Witch Camps and Witchcraft Discourse in Africa

Witch Camps and Witchcraft Discourse in Africa PDF Author: Matthew Gmalifo Mabefam
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1666918504
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
This book explores how local development interventions related to witchcraft in Africa intersect and conflict with globally accepted development practices. It argues for expansion and diversification of development practices and problematizes international development practices that can jeopardize the well-being of the people it seeks to support.

Witch Camps and Witchcraft Discourse in Africa

Witch Camps and Witchcraft Discourse in Africa PDF Author: Matthew Gmalifo Mabefam
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1666918504
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
This book explores how local development interventions related to witchcraft in Africa intersect and conflict with globally accepted development practices. It argues for expansion and diversification of development practices and problematizes international development practices that can jeopardize the well-being of the people it seeks to support.

Spellbound

Spellbound PDF Author: Karen Palmer
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439143129
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
As I attempted to digest stories of spiritual cannibalism, of curses that could cost a student her eyesight or ignite the pages of the books she read, I knew I was not alone in my skepticism. And yet, when I caught sight of the waving arms of an industrious scarecrow, the hair on the back of my neck would stand on end. It was most palpable at night, this creepy feeling, when the moon stayed low to the horizon and the dust kicked up in the breeze, reaching out and pulling back with ghostly fingers. There was something to this place that could be felt but not seen. With these words, Karen Palmer takes us inside one of West Africa’s witch camps, where hundreds of banished women struggle to survive under the watchful eye of a powerful wizard. Palmer arrived at the Gambaga witch camp with an outsider’s sense of outrage, believing it was little more than a dumping ground for difficult women. Soon, however, she encountered stories she could not explain: a woman who confessed she’d attacked a girl given to her as a sacrifice; another one desperately trying to rid herself of the witchcraft she believed helped her kill dozens of people. In Spellbound, Palmer brilliantly recounts the kaleidoscope of experiences that greeted her in the remote witch camps of northern Ghana, where more than 3,000 exiled women and men live in extreme poverty, many sentenced in a ceremony hinging on the death throes of a sacrificed chicken. As she ventured deeper into Ghana’s grasslands, Palmer found herself swinging between belief and disbelief. She was shown books that caught on fire for no reason and met diviners who accurately predicted the future. From the schoolteacher who believed Africa should use the power of its witches to gain wealth and prestige to the social worker who championed the rights of accused witches but also took his wife to a witch doctor, Palmer takes readers deep inside a shadowy layer of rural African society. As the sheen of the exotic wore off, Palmer saw the camp for what it was: a hidden colony of women forced to rely on food scraps from the weekly market. She witnessed the way witchcraft preyed on people’s fears and resentments. Witchcraft could be a comfort in times of distress, a way of explaining a crippling drought or the inexplicable loss of a child. It was a means of predicting the unpredictable and controlling the uncontrollable. But witchcraft was also a tool for social control. In this vivid, startling work of first-person reportage, Palmer sheds light on the plight of women in a rarely seen corner of the world.

Witchcraft in Modern African Societies

Witchcraft in Modern African Societies PDF Author: Stephan Schuster
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3869436891
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 35

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject History - Africa, grade: 1, University of Hannover, language: English, abstract: Eine Auseinandersetzung mit dem Problem der Hexerei in modernen Afrikanischen Gesellschaften, auch in Bezug auf die Immunschwäche AIDS.

Witchcraft in Post-colonial Africa

Witchcraft in Post-colonial Africa PDF Author: Khaukanani Mavhungu
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9956728322
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 150

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Book Description
This is a comparative ethnographic study of witchcraft and associated violence between the kingdoms of Kom and Venda in Cameroon and South Africa respectively. The book shows why despite its prevalence in both societies, witchcraft does not lead to open violence in Kom, while such large-scale violence is commonplace in Venda. It reveals that this difference can be explained by factors such as the variations in local ideas on witches, differences in the role of traditional authorities, and various state interventions on witchcraft matters. The book demonstrates, through a rich collection of detailed cases, that contrary to anthropological theory that views witchcraft as a mechanism for the expression and resolution of social tensions and conflicts, witchcraft may at times become a disturbance of amicable social relations. Witchcraft accusations may occur in a context where strained social relations have not preceded them. The knowledge and experience that people have about witchcraft is sufficient to trigger an accusation and a violent reaction. Different forms of witchcraft account for variations in witchcraft attributions and accusations. This comparison provides a valuable contribution to ongoing witchcraft policy discourse amid widespread citizen anxiety over witchcraft, and the increasing call on the post-colonial state to intervene and protect its citizens against occult aggression.

Imagining Evil

Imagining Evil PDF Author: Gerrie ter Haar
Publisher: Africa Research and Publications
ISBN:
Category : Witch hunting
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description


Perspectives on African Witchcraft

Perspectives on African Witchcraft PDF Author: Mariano Pavanello
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315439905
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
This volume draws on a range of ethnographic and historical material to provide insight into witchcraft in sub-Saharan Africa. The chapters explore a variety of cultural contexts, with contributions focusing on Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ghana, Mali, Ethiopia and Eritrean diaspora. The book considers the concept of witchcraft itself, the interrelations with religion and medicine, and the theoretical frameworks employed to explain the nature of modern African witchcraft representations.

Witchcraft, Witches, and Violence in Ghana

Witchcraft, Witches, and Violence in Ghana PDF Author: Mensah Adinkrah
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1782385614
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
Witchcraft violence is a feature of many contemporary African societies. In Ghana, belief in witchcraft and the malignant activities of putative witches is prevalent. Purported witches are blamed for all manner of adversities including inexplicable illnesses and untimely deaths. As in other historical periods and other societies, in contemporary Ghana, alleged witches are typically female, elderly, poor, and marginalized. Childhood socialization in homes and schools, exposure to mass media, and other institutional mechanisms ensure that witchcraft beliefs are transmitted across generations and entrenched over time. This book provides a detailed account of Ghanaian witchcraft beliefs and practices and their role in fueling violent attacks on alleged witches by aggrieved individuals and vigilante groups.

Witchcraft and Sorcery in East Africa

Witchcraft and Sorcery in East Africa PDF Author: John Middleton
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113655145X
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
Containing ten essays by anthropologists on the beliefs and practices associated with witches and sorcerers in Eastern Africa, the chapters in this book are all based on field research and new information which is studied within its wider social context. First published in 1963.

Debating Witchcraft in Africa: The Magritte Effect

Debating Witchcraft in Africa: The Magritte Effect PDF Author: Didier Pclard
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9956550507
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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Book Description
Given the circularity of the witchcraft complex in Africa, given its performative potential, isnt the flood of anthropological publications on the topic counter-productive insofar as it feeds what it pretends to analyse, and even stigmatize? Wouldnt the social scientists be well advised not to emulate the media and the Evangelical preachers and to avoid bestowing on Africa the dubious privilege of being no more than a shadow theatre devoid of substance on the stage of which everything power, work, production, economy, the family would actually be played in the occult? In this publication, eight scholars namely: Jean-Pierre Warnier, Didier Pclard, Julien Bonhomme, Patrice Yengo, Jane Guyer, Joseph Tonda, Francis Nyamnjoh and Peter Geschiere engage in a lively and contradictory debate on witchcraft/sorcery in Africa in a controversial historical context.

Religion, Law and Security in Africa

Religion, Law and Security in Africa PDF Author: M Christian Green
Publisher: AFRICAN SUN MeDIA
ISBN: 1928314422
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 426

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Book Description
Security is a key topic of our time. But how do we understand it? Do law and religion take different views of it? In this fifth volume in the Law and Religion in Africa series, radicalisation, terrorism, blasphemy, hate speech, religious freedom and just war theories rub shoulders with issues of witchcraft, female genital mutilation circumcision, child marriage, displaced communities and additional issues besides. This unique collection of topics is both challenging and inspiring, providing illumination in troubled times, and forming a sound foundation for future scholarship.