Magical Interpretations, Material Reality: Modernity, Witchcraft and the Occult in Postcolonial Africa

268 Pages·2002·1.9 MB·English

by  H. Moore

Recto running head i
Magical Interpretations, Material
Realities
Witchcraft is alive and well in Africa today both among the disenchanted and
downtrodden as well as the educated elite. This volume sets out recent thinking
on witchcraft in Africa, paying particular attention to variations in meanings
and practices. It examines the way different people in different contexts are
making sense of what witchcraft is and what it might mean.
Clearly, the promises of countless western social theorists – that such ‘enchant-
ments’ would die a sudden death with ‘modernity’ – have not come to pass. In
fact, despite growing democracy and development throughout the region, the
general sentiment on the continent is that witchcraft is increasing. Indeed,
witchcraft is routinely implicated in modern state politics, free markets and legal
systems. But why, and why now?
Using recent ethnographic materials from across the continent, the volume
explores how witchcraft articulates with particular modern settings, for example:
the State in Cameroon; Pentecostalism in Malawi; the university system in
Nigeria and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Ghana, Sierra Leone
and Tanzania. The editors provide a timely overview and reconsideration of
long-standing anthropological debates about ‘African witchcraft’, while
simultaneously raising broader concerns about the theories of the western social
sciences. This book will be widely read and used by anthropologists, social
scientists, development theorists and policy makers.
Henrietta L. Moore is Professor of Anthropology and Todd Sanders is a
Research Fellow, both in the Department of Anthropology at the London
School of Economics.

Recto running head iii
Magical Interpretations,
Material Realities
Modernity, witchcraft and the
occult in postcolonial Africa
Edited by Henrietta L. Moore
and Todd Sanders
London and New York
First published 2001
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.
© 2001 selection and editorial matter, Henrietta L. Moore and Todd
Sanders;individual chapters,the contributors
Chapter 3 is an adaptation of ‘Cannibal Transformations’,
in Memories of the Slave Trade,which will be published
by The University of Chicago Press,© 2002 by The
University of Chicago. All rights reserved.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,mechanical,
or other means,now known or hereafter invented,including
photocopying and recording,or in any information storage or
retrieval system,without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Magical interpretations,material realities:modernity,witchcraft,
and the occult in postcolonial Africa / edited by Henrietta L.Moore
and Todd Sanders.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Witchcraft – Africa,Sub-Saharan. I. Moore,Henrietta L.
II. Sanders,Todd,1965–
BF1584.A357 M34 2001
133.4´3´096 – dc2 1 2001048185
ISBN 0-203-39825-4 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-39969-2 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0–415–25866–9 (hbk)
ISBN 0–415–25867–7 (pbk)
Chapter 00
In Memory of Bwire T.M.Kaare
1954–2000

Recto running head vii
Contents
List of figures ix
List of contributors xi
1 Magical interpretations and material realities:
an introduction 1
HENRIETTA L. MOORE AND TODD SANDERS
2 Delusions of development and the enrichment of
witchcraft discourses in Cameroon 28
FRANCIS B. NYAMNJOH
3 Cannibal transformations: colonialism and
commodification in the Sierra Leone hinterland 50
ROSALIND SHAW
4 Vulture men, campus cultists and teenaged witches:
modern magics in Nigerian popular media 71
MISTY L. BASTIAN
5 Witchcraft and scepticism by proxy: Pentecostalism
and laughter in urban Malawi 97
RIJK VAN DIJK
6 Black market, free market: anti-witchcraft shrines
and fetishes among the Akan 118
JANE PARISH
7 Betrayal or affirmation? Transformations in witchcraft
technologies of power, danger and agency
among the Tuareg of Niger 136
SUSAN RASMUSSEN
viii Contents
8 Save our skins: structural adjustment, morality
and the occult in Tanzania 160
TODD SANDERS
9 Witchcraft in the new South Africa: from colonial
superstition to postcolonial reality? 184
ISAK NIEHAUS
10 On living in a world with witches: everyday epistemology
and spiritual insecurity in a modern African city (Soweto) 206
ADAM ASHFORTH
11 Witchcraft, development and paranoia in Cameroon:
interactions between popular, academic and state discourse 226
CYPRIAN F. FISIY AND PETER GESCHIERE
Index 247
Recto running head ix
Figures
4.1 Iyabo Akindele, who claims to have seven ogbaanje powers
in her body 83
4.2 Ifeoma Ejiogu ‘with Ogbanje power all over her body’ 83
4.3 Ogbanje Georgina Nwokwa 84
4.4 Ngozi Nwosu, ‘queen of the coast, a Cobra’ 84
7.1 Herbal medicine woman divining to diagnose tezma-induced
illness 147
7.2 Marabout man working with verses to insert into amulet 151
7.3 Child wearing protective amulets against
malevolent forces 152
8.1 Diviner at a travelling market in Ihanzu, 1994 175
8.2 Diviner’s banner listing symptoms treated and
medicines for sale 176