USA Africa Dialogue Series - Osemwegie Ebohon: Self Professed Witch and Promoter of African, and particularly, Benin Cultures

                     Osemwegie Ebohon 


       Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju 

More than twenty years ago, possibly I the 80s, then Chief Priest Osemwegie Ebohon announced on television that a world meeting of witches was about to take place in Benin-City and he urged any reporter who wished to attend the meeting to see him so he could guide the person as to how to be present at the conclave.

This was most sensational,  since witch meetings in the African context are believed to take place in a non-physical dimension which initiates attend in their spiritual forms.

This is different from the physical meetings that define modern Western witchcraft after its founding as a religion by Gerald Gardner in England in the 20th century.

Ebohon was understood to be referring instead to the classical understanding of a congregating of witches in Africa and pre-modern England, a conclave undertaken  through means unknown to general humanity, methods beyond the grasp of science and technology, techniques taking the initiate beyond the world of space and time.

A most intriguing prospect, but I don't recall any reporter later coming forward to state he had attended the meeting, so strong was the wariness and fearful respect accorded witchcraft in Benin of the time and perhaps now.

Ebohon, however, rising from those foundations has gained fame and fortune as a promoter of Benin and African cultures through his theatre troupe, music and his cultural center.

I remain intrigued, though by the question of the scope of Ebohon 's exploration of the occult and sacred arts.

How can this be approached?

Can a composite study of the total Ebohon be undertaken, mapping his correlative journeys through the arts and the occult?

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