Witchcraft Conference Update

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Toyin Falola

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Nov 25, 2019, 8:16:34 AM11/25/19
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*UNN ‘Witchcraft’ Conference Will Hold, Christians Can’t Stop It – Prof. Uchendu*

Read more @ https://news.assure.ng/unn-witchcraft-conference-will-hold-christians-cant-stop-it-prof-uchendu/


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Michael Afolayan

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Nov 25, 2019, 10:31:20 AM11/25/19
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My concern over this witchcraft conference is its superfluity. In a country where people don't have basic necessities of life - water, power, roads, good schools, normal economy, normal politics, etc., is this what we need to encumber the people's space with? Why on earth should we engage academia in these rustic metaphysical conversations that would not address any need of the people? Even in nations like the United States where folks have the basic necessities of life, what has any discussion on the wicker phenomenon birthed other than the laughable UFO or some grandma fireside tales. We need conversations on sustainable education, economy, family, and other social institutions. Ignore those rejecting the conference on sentimental religious grounds, but think of it in terms of its functionality. That's my take!

Michael O. Afoláyan




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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

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Nov 25, 2019, 10:52:23 AM11/25/19
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Simple answer:  because we engage academics in the rustic metaphysical conversations of Islam and Christianity.  We even found institutions exclusively for such conversations!

How would functionality be discovered if there are no conversations?

OAA



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Victor Okafor

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Nov 25, 2019, 12:09:10 PM11/25/19
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"Man shall not live by bread alone," says a popular adage. Life, as conventional wisdom teaches, embraces both a physical and a spiritual dimension. A university must be organically linked with its surrounding social community; otherwise, it may no longer hold any social relevance other than the award of esoteric degrees. In fact, there should be a symbiotic relationship between the higher educational mode of education and its surrounding community, everywhere and anywhere. Witchcraft or a wide-spread belief in its existence, is an all-pervading phenomenon within the African social ambiance and beyond. Here in the West, witchcraft also exists, and its manifestation is on the rise. A November 18, 2018 report by Newsweek claims that the “Number Of Witches Rises Dramatically Across U.S. As Millennials Reject Christianity.” Social media devoted to witchcraft and the phenomenon of individuals proudly and publicly proclaiming themselves as witches, here in the West, are on the rise. It's a duty of academia to systematically investigate that phenomenon in order to help shade light on its true nature, which is shrouded in mystery. From the African ontological point of departure, witchcraft tends to be viewed as a malevolent phenomenon, but not necessarily so in the West at the present time where it's reported that witchcraft is now winning more converts than Christianity within some demographic sectors. So, what is going on? What are the implications of all this for the future of human relations, and for the future of the spiritual dimension of life on earth? These are important questions worthy of a systematic scholarly inquiry.  A scholarly investigation of witchcraft as a social phenomenon is not only over-due but has practically become an existential necessity.


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Sincerely,

Victor O. Okafor, Ph.D.
Professor and Head
Department of Africology and African American Studies
Eastern Michigan University


Chielozona Eze

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Nov 25, 2019, 1:53:55 PM11/25/19
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“My concern over this witchcraft conference is its superfluity.” Michael O. Afoláyan.

 I think it is wrong to regard any conference dedicated to a true, disinterested search for knowledge as superfluous. For true intellectuals, the first step in addressing any situation or life condition is to examine why such situations came into existence in the first place. More specifically, it is important to understand the ideas behind any particular belief that controls much of people’s moral vision. Witchcraft accounts for more human rights abuses in our villages than does any other form of belief. In most cases, it promotes magical thinking that effectively hinders people from engaging reality as it is. Conferences, I think, serve one sole purpose of sharing, hashing out ideas, and dismissing with evidence and logic the ones we consider baseless.

It is disappointing, if unsurprising, that Nigerian Christians would raise the alarm about a harmless conference dedicated to examining an integral aspect of most people’s lives, a conference that has absolutely nothing to do with Christianity and which takes place in a secular institution. It says more about the intellectual condition of Nigerian Christianity than it does about the conference.


Chielozona Eze


Chielozona Eze
Professor, African Literature and Cultural Studies, Northeastern Illinois University; Extraordinary Professor, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.Fellow - Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies, South Africa
https://neiu.academia.edu/ChielozonaEze
www.Chielozona.com



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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

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Nov 25, 2019, 1:54:41 PM11/25/19
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And lest we forget, this is the kind of conversation Nwolise should be joining not the military type to learn how to structure his discourse.

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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Nov 25, 2019, 1:55:02 PM11/25/19
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Great thanks Victor Okafor,

Oga Afolayan, you are a humanities scholar.

Does your argument not apply to the humanities as a whole?

To what degree do the humanities directly impact the existential, survival needs of anybody, who is not working in that field, anywhere in the world?

If " In a country where people don't have basic necessities of life - water, power, roads, good schools, normal economy, normal politics, etc" we are to avoid metaphysics and other such non-practical subjects,  but focus on "sustainable education, economy, family, and other social institutions" we would not have the very achievements that enables Nigeria stand tall on the global stage- Nollywood, the visual and verbal arts, the only areas  where are we competing globally, in my view.

Or do we to damn those and divert all resources to your prescribed occupations so as not to waste any resources on impractical things?

I need help to understand how you reconcile your own argument with your scholarly career.

Or is it that you are groping-if I might respectfully say- towards a more sophisticated argument that needs a more reflective formulation?

toyin

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