Curses

 involve the use of words or actions against an individual or group.

 Words indicating the misfortune one will suffer for engaging in a particular action or saying certain words may be uttered. Certain actions, for instance, a mother exposing her nakedness to her son for something the son did, constitutes a curse which negatively affect the person cursed. 

Curses are often manifested in different ways. Some of the common manifestations include the following: continual financial problems, continual poverty, chronic illnesses, premature deaths, repetitive accidents or injuries, chronic strife, repetitive suicide cases in the same family, chronic mental torment, poor eating habits and poor sleeping habits, sickly infants, repetitive business failures, barrenness, repetitive miscarriages. Regarding the motivation for cursing others, John Edmiston says that curses may be pronounced on the selected targets because of hatred, envy, greed, jealousy, use of magic, spiritual conflict or the desire for revenge. John Mbiti explains more on the power of words:

There is mystical power in words, especially those of a senior per- son to a junior one, in terms of age, social status or office. The words of parents for example, carry ‘power’ when spoken to children: they ‘cause’ good fortune, curse, success, peace, sorrows or blessings, especially when spoken in moments of crisis.