to activate spiritual agents.
  

Remedies to Witchcraft

People who believe they have been bewitched resort to several remedies:

• Visiting traditional healers / witch-doctors to have the spiritual items removed, “un-bewitched” rituals performed.
• Using spiritual protection: blessings by pastors, priests, or religious leaders; prayers; holy water; anointing parts of car.
• Physical search of car: remove mats, clean interiors, inspect underside; sometimes dismantle parts suspected to hold charms.
• Sometimes use of protective charms (the driver may place their own protective items to counteract witchcraft).
• Avoiding certain routes or avoiding picking up items from roadside that might have been cursed.
• Sometimes offering sacrifices, animal offerings, or paying for spiritual “insurance.”
• Avoiding the act of giving lifts to everyone whether strangers or not.

Is it common in Private cars or business / commercial cars?

• Belief appears to span both private and commercial cars. However, anecdotal evidence suggests commercial vehicles (e.g., taxis, buses, trucks) are perhaps more targeted since their owners have more exposure, more journeys, more competition, more risk. Also more value is attached to their operation, so more incentive to hire someone to harm via spiritual means.
• Private car owners might worry more about prestige, safety, or expensive repairs, and so may use protection more than seeking to harm others.
  

How it can Backfire

• If someone misuses witchcraft (according to belief), it may “backfire”, the spiritual item might affect the one who placed it, especially if they don’t know how to control it properly.
• It may attract spiritual wrath, cause unintended harm to others, disasters, guilt, fear, mental disturbance.
• Also, in community, if someone is found out, there might be social backlash or legal consequences (though proving witchcraft is hard legally).
  

Effects and Results

Believed or claimed results include:

• Frequent breakdowns or sudden mechanical failures.
• Accidents of unclear mechanical cause.
• Loss of business, delays, lives, financial loss (e.g. repairing parts that go bad).
• Psychological effects: fear, paranoia, anxiety, avoidance.
• Sometimes physical harm to driver or passengers in accidents, which may be attributed to witchcraft rather than negligence or mechanical failure.
  

 People’s perception towards motor/car witchcraft

• Many Ugandans believe in witchcraft as a part of life, even if they are Christians or Muslims. Belief is mixed with religion: some see witchcraft as evil, a sin, something to be rejected; others accept it as part of the unseen world and take precaution.
• There is skepticism: some people think that when car troubles happen, people attribute them to witchcraft out of superstition, neglecting mechanical causes like poor maintenance or poor driving.
• Fear is real: drivers and car owners may invest in spiritual protection, blessings, or rituals. Sometimes mechanics are suspected of sabotage (having been spiritually influenced) rather than simply making mistakes.
• Among diaspora Ugandans, beliefs vary: some still believe and observe the same practices; others see them as superstition.
  

The magnitude, scope, impact of witchcrft.

• Because much is informal, the true magnitude is hard to measure. But because cars are expensive, and because transportation is vital (for commerce, travel, survival), belief in car witchcraft can lead people to spend money on healers, prayers, charms, or off-road repairs.
• A psychological burden: fear of travel, anxiety about breakdowns or accidents.
• It can also affect behavior: reluctance to buy certain cars, avoiding certain routes or times of day (believing they are more susceptible), choosing specific garages or mechanics believed to be “safe” spiritually.
  

How to avoid witchcraft in cars/garage or / on road

Some of the widely held methods people use or believe in to prevent or guard against witchcraft:

1. Spiritual protection: blessings from pastors, priests, imams; Christian/Islamic prayers; using Holy water, anointing oils, or religious symbols (crosses, verses) in or on the car. That is why some people, after buying their cars, head to holy grounds.
2. Traditional protection: charms, amulets, putting protective fetishes inside the car.
3. Choosing trusted garages/mechanics: ones with good reputation, avoiding those rumored to have “spiritual business” or negative spiritual reputation.
4. Routine inspections of the car: checking under mats, tires, inside compartments for strange objects.
5. Avoiding picking up strange items or allowing unknown people to tamper with your car.
6. Avoiding routes, times, or persons believed to be able to put spiritual harm (e.g. not parking somewhere rumored to be a shrine, not travelling at “bad times”).
7. Psychological vigilance: being aware, seeking explanations mechanically first, taking good care (maintaining car, servicing regularly), keeping environment clean.
8. Community accountability: sharing stories, getting advice, consulting people with knowledge, religious help, or traditional healers with good reputations.
   

Witchcraft in car garages, car bonds

• Garages (repair shops) are places where people believe witchcraft might be practiced:
  
  • Some mechanics are suspected of applying curses, saboteur items, or secretly inserting items that cause later failure, so they can get more work or money.
  • Some garages may demand spiritual protection fees, or clients may bring charms to garages to protect their car while being repaired.
    

• Car bonds, i.e. bonded warehouses or places where cars are stored: similar beliefs exist that cars stored there may be spiritually targeted at night, or objects may be placed while the car is idle. Also, people worry about theft or damage, attributing mysterious damage or loss to spiritual causes. There is also another belief that car bonds or car shops, decide to use witchcraft by touching clients and they end up buying at least a car, even if it is outside their desire. The day you went to buy a particular car type, is it the same type you walked away with?

When does belief lead to real harm

• If belief causes someone to ignore mechanical maintenance, thinking spiritual causes override physical causes, that can lead to accidents.
• If someone attributes insurance failure, crash, or mechanical failure to witchcraft, they may not take legal or preventative measures, which can worsen risk.
• Financial harm: money spent on “spiritual remedies” might be wasted, or delay repairs.
• Social harm: suspicion, blaming neighbours or family, which could lead to conflict.
  

Is it common, and where?

• Probably more reported in rural and peri-urban areas, where traditional beliefs are stronger and access to technical diagnostics may be limited.
• But even in Kampala and urban areas, belief persists, though often more hidden, or intertwined with Christian/Islamic faith (blessings, pastors/priests, etc.).
• Both private persons and commercial drivers (taxi, bus, truck) are affected.
  

Limitations / what we do not know

• Lack of scientific or investigative journalism evidence of specific cases with verified witchcraft in cars.
• Very little documentation of court cases or legal redress for alleged car-witchcraft.
• Unclear precisely how many people believe strongly, vs those who think of such tales as superstition.
• Hard to separate psychological, mechanical, or natural causes from what people believe is spiritual.

About witchcraft to other countries.

Belief in witchcraft applied to cars, drivers and garages is not unique to Uganda; similar stories and accusations appear across West, East and Southern Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa) and in other places where folk magic or “brujería” traditions exist (parts of Latin America and diasporic communities).

The way it is said to be done follows similar patterns everywhere: spiritual specialists or hostile actors prepare powders, herbal liquids or wrapped fetishes and either sprinkle, smear or secretly place them on or inside a vehicle, or perform rituals around a garage, road or parked car to invoke harm or protection; in some cases stolen cars and identity documents have even been seized in police raids on suspected witch-doctors’ compounds. Common hiding places reported in oral accounts and media coverage are the less-seen cavities of a car; under seats and mats, inside door panels or gloveboxes, in spare-wheel wells, the engine bay or fuel containers, why? Because these spots are easy to access and hard for owners to inspect.

Forms vary but usually fall into three groups: solid/packed charms (small wrapped items, bones), powders/ashes (sprinkled in tyres, footwells or fuel), and liquid preparations (herbal infusions used to anoint parts or contaminate fuel/oil), while some cultures use smoke, inscriptions or spoken spells as the activating element; the same patterns accusation, protective blessing (religious or traditional) and occasional dramatic social fallout repeat across countries, though journalistic evidence is mostly anecdotal or police reports rather than scientific proof. 

Witchcraft in relation to cars in Uganda exists largely in the realm of belief, rumor, and spiritual interpretation rather than fully documented, scientifically proven cases. It plays a significant cultural role: many people believe, fear, avoid, or prepare for spiritual harm to their vehicles or their journeys. It affects behavior, causes expenditures (on spiritual protection), and shapes perceptions of misfortune, accidents, or mechanical failures. For those buying cars (in Uganda or importing), it’s wise to be aware of these beliefs, both for preventive spiritual or cultural reasons and to avoid being manipulated or scammed by those exploiting such beliefs.