ABSTRACT
Patients are usually women in their child-bearing age, although occasionally elderly women, small children, and men figure as patients. Nearly all patients are Nkoya. In Lusaka I once witnessed the initiation of a Lenje woman, who subsequently became a prominent adept.10 In view of the strong entrepreneurial tendencies among Bituma leaders, it is unlikely that they would ever turn away a patient from an ethnic group different from their own. The fact that the cult’ s leadership has never been exclusively Nkoya points in the same direction. So do the formal pronouncements of leaders and adepts, when questioned on this point. The near-exclusive patronage by Nkoya patients rather seems to derive from the fact that few non-Nkoya patients would be able to convince their sponsors of the advantages of Bituma over cults of affliction with which they have become more familiar in their own home area. Given the considerable cultic activity going on in Lusaka townships, with Tonga staging mashawe cults of affliction,11 Luvale staging bindele and similar cults from north-western Zambia,12 Tumbuka staging vimbuza, and so on, Bituma can only command the tiny Nkoya section of the urban cultic market. Moreover, there is always the option for people to return to the village and seek treatment there. Many people, both Nkoya and others, do exactly this.
