Roots of Witchcraft Belief in Africa
As is obvious from the news report, the key matrix of witchcraft belief in the context in question is traditional African spirituality, not Pentecostalism.
Pentecostalism, however, adapts some of the crudest aspects of traditional African beliefs and has little or no roots for refinement of those beliefs, as far as I know but the native spiritualities have.
The Yoruba Example and its Complexity
In Yoruba culture, for example, as in the Ghanaian context in the essay, the roots of witchcraft belief are in the native culture itself.
This belief, in the Yoruba context, combines the celebratory and the demonising in relation to women.
It is a very rich complex of ideas in need of refinement, mobilisation and direction and I pray I am able to play a role in this task.
Questions of Terminology and its Metaphysical Implications
Some argue that the translation of the Yoruba terms ''iyami'', ''our mothers'' and ''aje'' into the Western term ''witch'' is non-factual bcs the Yoruba terms are not necessarily negative.
This is not completely correct bcs correlates between the female demonising aspect of pre-modern Western witchcraft beliefs and the female celebrating character of modern Western witchcraft beliefs are both found in Yoruba thought.
Thus the term ''witch'' is a fit translation of the feminine/maternal/nurturing and creative/destructive complex of ideas represented by this spirituality from Yorubaland.
Why the focus on women in pre-modern Western witchcraft and its ideational correlates in Africa?
Metaphysical Interpretations of Feminine Biology in the Yoruba Context
In the classical Yoruba context, it is related to ideas about female biology and its psychological and spiritual correlates, ideas of genital concealment in relation to capacity for secrecy, of unique embodiment of the power to gestate and deliver new life and thus the ability to negatively reshape and destroy life.
Hence the feminine principle, represented by women visible and invisible, ''iyami'' ''our mothers,'' motherhood perceived in a sense both conventionally maternal and arcane, biological and occult, is understood as central to the polity in general and even to the male dominated monarchy, yet this complex also enables the demonisation of women as embodiments of the irrational expression of this principle in terms of the bloodthirsty side of the iyami and aje.
Between Refinement and Elimination of Problematic or Dangerous Beliefs
Clearly, there is a rich body of ideas here that can be refined of misogyny, of superstition, of self contradiction, developed in terms of precise but imaginatively evocative metaphysics, epistemology and ethics.
What are the conceptual contexts shaping the Ghanaian understanding of what is being translated as witchcraft? I dont know.
Should these ideas, wherever they are from, as long as they lead to death and abuse of the vulnerable, specifically women and children-yes-children are left to die bcs of witchcraft accusations-be eliminated or refined?
Is There Any Truth in Witchcraft Beliefs?
I am very interested in knowing more about the conference described by Obododimma in which self professed witches showed up with brooms. I am particularly curious about it bcs its described as a pan-African conference, my curiosity further fueled by the fact that the image of the witch on a broom is an image from Western folklore which even modern Western witches do not identify with except as imagative depictions from a pre-modern era.
It is possible, as I have experienced, and as many have described in carefully documented accounts of first hand experiences in various contexts, for the human mind/spirit to travel outside the body as is alleged for witches but of course, its not done with brooms bcs its not a physical motion.
There is also a basis in reality for the belief that witches can congregate in trees, bcs some trees emit an energy that facilitates entry into another dimension, as I have experienced. Another idea that needs refinement and adequate interpretation.
Between Objective and Subjective Knowledge in Witchcraft Beliefs as a Subset in Belief in the Supernatural
Should the focus also be on convincing people that only knowledge backed by evidence is adequate, as the writer of of the article argues, describing that as vital for demonstrating the non-factuality of claims of misfortune caused by witches and thus disabusing people's minds of the erroneous belief in the existence of witches in the first place?
I expect beliefs in spiritual powers will always be with us bcs these powers exist as fundamental to human nature, experienced in different ways by various people and understood and responded to variously by different people.
The human being also needs sensitivity to the idea that the universe transcends mechanical laws of cause and effect and is not locked within the quotidian limitations of the everyday universe of space, time, the office, the school etc, the social frameworks that enable civilization remain stable and progress.
The Western Example in Eliminating Anti-Witchcraft Ideas and the Development of Modern Western Witchcraft
England dealt with the problem of witchcraft accusations as a means of persecution by banning any expression of belief in witchcraft. That stopped the witch murders, some of them being massacres of groups of women, of various ages, young, middle aged and old.
It was also terrible in the US, as in the infamous judicial massacre directed at women known as the Salem Witch Trials.
The anti-witch culture in Europe was so deeply institutionalized in its virulence, it bred its own unique literature, exemplified by the Malleus Maleficarum, the Hammer of Witches, a book which described how to identify a witch.
The anti-witch culture in Europe was so deeply institutionalized in its virulence, it bred its own unique literature, exemplified by the Malleus Maleficarum, the Hammer of Witches, a book which described how to identify a witch.
On the lifting of the Witchcraft Act in England, Gerald Gardner initiated what is now known as modern Western witcraft, one of the fastest growing of the world's new religions.
He claimed descent from a traditional witcraft coven, existing underground before the repeal of the Act, but his claim is disputed, the verdict being divided on whether witchcraft actually existed before the modern open development.
What Are the Realities of Pentecostalism?
Pentecostalism, a spirituality that deeply influenced me, as others also have, is essentially beyond the economic and superstitious crudities into which it too often degenerates.
As its name implies, it is centred in the descent of divine power at Pentecost, enabling a distinctive relationship between the individual, any group so energised and the creator of the universe.
The economizing of this relationship-except in the sharing of goods in a communal spirit as was done by the early apostles- and its use as a tool of superstition, dehumanisation and cultural destruction, is ideally not part of its mandate.
On Mon, 3 Aug 2020 at 11:54, segun ogungbemi <seguno2013@gmail.com> wrote:
Murdered a 90 years women because she was alleged to be a 'witch'? What did government do to those who killed her?There should be a thorough investigation and severe punishment for the dastardly act.Segun.--On Mon, Aug 3, 2020, 12:08 AM segun ogungbemi <seguno2013@gmail.com> wrote:Murder a 90 years women because she was alleged to be a 'witch'? What did government do to those who killed her?There should be a thorough investigation and severe punishment for the dastardly act.Segun.On Sun, Aug 2, 2020, 8:55 AM Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:--Akua Denteh: Last 'witch' to be murdered in Ghana?
https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/Akua-Denteh-Last-witch-to-be-murdered-in-Ghana-1023577
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