Witchcraft and Academics: Are Scholars Legitimizing Witch-hunting in Post-colonial Africa? -By Leo Igwe

Recent encounters with some Nigerian academics on the topic of witchcraft have been revealing and worrisome. The exchanges underscore a link between witchcraft belief and scholarship in Nigeria and, by extension, in Africa that should be critically examined. For over a decade, I have exchanged ideas with teachers from various universities in Nigeria and beyond, discussing and debating the reality or non-reality, existence or non-existence of witchcraft. In this piece, I explore recent conversations and their implications for ending witch hunts in the region. I argue that many African academics are out of step in providing the needed scholarship and leadership in the campaign to end witch persecution in Africa.

While returning from an advocacy program, I stopped at the University of Benin, where I met with some scholars at the Department of Religion. We discussed plans for a symposium on witchcraft beliefs. After the meeting, I shared my thoughts and impressions in a post on a WhatsApp group of another institute that I am affiliated with. I stated: “Yesterday, I met with some scholars at the Department of Religion at the University of Benin to discuss a proposed symposium on witchcraft beliefs. All three stated that witchcraft was real, that witches existed. Well, I was not surprised. Even our scholars can’t differentiate beliefs from facts. It is going to be an interesting event”. In fact, I was shocked that many university teachers could not make these basic distinctions. Beliefs are not facts. That something is believed does not make it a fact. Many lecturers believe in witchcraft but hide behind scholarship and research to legitimize and validate absurd claims. This is not only unscholarly, it is unintellectual and unacademic. Many university teachers romanticize and valorize the idea of witchcraft; they claim to have expert knowledge and speak authoritatively about the topic, often based on hearsay, flimsy, and anecdotal evidence. In another post, I made it clear that this pontificating attitude was partly responsible for witch hunts in contemporary Africa.
I said: “I put the responsibility of the continuation of witch hunts in Africa partly at the feet of African scholars, not Western anthropologists, because I believe African scholars know and should know better. African scholars, especially those in religion, philosophy, and African studies, who have been involved in framing and explaining the phenomenon of witchcraft in Africa, have done a bad job, a terrible job. Unfortunately, most of them seem not to have realized the mistake. African scholars have contributed to misinforming, misexplaining, and misrepresenting the phenomenon of witchcraft in Africa. African scholars have contributed to legitimizing witch hunts in the region. They unwittingly endorse the exotic framing of witchcraft and witch hunts in Africa by Western anthropologists. We need to begin undoing this ‘academic’ tragedy in African scholarship…now!”.

A university teacher on the WhatsApp group replied: “We debated this topic before. The three scholars at the University of Benin who claimed that witchcraft is real were wrong. What proof do they have? And you, who assert that witchcraft is not real, that it is superstition, are wrong too. What proof do you have? The reality is that there are arguments on either side, and none is conclusive”. I inquired to know what these arguments for the reality of witchcraft were, and what qualified as a conclusive argument in a case that someone is accused of turning into a bird. First, he railed against my categorical statements on witchcraft, which he stated were misleading. He said, “When you make categorical statements on an issue for which you do not have definitive proof, you confuse and mislead, and scholars are not expected to mislead. It’s not just about taking a position, it’s taking a position based on concrete proof”. For this scholar, he could not categorically say or state that witchcraft was real or a superstition. And if you cannot state that witchcraft is a myth or reality, then witchcraft is what? That someone turns or can turn into a bird is a testable, demonstrable physical claim that witchcraft believers make, and constitutes the basis of witch-hunting activities.

Meanwhile, this university teacher condemned witch-hunting. I made it clear that condemning witch hunting while stating that one is not sure whether witches exist or not; if witchcraft is real or not is pointless, morally flawed, and unprincipled because witch hunting is an exercise in identification of witches, and in confirmation of the reality and non-reality of witchcraft. This scholar went further to state: “Interestingly, I agree with the position of National Geographic that: ‘Trying to stop a witch hunt by saying witches don’t exist doesn’t work.” We’re just not sure whether witches exist or not. My conclusion is influenced by my experience in many communities I lived in the 1970s and 1980s. The problem with your position is that you state categorically that: “such a person (the witch) does not exist”. How are you so sure?” Sadly, this lecturer agreed with a patronizing and exoticizing piece in the National Geographic that a declaration that witches do not exist would be unhelpful in ending witch hunts. This is an armchair proposition. Have the editors at National Geographic tried using the narrative to address the problem? It is absurd and misleading for National Geographic to make this proposition.

Unfortunately the article in question has little or no substance; it contains no cogent suggestions or propositions of how to address the problem. Ending witch hunts begins with the realization that witches are non-existent imaginaries of believers and accusers. To end witch persecution, one must fundamentally acknowledge that witches are fantasies, products of fear and ignorance. I use that mechanism, and I know it works. Sometimes I wonder: Don’t Nigerian or African scholars/students have their own minds? Can’t they think and come up with specific ideas and solutions to witch hunting? Can’t they entertain their own independent views and opinions on how to end this vicious campaign?

This lecturer went further to recount his ‘witchcraft’ experiences:
“In a number of communities I lived and had friends in the 1970s and 1980s, I witnessed many cases of confession of witches (I can remember more than a dozen cases). The interesting thing is that the witches came out to confess themselves. The usual pattern was for them to narrate many of the things they had done (usually bad things, including causing the death of people), and they were always accurate in the stories they told. I never observed a single experience of a witch accused and hunted. They always came out to confess themselves. Of course, the confessions always elicited outrage and sometimes violent actions against them. This raises many questions. Were these individuals who came out to confess to witchcraft really witches? Did they lie against themselves that they were witches, knowing the consequences of being identified as a witch (including the possibility of being killed)? Or is it that these individuals just possessed extraordinary powers but were not witches? These are questions that are impossible to answer using the methodology of scientific enquiry. But again, it is not true that whatever cannot be scientifically established doesn’t exist. I think there’s a lot about the subject of witches that you need to interrogate. I also feel strongly that the conclusion that witches don’t exist is hasty”.

I have encountered many people who claimed they witnessed some witchcraft confession. But upon cross-examination, they could not substantiate their claims and propositions. I believe university teachers should know better and be mindful of making such flawed propositions. Incidentally, that has not been the case. Whenever I argue this topic with many teachers and lecturers, they are so vehement in their blind and opinionated defence of the reality of witches and witchcraft in Africa. I drew the attention of this university teacher to the fact that these supposed cases of confession happened long ago, when he was young, and his perceptions and conclusions might have been influenced by ignorance, fear, and indoctrination. But he insisted they were unequivocal cases of witch confession. He stated, “The cases I mentioned are real. I witnessed them, not hearsay. And there were more than a dozen cases in the different communities. The people confessed to doing things that were widely known in the communities. These were normal people who exhibited no mental instability. Were these people witches? I don’t know, but they claimed they were. My point is it would be unintellectual to dismiss these cases with a wave of the hand”. Testimonies of witchcraft believers are unreliable because, in most cases, they do not describe what transpires. They reconstruct their experiences to align with their beliefs. For instance, he claimed that the supposed witches who confessed were ‘normal people’ and mentally stable. How did he know they were ‘normal and mentally stable’? Did he conduct any medical tests? I mean, show me one community where normal and mentally stable people confess to witchcraft. I challenged him to take me to these communities where normal people confess to witchcraft but he declined.

He stated: “I have to take you to the communities in Ondo, Edo, and Delta? To gain what? Referring you to them is not enough? You expect me to leave my own research in Lagos and go with you to those places? Astonishing! What’s mine, whether witches exist or not? I’m only trying to help you with ideas and sources to strengthen your research, and you don’t want to take advantage of it. When you’re ready, let me know”. I told him that I was ready, but he has not responded. Anytime I challenge Nigerian or African scholars who make or legitimize witchcraft claims, they easily chicken out. As I told this academic, Africans who claim that witchcraft is real must be ready to substantiate their claims. It is pertinent to note that not all scholars on this platform agreed with this lecturer. Someone described the witchcraft belief as a fraud, as a claim lacking evidence.

African academics should not just talk about the reality of ‘witchcraft’; they should be ready to walk their talk and go to any length to prove their position. Enough of this academic posturing. If university teachers have any evidence for witchcraft as popularly believed, they should produce it; they should present it; they should make it public and stop beating about the bush. Witch hunting is raging in communities with force and ferocity. Witchcraft claims should be taken seriously. Academics should take positions informed by data and logic, not their beliefs, prejudices, and sentiments. African scholars should learn to focus on their areas of specialization and not use their university positions to give legitimacy to claims beyond their fields. They should stop speaking authoritatively about what they know little or nothing about. Lecturers should stop hiding behind inconclusive findings to academically dignify phenomena forged in fear and anxiety. Witches are fictional characters. Witchcraft is an imaginary activity. Nobody turns into a bird at night or flies out to meet in covens as popularly believed. Such powers are suppositions without any basis in reason, science, or reality. No human being turns into a cat or dog. There is no evidence that a human being harms, or can injure or kill another, through magical or supernatural means.

African academics should wake up, school up, think up, and stop making a scholarly mountain out of a superstitious molehill. They should stop enabling witch-hunting in the name of scholarship. African teachers should stop making a caricature of education, research, and studies in colleges and universities. Witchcraft is a myth. Period.

Leo Igwe directs Advocacy for Alleged Witches.