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WITCHCRAFT IS A PREVALENT BELIEF AND PRACTICE on the African continent. It permeates and controls die thinking, perception and lives of nearly all Africans, both educated and non-educated. It is an integral part of Africa's traditional religious heritage. Several writings on African indigenous religious systems attest to this.
For instance, V. M. Turner, in his 1968 book The Drums of Affliction: A Study of Religious Processes Among the Ndembu of Zambia, cites as one of the features of the religion of the Ndembu people, the "belief in the anti-social destructive power of female witches and sorcerers, known as alqfi, meaning perverted destroyer of life. The aloji are believed to possess familiars who act partly as instruments of their owners' malevolent desires and ambitions." Frank Melland confirms this in his book, In Witch-Bound Africa. According to Melland, it is witchcraft that poisons the tribal life of the Luanda people in Southern Africa. For die Luandas, he states, life is a struggle against witchcraft because die people live in constant fear of their elders who diey believe possess Chitumbu, or spells and witchcraft medicine. Chitumbu, the Luandas believe can cause death, illness, accidents, epileptic fits, infertility, miscarriage, etc.
This could be why, in Bamenda, Cameroon, witchcraft is a prerequisite for traditional office holders. According to Tata Mbuy, in his 1992 book Witchcraft Problems in the Life of Art Africa- case Studies From Cameroon, it is unthinkable that any traditional ailer in Bemenda would not practice witchcraft. Witchcraft is believed to invest rulers widi mystical powers, deeper insights, and extraordinary wisdom.
In my own country of Nigeria, die belief in witchcraft is common among people of all ethnic and religious backgrounds. The Tivs in North Central Nigeria believe that witches (Mbatsav) possess magical powers that diey acquire through rituals and human sacrifice. Ritual killing and sacrifice of humans is still practiced in Nigeria. Witchcraft features prominendy in die Nigerian media and the film industry, even in children's classroom textbooks. Popular Nigerian home videos are all permeated by fetish thinking, sorcery, magic and occultism.
Throughout Africa-in the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and elsewhere-die belief in witchcraft exists with equal force and ferocity. Even science in Africa is infused with witchcraft and sorcery, making much of it a...