Witchcraft and Modernity
By: Briana Belfiore (for works cited click here)
Witchcraft’s Prevalence in African Culture: A Symbol of Tradition, A Commentary on Modernity, or Both?
Introduction:
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In my paper, I focused on the concept of witchcraft and how it relates to the concept of modernity in post-colonial African civilizations. Modernity refers to the development and establishment of modern (i.e. Western) ideals, practices and viewpoints instilled in various cultures. As many African colonies gained their independence, they were faced with the problem of either accepting the modern views that were placed artificially within their culture, or re-establish their traditional yet somewhat outdated practices. The westernization of these countries left them in a predicament in the sense that it separated them so much from their traditional roots, that returning to what is natural (read: traditional) would in some ways be inefficient and ineffective in their newly formed independent entity.
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What are one of these traditional practices???
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Witchcraft
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What is it?
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Hidden acts, spirit of witch leaves body and goes on “invisible, nocturnal predations” (Shaw 1992; 858)
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Beat victims
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Vampirism and cannibalism
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Ihanzu rain-dancing and witch trials
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Ekong- modern notion of witchcraft practiced in large areas of central and southern Africa
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Practice in which a witch turns previously dead victims into zombies that in turn work for others
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Picture of a witchcraft ritual in Tanzania
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My Argument
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My argument was that witchcraft does not hinder modernity, and in some cases enhance modernity. Witchcraft allows many Africans to make commentary and some sense of the effects modernity has had on their culture. It allows them to take some semblance of control and maintain pre-colonial identity in a post-colonial world.
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Witchcraft way to combine tradition and modernity (Sanders)
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“African witchcraft beliefs and practices are alive and aware of the basic rhythms of our world and engage in creative ways with novel postcolonial realities” (Sanders 339).
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Can be seen as “a critique of the capitalist economy…a self-critique of the capitalist West” (Sanders 339), it helps to create “a metacommentary on the deeply ambivalent project of modernity” (Sanders 339).
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Link to the past and establish identity in the present
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Witchcraft is an “idiom for talking about and criticizing very modern processes” (Rutherford 101).
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“the categories of tradition and modernity are open to continual renegotiation. By selectively merging past and present, the Ihanzu negotiate and category of tradition that is constantly open to change but which is presented as being outside of time…rain witchcraft cases provide a forum for such negotiation…Rain witchcraft cases bring about a resounding, if fleeing, reassertion of what ultimately counts as tradition…in the process…such cases also hint at the local meaning of modernity” (Sanders 344).
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Social/Historical Roots of Witchcraft
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witchcraft usually linked to backward-ness and children's fantasies, which gave colonizers a justification for continuation of European rule
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but witchcraft central to African identity
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practice of witchcraft may be product "of the history of the Atlantic slave trade " (Shaw 856).
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witchcraft commentary on "the ill-gains, inequities and forms of domination found in late 20th century Africa" (Rutherford 91).
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ekong origins in slave trade; slaves given sleeping pill that put them in zombie like state during trip overseas
Sign outside of town of Karoi
National and Local Ways of Coping/Dealing with Witchcraft
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fear from anthropologists of believing or relying too heavily on these seemingly unreal or admittedly far-fetched acts
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However could approach this in same way as religion
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People turn to unreal or other-worldly ideas to explain phenomena that they can't understand (ex. why do bad things happen to good people, why we suffer, etc)
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Theory of Limited Rationality proposed by Herbert A. Simon
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“This means that choices are made limited by incertitude; by the capacity of information process; by the subjective perception of the world; and by the values that the actor participates with, or the values that prevail in his environment” (Gleizer, 1997: 147-148, found in paper by Martí)
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