I find the news report about the existence of the Witches and Wizards Association of Nigeria (WITZAN) in the mail below this exciting for a number of reasons. The issue is so close to my heart that it might be difficult for me to unravel the various reasons but I will try.
The Need for a Public Relationship to Conceptions of Witchcraft in Nigeria
It reminds me of the sense of liberation I felt when I arrived at the University of Kent from Benin City and encountered the university's Pagan and Witchcraft group. I felt liberated then because it suggested an opportunity to openly discuss and develop alternatives to the mainstream spirituality represented by the better known ones, from Christianity, to Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism, among others. Spirituality thrives best through variety that enables its various possibilities, practically infinite, to be explored.
Azen, Aje and Wicca: Bini and Yoruba Conceptions of Witchcraft Compared with Western Witchcraft
The notion of witchcraft is central to public consciousness in Nigeria, but unlike the West, where since the founding of modern Wicca by Gerald Gardner, it has become a public religion, it is hardly an open practice in Nigeria, to the degree that a spirituality exists at all that suits that name or the various correlations to it in Nigerian languages and lore.In Benin, a related concept is that of azen. In Yoruba, the correlative idea is aje . Two major works on the Yoruba conception are Hallen and Sodipo's Knowledge, Belief and Witchcraft and Teresa Washington's Our Mothers, Our Powers, Our Texts: Manifestations of Aje in Africana Literature, which links the idea with related conceptions in African-American culture and literature. Also central is the sculpture and books of Susan Wenger, although one often has to look carefully for her use of female centred spirituality in both sculpture and writing, books and essays on Gelede and female centred Yoruba spirituality, such as those by Babatunde Lawal and the Drewals and the essays of Rowland Abiodun, along with Awo Falokun Fatumnbi on Odu, which can be described as a feminine personality manifest in various states of being, that enables cosmic being and transformation, and is described by Lawal, if I remember well, in his Gelede, as an aspect of the complex of feminine divine figures associated with Ille, the earth, the patron of the aje.
The azen and aje conceptions share some relationship with various stages of the conception of witchcraft in the West that entitles them to be translated as "witch", one of those conceptions might be that of being magical spiritualities outside the boundaries of established religious practice and relying more on methods of manipulating reality than devotion to deities and emphasis on cosmology, as one finds in religions. Its true, however, that modern Western witchcraft is both magical-directed at shaping reality through methods that do not demonstrate a direct relationship between cause and effect, to provide a hasty definition of magic- as well as being a worship of deities. The conceptions of witchcraft from various Nigerian ethnic groups, suggest, however,something more archaic and anarchic, less conventional and structured, more secretive, to the degree that it exists in the first place, since most of the information about witchcraft in Nigeria is unverified.
Molara Ogundipe once argued that the concept of "witch" in the Western sense is not equivalent to the Yoruba "aje" but that is only half of the story because, to a significant degree, the range of concepts relating to "aje" may be found in modern Western conceptions of witchcraft, even if not in ideas from the pre-20th century West when "witchcraft" was largely a denigrative conception. This denigrative attitude may still apply to past Western conceptions of witchcraft even if one agrees with the argument that witchcraft labeling was a phase of the demonisation of the traditional spiritualities of Europe in the wake of Christianity and the rising dominance of patriarchal institutions in the light of which most accused of witchcraft were women, if I am correct.
The one person I know in Nigeria who declared himself a witch is Osemwigie Ebohon who runs a spiritual training school and cultural centre in Benin. He once claimed that a global meeting of witches was taking place in Benin, in the spirit realm, I expect, and offered entry to any interested person, including news reporters who cared to attend. I did not encounter any reports from that meeting.
Possibilities in the Development of African Witchcraft and Magic: Inspiration from the West
The institutional development in terms of a structured philosophy and practices in a public context has assisted Wicca to develop an ethical dimension that African witchcraft could benefit from. The achievements of Western witchcraft and magic in general, which is often a do-it-yourself activity, also suggest that it might be possible to develop a magical discipline using existing African structures independently from or in association with other practitioners of African spiritualities. A significant number of the rumored abilities of African witches are addressed in the large literature of modern Western magic which describes how to acquire these or related abilities. Using these suggestions and perhaps ideas and material forms form the African context, one can develop a viable magical system, even working on one's own.
The conceptions of witchcraft in Nigeria are composed of rumors, unverified lore and cosmological conceptions central to various world views. A Nigerian organisation of witches in Nigeria could be one step to separating fact from falsehood in relation to these ideas. Witchcraft in the West is a well established discipline and religion that has already developed rich body of literature, and art. It is a central feature of Western feminist and ecological spirituality and as with the work of Starhwak who wrote the seminal Spiral Dance, has developed into a movement with relevance to struggles for ecological struggles for political justice.
Conceptions of witchcraft in Nigeria,carefully examined, contain precious ideas relevant to gender relations, particularly in terms of Yoruba cosmology, conceptions of cognition in terms of relationships between consciousness in humans and non-humans, including explorations of consciousness in inanimate forms. The possibility for expansion of these ideas in relation to other spiritualities in various parts of the world is practically infinite.
Personal Exploration of African Magical Cosmologies: The Concept of Solitary vs Group Witchcraft and Magic
I take these conceptions seriously because when in Nigeria I was able to explore some of them and that led to enrichment in both theoretical knowledge and what Dion Fortune,the English occultist whose work led me to these explorations, described as a permanent extension of consciousness.
My kind of exploration, however,is solitary, in the spirit of Marian Green's impressive A Witch Alone, where the witch works alone rather than with coven. Such solitariness means that I have taken advantage of resources publicly available but little understood by people who are not sensitives to such values. It also means that I am not well informed about actual practices of witchcraft by particular people.
Witchcraft, Magic and Politics
The one elements that bothers more about the account of the WITZAN group is their identifying themselves as a group with partisan politics. Does that not dilute the significance of their spirituality? Of its magical value? Does that not reduce it to another case of magic/spirituality as agents s of politics? Is any spirituality not more powerful than that? Where is the space for those who want to belong but who share a different political orientation or are aplotical or who want to separate their spirituality from their politics? I dont consider this trend to be good news. It might reduce the group to just another political pressure group or a group seen as political scavengers, as some are already doing. The potential harvest of existing structures-material, ideational, institutional and in techniques of action- for the development of classical African spiritualities is too great for such distractions, in my view.
If WITZAN wants to demonstrate patriotism they might be better of with general statements of good will, not support of particular political candidates or political positions.They could also use their magical techniques powers to try to help the nation generally, as Dion Fortune and others might have tried to do during the Battle of Britain in World War 2, described in her The Magical Battle of Britain and fictionalized in terms more dramatic than Fortune is likely to have claimed in Dennis Wheatley's novel They Used Dark Forces. WITZAN presents a magic method in relation to Nigeria on its Facebok Notes in the following
Whatever are the reasons they have for destroying the lives of our unborn children, it is time we all put a stop to corrupt official misuse of our national resources for personal enrichment. Our governments have been a matter of few holding the cow for the strongest and most cunning to milk, under those circumstances everybody runs over everybody to make good at the expense of others. We encourage every Nigeria to practice and do the following: Write the names of those who you think are destroying Nigeria by their corruption and greed on a piece of tissue paper. Sketch a pair of snake, tongue to tongue on the paper, or cut out pictures of snakes and place them on the tissue. Add three cloves of garlic or red pepper, then wrap the tissue and bury it anywhere outside. This will asphyxiate any corrupt Nigeria politician and public officers, whenever they decide to spoil Nigeria. As the paper disintegrates, so too will their lives."
I have a problem with this beceause it seems overly dependent on the judgement of particular individuals who decide who is to be targeted for fatal punishment. If the spell works, how does it distinguish between degrees of corruption? Are all instances of corruption to suffer the same punishment of death?
Need for Public Literature by Nigerian Witches and Wizards
I hope that WITZAN publishes literature online and offline, that people can read to find out more about them. Their Facebook page is interesting but does not contain much.Someone on the page asked for contact info.I hope they will provide it. It would be good to know if they can direct one to initiatory methods, training techniques etc.It will be interesting to see what differences they might have from Western witchcraft.
U.S. and Online Based Aje Group
Interestingly, the Yoruba aje concept has been taken up by a group based in the US and they have a Yahoo group, but regrettably, my discussion on Facebookwith their founder and members suggests that they interpret in it in a misandric sense, in the context of resentment against male oppression, a position they presented in highly exaggerated terms depicting anti-male hatred and desire for domination of men. .That is at variance with what I have read of the conception of gender balance in the Aje/Gelede/Odu matrix of conceptions in classical Yoruba cosmology. I hope they arrive at balanced approach to the issue.
How to Become Aje or Awon Iya mi : Forthcoming
I will post soon an extract from Pierre Verger's compilation of Ifa magic practices Ewe:The Uses of Plants in Yoruba Society, on how to become aje or "Awon Iya Mi"meaning " My Mothers" a name that suggests the mythic, archetypal, paradoxical nurturing/destructive conceptions that make up the idea of aje.
thanks
Toyin
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com> Date: 27 May 2011 12:37
Subject: POLITICS, SPIRITUALITY AND MAGIC: The Witches and Wizards Association of Nigeria (WITZAN) deploy 500 members to Abuja for Jonathan's inauguration
To: usaafricadialogue <
USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>, WoleSoyinkaSociety <
WoleSoyinkaSociety@yahoogroups.com>, Society for The Academic Study of Magic <
ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC@jiscmail.ac.uk>,
African-American_Wiccans@yahoogroups.com ---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Dominic Ogbonna <enyimocha@gmail.com> Date: 27 May 2011 05:31
Subject: ||NaijaObserver|| Breaking News!! Witches Go After Buhari!!!
To: naijapolitics <
NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com>, Nigerian World Forum <
NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com>, Nigerian Observer group <
naijaobserver@yahoogroups.com>
"Buhari should stop wasting his time because his time is past. He can never rule the nation again. His time is gone ...Some people look at us as if we are evil minded people. Not all witches are bad. Our own type of witchcraft is progressive. We are willing to intervene in the affairs of the country anytime the government decides to seek our counsel ...Witches and wizards in the country are ready to help restore Nigeria's lost glory." -Wizard-In-Chief
Witches deploy 500 members to Abuja for Jonathan's inauguration
By TAIWO OLUWADARE
Friday, May 27, 2011
The Witches and Wizards Association of Nigeria (WITZAN), has deployed 500 witches to Abuja and other parts of Ahead of Nigeria to prevent any tragic occurrence and ensure peaceful inauguration on May 29.
According to its national co-ordinator, Dr Okhue Iboi, the decision was taken after an emergency meeting at Zuma rock, Niger State. WITZAN also warned President Goodluck Jonathan to take adequate security as bad people and disgruntled politicians are planning to cause problems.
Iboi, however, disclosed that the nation would soon have a respite from the people currently throwing bombs all over the places as they would be exposed: "We are going to expose those sponsoring bomb blasts in the country after May 29. They have been caged already. We are going to use our power to cause them to come out and confess their misdeeds. Nigerians would be surprised at how the saboteurs would be exposed."
He said it was revealed to the witches as far back as last year that no other candidate except Jonathan would rule the nation. The association which also predicted the failure of both former military president Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida and vice president Atiku Abubakar in their presidential quests also disclosed that Jonathan would serve his four-year tenure at the end of which Nigerians would be begging him to go for another term because he has been chosen by God to lead the nation.
Iboi, however, warned Jonathan to beware of sycophants, while warning the incoming ministers and advisers to co-operate with the president and discharge their duties with dedication. The witches warned former Head of State, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) to stop wasting his time pursuing the presidency:
"Buhari should stop wasting his time because his time is past. He can never rule the nation again. His time is gone." The incoming National Assembly will deliver. This is the time Nigerians will know that they have real legislators.
"Some people look at us as if we are evil minded people. Not all witches are bad. Our own type of witchcraft is progressive. We are willing to intervene in the affairs of the country anytime the government decides to seek our counsel. We have the solutions to bring lasting peace to the country. Witches and wizards in the country are ready to help restore Nigeria's lost glory.
"We saw June 12 crisis long before it happened and we warned the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola but he ignored us. Abiola would have been Nigeria's president but some of us decided to punish him over the role he played in scuttling the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo presidential ambition. We warned him not to waste his time and life. This was reported in some national dailies. We also dealt with the late General Sani Abacha for the execution of the late Ken Saro-Wiwa."
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