On returning to the Lele of the Kasai (then in Zaire), in 1987, twenty-five years after her initial fieldwork, the author is told of facts which had occured towards the end of the 1970’s and the begining of the 1980’s. An anti-sorcery movement took hold of Lele country, led by Catholic missionaries, both native and non-native. The article tells of the brutalities commited in this period against the supposed sorcerers, placing these facts in a double-context: on the one hand, the Lele religion and its theories for explaining misfortune; on the other hand, the advent of missionary preaching and conversion. Finally, the article seeks to understand the reasons behind such violent events and analyzes the incapacity of the Catholic church to offer answers to the questions which concern the Lele and to comprehend their religious doctrines.