Cultural Significance
In most instances the tribe's witch doctor plays the essential role in dealing with the lightning bird. A supposed extract from the bird's flesh may for instance be prepared into a remedy for tracing thieves. In this way the witchdoctors may exert control over the minds of both law abiding and criminal members of their society.
In 2005, a South African man was convicted of culpable homicide after killing a two-year-old child he believed to be an impundulu.
Read more about this topic: Lightning Bird
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