Changing Nigerian cultures: two films against witchcraft and an impossible dialogue

The prominent place of witchcraft in Nollywood films produced in the 1990s is widely acknowledged, and has prompted a number of comments from critics. While filmmakers’ opinion is divided on the subject, these films obviously echo familiar situations. The dissemination of Nigerian films outside Africa and their entering new geographical and cultural areas, and the didactic nature of Nollywood, have led to a clash between Nigerian and the British cultures in the bid to fight the widespread practice of witchcraft and its attendant casualties, which now affect both worlds. This paper reflects on the difficulty of intercultural communication on the subject as illustrated by the recent controversy sparked by a British NGO’s discovery of Nollywood in 2008. The film born of this culture-shock presents a novel way of dealing with screen-mediated witchcraft and its impact

The Marked and the Magic in \u3cem\u3eProspero’s Daughter\u3c/em\u3e: Contextualizing Postmodern Witchcraft Accusations Using the Early Modern

Despite Prospero’s Daughter having won Elizabeth Nunez a handful of awards and having been received positively by critics, little aside from reviews about the novel exists in the literary sphere. Several articles discuss her memoir or two of her novels, namely Boundaries, Beyond the Limbo Silence, and When Rocks Dance, but it is challenging to find literary criticism about Prospero’s Daughter, let alone in reference to witchcraft and magic. This essay provides that literary criticism, placing it in context with historical research on early modern witchcraft theory. Although Nunez’s novel is a postmodern Shakespeare adaptation centered in 1960s Trinidad, it contains depictions of witchery and magic consistent with those of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century witch trial records, demonology, Christian teachings of the time, and cultural anthropological and historical research. My analysis of Prospero’s Daughter, in featuring a reframing of witchcraft-related issues like sexuality, poisoning, and witch’s marks, bridges the scholarly gap between early modern historical past and postcolonial literary present. This paper explores how the aforementioned issues appear in main characters like Sylvia, Gardner, and Carlos, and was written to provide an updated perspective on witchcraft in literary scholarship for others who are intrigued by Nunez’s depictions

On the Articulation of Witchcraft and Modes of Production among the Nupe, Northern Nigeria

The political economy of occult belief in Africa can highlight hidden social and political conflict in times of transition which remain otherwise undetected. This has been demonstrated in taking the development of witchcraft accusations over time as indicator, and the Nupe of Northern Nigeria as an example. A tentative long-term study on the growth of the Nupe state since pre-colonial times points towards a close relationship between the content and form of witchcraft accusations and the mode of production under which the stakeholders used to life and work. Over time, witchcraft accusations among the Nupe apparently served different, even antagonistic ends, depending on the mode of production in which they were embedded. Much confusion in literature on the apparent contradiction between ‘emancipating’ and ‘oppressive’ functions of witchcraft beliefs could be avoided by considering this articulation between modes of production, witchcraft accusations, and the underlying vested interests of the ruling powers.witchcraft; modes of production; informal politics; social conflict; occult belief; Nupe; Northern Nigeria JEL classification: Z1; Z12

No Peace in the House: Witchcraft Accusations as an Old Woman\u27s Problem in Ghana

In Ghana, older women may be marginalized, abused, and even killed as witches. Media accounts imply this is common practice, mainly through stories of “witches camps” to which the accused may flee. Anthropological literature on aging and on witchcraft, however, suggests that this focus exaggerates and misinterprets the problem. This article presents a literature review and exploratory data on elder advocacy and rights intervention on behalf of accused witches in Ghana to help answer the question of how witchcraft accusations become an older woman’s problem in the context of aging and elder advocacy work. The ineffectiveness of rights based and formal intervention through sponsored education programs and development projects is contrasted with the benefit of informal conflict resolution by family and staff of advocacy organizations. Data are based on ethnographic research in Ghana on a rights based program addressing witchcraft accusations by a national elder advocacy organization and on rights based intervention in three witches camps

‘Viral’ hunts? A cultural Darwinian analysis of witch persecutions

The theory of Darwinian cultural evolution is gaining currency in many parts of the socio-cultural sciences, but it remains contentious. Critics claim that the theory is either fundamentally mistaken or boils down to a fancy re-description of things we knew all along. We will argue that cultural Darwinism can indeed resolve long-standing socio-cultural puzzles; this is demonstrated through a cultural Darwinian analysis of the European witch persecutions. Two central and unresolved questions concerning witch-hunts will be addressed. From the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries, a remarkable and highly specific concept of witchcraft was taking shape in Europe. The first question is: who constructed it? With hindsight, we can see that the concept contains many elements that appear to be intelligently designed to ensure the continuation of witch persecutions, such as the witches’ sabbat, the diabolical pact, nightly flight, and torture as a means of interrogation. The second question is: why did beliefs in witchcraft and witch-hunts persist and disseminate, despite the fact that, as many historians have concluded, no one appears to have substantially benefited from them? Historians have convincingly argued that witch-hunts were not inspired by some hidden agenda; persecutors genuinely believed in the threat of witchcraft to their communities. We propose that the apparent ‘design’ exhibited by concepts of witchcraft resulted from a Darwinian process of evolution, in which cultural variants that accidentally enhanced the reproduction of the witch-hunts were selected and accumulated. We argue that witch persecutions form a prime example of a ‘viral’ socio-cultural phenomenon that reproduces ‘selfishly’, even harming the interests of its human hosts

From Nollywood to New Nollywood: the story of Nigeria’s runaway success

From stories about cult and witchcraft to heartbreak and sorrow, Nigeria's Nollywood has developed into Africa's giant in filmmaking

Males, masculine honor and witch hunting in seventeenth-century Germany

This article aims to contribute to the emerging cultural study of early modern witchcraft by examining one particular prosecution from the Bishopric of Bamberg—a territory in Germany that experienced very intensive witch persecutions between 1625 and 1630. The main focus of the present study is on Burgomaster Johannes Junius, a male accused in 1628 of being a demonic witch. Throughout the study, the following documents are examined for the insights they provide not only into witchcraft but also into the construc-tion of seventeenth-century masculinity: Junius’s witch trial records and a letter written to his daughter while he was imprisoned. The article suggests that the concept of honor played a significant part in establishing and maintaining Junius’s masculine identity. The centrality that Junius attached to his honor was emphasized by the intense and dra-matic manner in which he tried to defend it after he was arrested for the “dishonorable” crime of witchcraft. Key words: witchcraft; witch persecutions; Bamberg; Germany; Burgomaster Johannes Junius; masculinity; honor Throughout the past few years, scholars of Europe’s early modern witch

Witchcraft, whites and the 1994 South African elections: Notes on the symbolic constitution of power in an Eastern Transvaal lowveld village

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented 27 February 1995.The relationship between colonialism and witchcraft, as depicted in the ethnographic literature of central and southern Africa, presents an intriguing puzzle. The human myseries resulting from colonialism- such as the loss of land, poverty, disease, and labour exploitationare widely documented. It is also well known that witchcraft beliefs inscribe the causes of misfortune in tense social relationships. While studies recognize that colonialism has generated increased suspicions of witchcraft, they do not show that colonists are identified as witches. …. This article investigates, in greater depth, the intricate connections between experiences of colonial subjugation and African witchcraft beliefs. In contrast to the impression conveyed by the above-mentioned studies, I aim to demonstrate that colonists do not necessarily fall outside the parameters of witchcraft. Narratives of witchcraft can present a salient critique of the colonial order. Yet, I suggest that, criticisms of colonialism are less apparent in the sociology of witchcraft accusations, than in the symbolism of witchcraft beliefs

Folk-healing, fairies and witchcraft: the trial of Stein Maltman, Stirling 1628

'Folk-healing, Fairies and Witchcraft: The Trial of Stein Maltman, Stirling 1628' is the first full publication of a trial record which is particularly valuable in the history of Scottish popular belief, that of Stein Maltman, of Leckie, about twelve kilometres to the West of Stirling. Although our text has itself been edited from the original transcripts of depositions and confessions by the seventeenth-century scribe, it provides important information about folk-healing practices, maleficium, and the role of fairies in the construction of illness in early modern Scotland. The case seems to be representative of endemic rather than epidemic witchcraft-trials, and the mentions of fairies attributed to Stein and which he is himself recorded to make may closely reflect his professional construction of healing practices

Getting shot of elves: healing, witchcraft and fairies in the Scottish witchcraft trials

This paper re-examines the evidence of the Scottish witchcraft trials for beliefs associated by scholars with "elf-shot." Some supposed evidence for elf-shot is dismissed, but other material illuminates the interplay between illness, healing and fairy-lore in early modern Scotland, and the relationship of these beliefs to witchcraft itself