A deep interdependence and even identical roots unite the early mother-child dyad and the system of witchcraft-anthropohagia which is widespread among West African peoples. The mother-child dyad, tinged by primary oral aggressiveness, gives way to the socio-symbolic system of witchcraft-anthropophagia, which serves to interpret and to process social relations. The structural analysis of the Malinké myth of Bandia Waly and the anthropological and psychoanalytic investigations of the psychiatric implications of witchcraft-anthropophagia (by means of clinical cases, the action of healers and the report of a witch-hunter) lead to the discussion of oral aggressivity and its vicissitudes in different cultures. The system of witchcraft-anthropophagia in itself has a double function: on the one hand it serves prevention and therapy of mental illness; on the other hand it operates on social tension.