No Witchcraft for Sale

“No Witchcraft for Sale” illustrates a complicated relationship between a white family and their native African cook during the Apartheid period in South Africa. At times, the Farquars love Gideon as a family member, but at other times, the Social Hierarchy During Apartheid presents too big a barrier to wholly overcome. While entrenched in his lower caste, Gideon exerts his autonomy by using and protecting his indigenous healing traditions.

Gideon loves the Farquar’s son, Teddy, from the time he is a baby, but he knows time will eventually drive a wedge between them. They start on even footing when Teddy is young and has no social awareness, but Gideon knows that social structures such as apartheid, caused by racism and classism, will assign a position to Teddy that will soon surpass Gideon. He remarks several times throughout the story that soon Teddy will be grown and that, as a Christian, he believes it is God’s will that white people assert dominion over Black people. The third-person narrator explains that Gideon is a “mission boy,” meaning his religious beliefs were imposed upon him by white missionaries. This allows him to accept his social position as if it were inevitable, but the narrator does not necessarily hold that same belief. One of the story’s overall messages is that racism and classism are not innate prejudices but are taught and modeled by adults to children; it is not until Teddy is six and begins school that he becomes aware of his social status and begins to treat Gideon like a servant rather than a friend.

Lessing uses literary devices such as figurative and sensory language, including contrasting colors, to show the differences between the clashing cultures. Descriptions of Teddy always include references to his blond hair, blue eyes, and pale skin; when his eyes are swollen by snake poison, the “great purple oozing protuberances” (69) are a sharp and grotesque contrast against his usual fairness. This juxtaposition highlights the sinister underbelly of white supremacy; Teddy’s blond hair, blue eyes, and childlike innocence can’t detract from his racist actions calling Gideon’s son slurs. When Gideon leads the Farquars through the bush on the quest for the root, the Farquars struggle, describing the sun as “a bronze tray whirling overhead” (72). This metaphor situates the family’s place in the social hierarchy; they relate to the land and people around them in terms of their own power and leisure. By contrast, the “scorching” earth does not seem to bother Gideon, showing his familiarity with the land.

The persistence of Native Wisdom as a Form of Resistance is another overarching theme. Gideon and other native people use plants for medicinal purposes; these are traditions that have descended from indigenous healers whom white colonists denigrated as “witch doctors.” They refuse to share this knowledge with white foreigners, even if it could help heal people across Africa. The narrator does not judge or criticize Gideon and the other natives for choosing to withhold their knowledge; the narrator’s tone seems to agree that Africans must keep some of this magic and power to themselves to retain their identity and integrity. The title of the story conveys this message; the practices that white people dismiss as witchcraft are not for sale and are a birthright that should only be passed down to those who have the same connection with and understanding of the land and its natural resources. The native African people watched white colonists destroy the land in the name of progress, only to become interested in the local flora when it could be profitable. Keeping their knowledge of traditional healing practices a secret from white people becomes a site of resistance, a way to take a stand against imperial oppression.

The reader can glean from this short story that Doris Lessing came down on the side of native Africans rather than the white colonist class into which she was born. The third-person narrator describes characters and situations that align with her own well-known viewpoints. Lessing’s anti-racist, anti-apartheid, and anti-capitalist beliefs come through as she describes ruptures in trust and relationships caused by cultural expectations and social class. The theme of Anti-Capitalism and the Commodification of Medicine is apparent in the white doctor and scientist’s greed as they attempt to capitalize on Gideon’s natural remedy. Lessing’s narrator also does not trust Christianity as a strong enough force for good. In the story, Christianity spread by white people throughout Africa enables colonists to reinforce the white supremacist and capitalist principles, to the point where Gideon has internalized and accepted the racist social structure. Though Lessing was raised Christian and educated in a Catholic school, she eventually grew skeptical and observed the problems Christianity could cause, especially the type spread by white missionaries.

The symbols of the snake, plants, and eyes summon a connection to the biblical Garden of Eden, where a serpent persuades Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge. In doing so, they become more aware of their differences and lose their innocence, experiencing shame and pain for the first time. Through this lens, the story concludes that social constructs that divide people by race and class do nothing but cause hatred, conflict, distrust, and confusion in the world. With this, colonialism and apartheid are postlapsarian scenarios—ideas of what life became after Adam and Eve’s “fall.”