The horrors of African indigenous witchcraft

[MarxSchmarx]

Although westerners like to think of Africa as hopelessly backwards, many African countries are very urban, not wealthy but relatively modern in terms of access to things like the internet, and have quite well informed populaces.

Why then is superstition and witchcraft, even incredibly pernicious forms like medicine murders, still practiced in many communities retaining animistic traditions? Such brutality is largely absent from overwhelmingly Muslim countries like Senegal and although I know much less about them than I do about Islamic Africa, heavily Christian societies - although, significantly, Islamic/Christian Nigeria has its own share of animistic terrors.

In no other society does a wonton disregard for individual human life seem to coexist with the modern values of individualism that make modernity possible. I think it is fair to say that a lot of Christians and Muslims for example are no less illogical or unscientific. Although their religious beliefs are very far from benign, to some extent it seems that violence and horrors perpetrated by Christians/Muslims/Buddhists are by and large less tied in with the essence of the faith. In this respect there is something terrifyingly "modern" about the cruelties of Islam and Christianity. After all, people like Andres Breivik or those Columbine kids give secular/political reasons for carrying out atrocities. Muslims and Christians, although they commit horrific acts, seem to use religion as an excuse to address what most others see as secular grievances for committing their horrors.

To be sure, there are some important exceptions. I think the Hindu caste system isn't a mere idealistic smoke screen on a secular development, but a product of genuine belief, and a similar argument could be made, to some degree, for Protestant plutocracy and Catholic authoritarianism. Perhaps this is also true of the treatment of women in all Abrahamic religions.

But I find that the ability to tolerate things like child sacrifice and the wonton cruelty of something like "zombification" practiced by their new world descendents to be a whole other caliber of dehumanization. Perhaps unlike Calvinist predestination and "untouchable castes", the social evils of African animism cannot be explained in anything but religious terms. To this end, I have come to be quite skeptical of lumping all religious beliefs as "equally backward".

I realize it's not a classically leftist stance to take and is somewhat smacking of idealism. It's also all-too easy for somebody in the global north to shake their head at what they see as baffling in the global south. Nor do I think what I guess one has to call the "remnants of barbarism" remotely near the biggest problem of some African states - the capitalist Congolese civil war has taken far more innocent lives than anachronistic pre-capitalist human sacrifice ever will. But I'm wondering if anybody has any informed thoughts.

[MustCrushCapitalism]

To this end, I have come to be quite skeptical of lumping all religious beliefs as "equally backward". I realize it's not a classically leftist stance to take and is somewhat smacking of idealism, but I'm wondering if anybody has any informed thoughts.

I would definitely agree. It isn't necessarily an idealist position at all - religions and their aspects which set them apart are reflective of the material conditions in which they arise, but this doesn't mean the atrocities committed by some aren't somewhat worse or anything.

[Zostrianos]

Another abomination somewhat related to this topic (and seemingly created by Christianity), is the fanatical hatred for witches in some of those countries, and the belief that children can curse others, which has lead to countless abuses and murders of supposed witches (and kids), oftentimes at the request of preachers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchcraft_and_children
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-10671790

[Positivist]

Ugh Catholic authoritarianism, Protestant plutocracy and Hindu caste relations as free of secular motivation?

[MarxSchmarx]

Ugh Catholic authoritarianism, Protestant plutocracy and Hindu caste relations as free of secular motivation?

Perhaps I misspoke; only that they have imbued theological imperative with material realities more so than, say, BJP nationalism or Catholic educational policy.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Isn't this kind of stuff exploited by missionaries as a form of social control? I'm pretty sure I remember reading about that once, and it makes sense considering how "imported" faiths like Islam and Christianity are often syncretic with local beliefs and practices.

The phenomenon of "witch children" in particular strikes me as a useful mechanism for scapegoating those least able to defend themselves, in the process securing the social power of those promoting such things. I can certainly see parallels in the Christian "witch hunts" which saw the weak, unconventional and unpopular subjected to violence at the hands of their neighbours, more often than not egged on by the clergy or by self-styled "witch hunters".

[MarxSchmarx]

Isn't this kind of stuff exploited by missionaries as a form of social control? I'm pretty sure I remember reading about that once, and it makes sense considering how "imported" faiths like Islam and Christianity are often syncretic with local beliefs and practices.

The phenomenon of "witch children" in particular strikes me as a useful mechanism for scapegoating those least able to defend themselves, in the process securing the social power of those promoting such things. I can certainly see parallels in the Christian "witch hunts" which saw the weak, unconventional and unpopular subjected to violence at the hands of their neighbours, more often than not egged on by the clergy or by self-styled "witch hunters".

The thing with the Christian witch hunts is that they were at their worst basically 300 years ago or more; such superstition has, as a potent social force, effectively vanished from our modern world (with few exceptions like urban legends).

The missionaries are pretty awful, but then again, I wonder if a stopped clock can be right twice a day. Of course there is no reason why modern values can't with ancient animist traditions. I don't think aboriginal religions in north america for instance are as prone to violence any more.

Moreover, there are decidedly modern and atrocioius non-indigenous religions, like Boko Haram. And as you correctly note, syncretic religions also show these tendencies. But then why is such disregard for human life almost unique to this day among these indigenous religions and their descendent beliefs?

[atom]

MarxSchmarx, could you give some examples of what your talking about? I'm not trying to set you up, I'm just genuinely totally ignorant about the subject.

[MarxSchmarx]

MarxSchmarx, could you give some examples of what your talking about? I'm not trying to set you up, I'm just genuinely totally ignorant about the subject.

Sure thing. I think the urls should give some idea of what I mean,

http://www.iheu.org/ritual-killing-and-human-sacrifice-africa

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15255357

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1375024/Voodoo-human-sacrifice-The-haunting-story-Adam-Torso-Thames-boy-finally-identified.html

The last one speaks to my point. If indeed it was British people who engaged in this kind of activity in a society, particularly like London, where it is virtually impossible to live without "modern secular" values, then how do we account for the persistence of this kind of practice?

Some of these have historical precedent in the not so distant past:

http://www.liberiapastandpresent.org/RitualKillings1900_1950b.htm

As I mentioned, I have little first hand account of indigenous animism in Africa however. My personal familiarity with African communities in Africa and abroad is restricted to secular, Islamic and Christian people.

[Jimmie Higgins]

I guess it's appropriate to revive this thread like a witch-possessed zombie - I've actually been reading a pretty relevant argument in a book about horror-tales and capitalism.

The author argues that contrary to the common view that such ideas are a sort of reactionary throw-back, some "backwards" aspect of African culture, that these modern tales and anxieties around them (which do cause real-world actions) are distinctly modern re-interpretations of older folk tales and beliefs. Further he argues that they are a result of capitalist modernization going on.

First traditional witches are ambiguously seen in African folklore because their defining characteristic is shirking common customs and responsibilities to the group. Witches are horders and accumulators in farming communities and they are always a member of that community. Keeping too much of your crop, unused, for yourself is supposedly an invitation to bad energy and sort of like bad karma for the entire group. So probably - it's not in the book - any problems in that group may have been scapegoated onto some women (they are generally women, maybe because women were more in charge of stocks and storage) who is introverted or seems more selfish than others - regardless if she's actually hording or not. But generally, it was part of social custom to institutionalize behaviors that are beneficial for those kinds of farming communities outside the market. But witches are also ambiguous because they also have a power and freedom of individuality that other people don't - so there is also a kind of glorification of witches as also possessing some secret ability to live without want or paying up for your share of the community.

Modern witches, according to this author, are very different in that they are always an unknown person or stranger, not a known family member or neighbor. They are distinctly urban in concerns and context. And - probably most provocatively - they use their magic to turn people into zombies who labor for them in secret to amass their wealth. Sometimes they will even turn people or body-parts of people into cash - a spell that causes people to literally cough-up money is a common one.

He basically argues in this section of the book that these fears are brought on by the rapid changes, disintegration of traditional social relations, the brutality of neo-liberal policies, along with the trauma of colonization in the past have caused a new kind of witchcraft and a new folks culture around these ideas and new myths and tales and tropes. Essentially, people respond to these movies and myths and fears as a sort of way to express the anxieties of an "invisible hand" with sorcerer-like power to transform induviduals, community-groups, and whole ways of living.

It's not unlike other myths or conspiracies like fears that the US government is controlled or conceling aliens - it's a reflection of anxieties from capitalism such as lack of control, vulnerability to abduction and being forced to do things against your will, etc. In the US in the 1950s people feared advanced technology after the a-bomb and the threat of a US-Russia nuclear war... so they saw advanced machines flying through the sky, reflecting their own alienation from the direction and advancement of technology. But in the 1980s and 1990s when the working class was feeling vulnerable and exposed and being figuratively raped by the ruling class, those flying saucers turned into grey-men abducting and using people as human test-subjects for no relateable reason. Figurative rape become anal probes.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Just to back up the argument - here's a teasing little paragraph from one of the BBC articles posted:


The ritual, which some believe brings wealth and good health, was almost unheard of in the country until about three years ago, but it has re-emerged, seemingly alongside a boom in the country's economy.It's also interesting that the anxiety is about people buying and selling children, literally commodifying them.


Many believe that members of the country's new elite are paying witch doctors vast sums of money for the sacrifices in a bid to increase their wealth.

The author of the book I was describing ("Monsters of the Market") argues that often the actual cases of witch accusations are urban legends and rumor. It could be the case that children dumped because parents can't take care of them or the child died and the parents feared they might be held accountable for the death or other reasons which then feeds into popular tales of witches abducting people and so on - then because people believe this happens, maybe the witch in the BBC story thought he could cash in on the belief and sell animal blood to rich sickos. Or maybe he does want to cash in on killing kids and actually believes in the sorcery he's performing. But regardless, in the book, the author argues that often these stories get passed around and are part of anxieties about the new rich. After a yuppie was caught with a child's head, in the 1990s, there were riots and tons of rumors in one city about plots by elites and how a mob went into a rich guy's house after the kid's head was found and discovered stockpiles of human organs - in another gated community, piles of bones. And so basically this anxiety about the rich selling off the country, buying people for labor, feeds into these kinds of rumors.

[hobbsicle]

Not to single out Uganda or change the subject, but I'm sure whatever the reason for believing in witches is related to over 90% of the country approving of the "kill the gays" bill:(