Conference Announcement

[Chukwuemeka C Agbo]

The B.I.C Ijomah Centre for Policy Studies and Research

University of Nigeria, Nsukka

Conference Announcement THEME: WITCHCRAFT

Metaphorically, “witchcraft” (“amusu” or “igbansi” in Igbo language, “Aje” in Yoruba, “Ohe” in Idoma, “Ifot” in Ibibio, “Pou” in Ijaw and “Opochi” or “enebe”in Igbira) has come to be associated with strange activities bearing on the supernatural, which affects the human world. Definitions of witchcraft differ from country to country and from community to community. Likewise, all cultures do not share a consistent pattern of witchcraft practice and beliefs. In Nigeria, for instance, the practice of witchcraft often intercepts with other concepts like magic, sorcery, esotericism, diabolism and even religion. From an interdisciplinary point of view, this conference seeks to find answers to pertinent questions such as: What is witchcraft? What factors influence witchcraft labelling in various communities? How does the practice of witchcraft affect society?

The conference sub-themes:

• Conceptual issues in witchcraft
• The philosophy of witchcraft
• Witchcraft in history
• Witchcraft in literature
• Folklore and witchcraft
• The science of witchcraft
• Witchcraft as an art
• Gender and witchcraft
• The Politics of witchcraft
• Secret cult and witchcraft
• Theology and witchcraft
• Sacred texts and witchcraft
• The economics of witchcraft
• Security and witchcraft
• Social work and witchcraft practice
• Witchcraft and social crisis
• Witchcraft in traditional African societies
• Witchcraft and governance
• Witchcraft and development
• Spirituality and witchcraft
• Witchcraft labelling
• And any other related topic.

Conference date: 28-31 October 2019
Interested scholars should submit an abstract of not more than 250 words to bicijo...@unn.edu.ng and elizabet...@unn.edu.ng not later than 30 August 2019 along with the conference registration fee of N15,000 (Nigerian scholars) and $100 (international scholars). Payment should be made to Fidelity Bank. Account Nos: 6060137833 (N) & 5090725652 ($) latest 30 August 2019. Acceptance of abstract is based on payment of conference registration fee. Information on hotels and other logistics will be shared later.

Announcer: Prof. Dr Egodi Uchendu, AvHF, FHSN, FRDA Director, Prof. B. I. C. Ijomah Centre for Policy Studies & Research Contact telephones: 0803 612 0394 / 0803 961 7898

 

Chukwuemeka Agbo, M.A.

Doctoral Candidate in African History

Department of History

The University of Texas at Austin

128 Inner Campus Drive

B7000 Austin, Tx, 78712-0220

USA

chukwuem...@gmail.com

[Toyin Falola]

Add Witchcraft Studies. Some universities in South Africa are mounting a first degree around it.

I will seek permission to release the tentative 4-year syllabus on this that I assisted to evaluate.

TF

Sent from my iPhone

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[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Tentatively, one is tempted to raise this preliminary Christian objection: 

Of what benefit is it to study the works and methods of Beelzebub and his disciples?

We may also anticipate an equally tentative reply from a variety of atheists, agnostics, idol-worshippers, skeptics, disbelievers, believers, scientists and ignoramuses of various hues and shades, this well-known dictum :

 Know your enemy.

As we all know, on the whole, the civilizational Christian mission of yore went hand in glove with colonialism in at best trying to tame ”the Noble savage”, sometimes, with the intention of “saving his soul “ - oft-times, less nobly enslaving the body, brainwashing the mind with inferiority and confining/ constraining/forcibly restraining the spirit, trying to prevent any spirit of inquiry, trying to divert it from any quest for self-fulfillment, self-worth, liberty or dignity. Exactly as Fela Kuti put it, “Suffer , suffer for world, enjoy for Heaven” was the dominant theology of salvation for the oppressed masses both at home and abroad.

The salvational Christian colonial ethos demonized indigenous African religious praxis wherever they found it, banning “ voodoo drums” and demonizing “ ju-ju priests” and “ju-ju” practitioners wherever the found them.

It has been reported that some of the Jews of two thousand years ago accused Jesus of “ Sorcery” - some of them still accuse him of that - depending on context and means, sorcery, by definition being similar/ identical/ conterminous with “Witchcraft “ and witchcraft itself being identified with the diabolical in some cultures.

“By their fruits you will know them !”

 Mister Hitler was variously believed to have been demon-possessed and in need of ritual exorcism and salvation. It is also claimed that he was under the influence/control/ subjugation of some “left-hand “ tantrics...

There is this Islam-based general criticism of His Holiness Pope Benedict’s visit to Africa :

“He made one important announcement for a continent crippled with the doctrines of bankism, poverty, genocide, and sexual anarchy with its pandemic disease. Africa, he declared, had to cure itself of witchcraft and the practices of magic “ ( Papal Bull )

“ By their fruits you will know them.”

What does present-day Christian mission think about this? What would the late great Lamin Sanneh have said? What saith Cardinal Arinze? Nim Wariboko? Brother Obadiah Mailafia? Our own Adepoju local high priest of the Wicca, dean of the eclectic & syncretic conglomerate of all things esoteric under the heavens, down here on mother earth?

My own personal view: Assuming that it is Godly and not demonic, if “witchcraft” for African development then we would be the head and not the tail - as in this song: I pity the poor immigrant

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/5A0857C0-FBB1-4E06-B685-5C6C2A539F2D%40austin.utexas.edu.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Should read: My own personal view: Assuming that it is Godly and not demonic, if “witchcraft” could be harnessed for African development then we would be the head and not the tail - as in this song: I pity the poor immigrant

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

wow.

very promising.

im writing an essay on this right now.

it wold be inspiring to know how such a stimulating idea, with such rich sub themes,  was developed.

such a theme is quite broad, suggesting a global framing of witchcraft ideas, inviting synergies and distinctions, similar to Ronald Hutton's 2018 The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present.

This rich list of sub-themes suggests the following ideas to me-

On Conceptual Issues in Witchcraft 

Such studies can be region specific or global, comparative, diachronic or synchronic, or all of these, on account of the centuries old history of witchcraft conceptions across the world, complexified by the 20th century development of witchcraft as a religion in the West.

so, in referencing witchcraft, one needs to clarify which  witchcraft one is referring to and on what grounds one integrates  various local conceptions of spirituality under the rubric of the English word 'witchcraft' particularly since the conception demonstrates significant changes amidst continuity in the history of ideas and sociations in the English speaking world.

one response to these qs  is the notion of the unity of various ideas about spiritual power as inherent in the self rather than aided by external instruments, such as herbs and other ritual forms, an idea relevant to such conceptions as the Yoruba aje and the Benin azen and pre-modern Western witchcraft but not so for modern Western witchcraft which deals heavily with ceremonial magic, using physical instruments as symbolic ritual forms.

May the term "witchcraft" in a non-Western sense not be understood as a partly or largely heuristic conception, a convenient method of bracketing conceptions of spirituality which do not fall within established religion but in which not all of the bodies of ideas encapsulated by it are covered by all the most significant defining characteristics of this idea?

Philosophy/ies of Witchcraft

To what degree may one  reference  'the philosophy of witchcraft' suggesting a monolithic philosophy rather than 'philosophies of witchcraft' indicating pluralities of views on what is being referred to as witchcraft ?

 If philosophy here refers to ideas about the nature of witchcraft and its points of intersection with fundamental aspects of existence, what similarities are shared between the various forms of pre-modern and modern Western witchcraft and within various kinds of modern Western witchcraft, from the Gardnerian, as developed by Gerald Gardner to Italian witchcraft or Stregheria, as championed by Raven Grimassi  to Satanic witchcraft as developed by Anton LaVey, among others and within ideas on African forms of witchcraft, such as within Nigeria with the Yoruba aje, the Benin azen and others referenced in the CFP,  to similarities and differences between witchcraft theory in various parts of the world and the distinction between ideas about witchcraft held by those who believe in it, such as Gerald Gardner's pioneering work in creating modern Western witchcraft  and ideas about witchcraft by whose who many not believe but study it, such as Evans Pritchard in Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande and Knowledge, Belief and Witchcraft by Barry Allen and Olubumni Sodipo on the Yoruba context and Ronald  Hutton's classic work on modern Western witchcraft The Triumph of  the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft    and the borderland between these two extremes occupied by such scholars as Teresa Washinton in Our Mothers, Our Powers, Our Texts: Manifestations of Aje in African Literature and The Architects in Existence Aje : in Yoruba Cosmology, Ontology and Orature, who identifies with aje conceptions as a form of female empowerment. 

Witchcraft in Literature[ and Film]

Central to my literary and filmic encounter with witchcraft and for many significantly exposed to European culture as children is with European fairy tales where the witch is often a woman, a bad woman, at times living in isolation in a forest, as in "Hansel and Gretel" or the wife of a king, as in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves", figures who continue to resonate in cinematic adaptations of these powerful stories.

More recently, artistic exposure to witchcraft ideas in the African context for me has been through Nollywood and Yoruba language films, both of which seem to portray these ideas in diverse ways. My experience has been that Nollywood, dominated by  Christians, and specifically a Pentecostal brand of Christianity, presents witches as a totally  evil danger that needs to be eradicated from the victim's life by the power of Jesus.

My exposure to Yoruba language films, however, is that aje, who, with some qualifications, may be called witches, are negotiated with, fought against when negotiation fails and are understood as a collective who may engender creation or destruction, a perspective in alignment with Yoruba aje conceptions, in which spiritual power is not understood as necessarily bifurcated into good and evil, as in Christianity.

The most influential work on witchcraft on me is Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon, where she fuses a retelling of Arthurian narrative, a centuries old mainstay of European literature retold by various writers across the centuries , from a female centred perspective, the point of view of Morgaine Le Fay, the arch villain of Arthurian narrative, depicted by Bradley asa  priestess of an ancient Earth centred, feminine focused spirituality deeply indebted to modern Western witchcraft as a form of modern Paganism, in the slant of some of its schools of thought in feminine valorisation.

The story is woven round the role of sacred landscapes as  inspirational  centers in Western Paganism, specifically Glastonbury, with its magnificent hill, possibly constructed by pre-Christian Britons,  topped by a ruined church, suggesting Christianity was also drawn to the numinous possibilities of this space, the landscape associated with King Arthur, mythic British king, described as lying in sleep within Glastonbury ready to ride forth when Britain needs him.

The invisible realm of Avalon, where Arthur is held to lie at rest, a zone  hidden within the visible landscape, is developed by Bradley into an enchanting evocation of the idea of the coexistence of multiple dimensions within the same space, an idea, that, incidentally, is particularly powerfully developed in Africana symbolism of the crossroads, abstracted in terms of the intersection of horizontal and vertical lines at a point evoking the nexus of dimensions, integrating matter and spirit, space, time and eternity, as Norma Rosen describes of the Benin Olokun symbol igha-ede in her magnificent article  "Chalk Iconography in Olokun Worship", while the equivalent of such natural interdimensional portals in Yoruba and Benin witchcraft lore is trees, groves and forests,  particularly Iroko trees.

After reading Bradley's book, telescoping a lifetime exploring ideas about unconventional human powers in the context of the intersection of forms of technology and myth  in her Darkover novels series, such as The Heritage of Hastur and The Forbidden Tower, my favorites, I have never been the same again. I have become an initiate of the feminine.

I have also thoroughly enjoyed the Harry Potter series and hope to one day demonstrate how some of the innovative  magical techniques in that fictional work, such as the Patronus spell, involving concentrating one's sense of the inspiring and the sublime into an image that one invokes,  can be applied in real life.

The Science of Witchcraft

In what sense? Is witchcraft not understood as a spirituality, which itself shares a controversial relationship with science? Can claims of witchcraft be studied in a scientific manner? One of the most influential figures in Western esotericism, Aleister Crowley, described his aspiration as an occultist as developing a practice using the methods of science in pursuing the goals of religion.  

Moving from critical study to practice, different but potentially correlative approaches to the subject, is it possible to develop witchcraft in an African context along similar lines? Pierre Verger's monumental compendium of Yoruba ifa herbalogy, Ewe: The Uses of Plants in Yoruba Society, presents a method for becoming aje, in terms of herbs which are mixed with powder on which has been inscribed one of the odu, symbols of the  Ifa system of knowledge, both mixed in water and using a particular incantation, the aspirant bathes with it.

It would be wonderful for someone to try this simple method and give a public report of the outcome. I have posted the details of this method from the book online , on various social media platforms but I have not had any talkers yet. I aspire to apply the method myself, particularly since Lagos, where I now am, has a thriving Yoruba herbal industry. 

Folklore of Witchcraft

The principal agent of evil in pre-modern Western witchcraft ideas was the Devil, whom the witch was believed to have entered into an alliance with and who branded the witch with his mark, a symbol of ownership or bonding. In Yoruba witchcraft lore, collaborators of destruction with aje are recognized, not masters served by aje, one of such collaborators being the Iroko tree. 

In my explorations of Benin nature spirituality, Benin being rich in a culture of sacred trees, I cultivated relationships with some trees through admiring their beauty, spending time in their  company, hugging them and trying to communicate telepathically with them.

I thereby discovered unusual things about these trees, becoming convinced that a particular Iroko tree was possessed of self consciousness, entering into another dimension through contemplating the enigmatic aura around a particular forest  and took to avoiding looking at or thinking about a particular Iroko tree bcs an idea that emerged into my mind over a period of time as I thought about the tree was one  I was convinced came from the tree and not from my own mind. 

I came to conclude that some of the folklore around these subjects could be based on fact.

Witchcraft as an Art 

The practice of witchcraft as art is well developed in the modern Western tradition through the use of artistic symbols. What examples may be drawn from the African context that could exemplify such an artistic dimension? Can one identify practitioners of witchcraft  whose methods could be studied? 

May one postulate an aesthetic dimension to the association of witchcraft in Southern Nigeria with such nature formations as  trees,  with the aesthetic quality of such forms, in the spirit of the Yoruba conceptions of relationships between beauty and essence of being,"iwa l'ewa", "inward being is beauty",  be a platform for cultivating relationships leading to these natural formations activating  unusual powers in the aspirant, in the understanding, expressed in a conversation with me by Osemwegie Ebohon, a man in Benin who publicly describes himself as a witch, that some trees are witches, and if I remember well, can initiate one into witchcraft,  a movement from oju lasan, the primary, corporeal vision to oju inu inward vision penetrating to the essences of phenomena, enabling the perception and powers ofa  witch, as suggested by Babatunde Lawal in "Aworan: Representing the Self and its Metaphysical Other in Yoruba Art?"

Gender and Witchcraft

Witchcraft beliefs have been a primary means of demonizing women in Africa and in pre-modern Europe, highlights from these developments have been the relatively recent phenomenon of the witchcraft village or villages in Ghana, if I recall correctly, where women accused of  witchcraft    are banished to.

 In the pre-modern West such highlights  include burning of  women as witches of which the Salem Witch Trials are particularly infamous. The Malleus Maleficarum, The Hammer of Witches, was a standard text for recognition witches. Yvonne Owens,a contemporary Western witch who founded the 13th House Mystery School, a  witchcraft school and who studied the text for her MA and PhD, states that the descriptions of witches in that book corresponds to the images of women in various stages of their biological and life cycles, making the text a misogynistic weapon rather an an actual tool of spiritual investigation.

Yoruba aje conceptions, while correlating the valoristic and the denigrative in relation to women, succeed in developing a powerful body of ideas about the spiritual potency of the feminine which may be mobilised for a spirituality devoid of the misogynisms  associated with them, a task aje activists in the Americas are pursuing and which will form the subject  of an essay I am currently writing,  a task already achieved in modern Western witchcraft in such female centred witchcraft as in  Starhawk's  famous The Spiral Dance.

Etc etc etc 

I look forward to hearing and reading how those intriguing topics in the CFP will be addressed by presenters. 

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[Emeagwali, Gloria (History)]

You have just given a mini keynote on the issue!
I would prefer "witchcraft and science" to "the science of witchcraft."
More flexibility.They could also add a section on magical realism, from the literary perspective. I recall a major school of  literature in Spanish, English etc associated with that brand. Nnedi Okarafor's Binti series comes to mind.

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Prof. of History/African Studies, CCSU

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Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Conference Announcement

 

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