Fwd: Rethinking Witchcraft in Africa : The Witch Victimization Problem [ Response from Teresa Washington, Central Author on Female Centred Iyami Aje Yoruba Spirituality]
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Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Apr 6, 2016, 7:47:22 AM4/6/16
to Edo Global, Esan_community yahoogroup, Abdulwaab Momoh, USAAfricaDialogue, Mwananchi Mwananchi, Ra'ayi Riga, Yan, WoleSoyinkaSociety
From: Teresa N Washington <aker...@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, Apr 6, 2016 at 4:47 AM
Subject: Re: Yoruba Affairs - Fwd: ||NaijaObserver|| Rethinking Witchcraft in Africa : The Witch Victimization Problem [2 Attachments]
Greetings, Mr. Adepoju,
Your email raises many profoundly important issues that I examine
in both my books on Àjẹ́ but most explicitly in The
Architects of Existence: Àjẹ́ in Yoruba
Cosmology, Ontology, and Orature. I analyze both historical and
contemporary spurious “witch” accusations in Africa, and I examine the role
that Christianity plays in fueling these accusations. What I find most contemptible is that many contemporary accusations are made against individuals
who are vulnerable and who are dependent upon the very relatives who accuse
them of “witchcraft” and banish them from their homes. Consequently, it seems
that a pseudo-religious justification is used to mask or work in conjunction
with a financial objective.
As I discuss in The
Architects of Existence, the victims of contemporary accusations are
most often children and the elderly, both male and female. The number of
accusations in Ghana has led to the erection of a “witch village” where accused
individuals of both genders and various ages can live unmolested and escape
being lynched—but the conditions of the village are deplorable.
Individuals who are desirous of gaining more
insight into Àjẹ́ and why and how it came to be erroneously, deviously, and
often lazily conflated with “witchcraft” may find illuminating The
Architects of Existence’s introduction, “The Womb is a Cosmos/The Cosmos
is a Womb”; its conclusion, “The Very Definition of Evil”; and chapter three “Àwọn
Ìyá Wa in the Ẹsẹ Ifá.” Chapter
three goes to the root of problem with an analysis of Pierre Verger’s seminal publication
“Articles.”
In 2014 I was privileged to be asked to speak at
the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ibadan for their visiting
scholars’ seminar. One of my former students from OAU, Dr. Kayode Adeduntan, lectures
in the Institute (I am so proud of my students!!!) and it is he who asked me to
present my work on Àjẹ́. He revealed to me that my doctoral research on Àjẹ́
motivated him to research the topic. He presented his findings on Àjẹ́ at a
CBAAC conference; the title of his work is “Calling Àjẹ́ Witch in Order to Hang
Her: Yoruba Patriarchal Definition and Redefinition of Women’s Power.” The
title alone forces us to respect the differences between “witchcraft” and Àjẹ́
and impresses upon us the need to properly and fully distinguish and
differentiate these two concepts, for they have nothing in common, and lives
depend on this distinction. As long as
we continue conflating “witchcraft” and Àjẹ́ we will never truly understand and
will always be disavowing and disrespecting Our Mothers, Our Powers, and Our Selves. While Adeduntan’s
article is no longer available online, I analyze his work in detail in chapter five
of The
Architects of Existence.
My seminar at the Institute of African Studies was
also moving to me because of the rousing reception my research was given. I
presented the introduction of The
Architects of Existence and everyone—men, women, professors,
students—was of one mind. And it was a celebratory and revelatory mind. The
response to my presentation was due to the fact that, in all my work, Àjẹ́
speaks its own truths, and those truths are as familiar to the audience as their mothers’ embraces.
This is fitting because Àjẹ́ is the source of existence and its signature power-sources
are breasts, menses, the womb, and the Womb.
I
have not been approached by anyone to place quotations from my books on any
Facebook pages. While I would not necessarily be against it, I think that
technology as it is often used today impedes deep knowledge acquisition and dissemination.
Rather than pithy but decontextualized fragments, superficial mantras, or
blurbs designed to create hostility, confusion, or drama, I hope individuals seeking
knowledge about Àjẹ́ will first go inside and listen to the truths in their
wombs, seeds, and souls; then sit patiently and gain wisdom from the elders;
and then deeply read and analyze everything they can.
I
would be thrilled to participate in opportunities to further disseminate wisdom,
knowledge, and understanding about the powers of Our Mothers and those of Our
Fathers! As it concerns the latter, after writing my two seminal studies on
Àjẹ́, I wrote Manifestations
of Masculine Magnificence: Divinity in Africana Life, Lyrics, and Literature
so that Africana men can understand and effectively utilize their divine
birthright!
Peace and Power,
Teresa N. Washington, PhD
On Monday, April 4, 2016 4:22 PM, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <oluwak...@gmail.com> wrote:
Conceptions of female centred spirituality in Yoruba thought are presented in this essay
Charles Kehinde Alasholuyi on Facebook
31 March at 22:40 ·
Two months ago Hope was living on the streets of Nigeria, riddled with worms, on the brink of starvation and cast out from his community accused of being a “witch”.
What should be done about the problem of children and old women, the primary victims-I wonder why men are not singled out- being turned out of their homes and communities on being accused of witchcraft?
Its a very serious problem for children in Nigeria and for women in another African country, can't remember which now, where such women have been compelled to found a community to live together without being molested.
Inadequacy and claims of being bewitched go together.
An environment that is significantly disempowering, in which such basics of modern life as electricity and potable water are not assured, where state workers can be owed salaries for months, where economic and social insecurity may not be far off, as in Nigeria, is an environment likely to breed supernaturalistic mentalities, styles of thinking that insist on the supernatural as a primary means of explaining reality, particularly in relation to negative experiences and misfortune.
Such environments are central to breeding the cult/culture of forms of Christianity as evident in Nigeria where the belief in the supernatural fuels strange developments, such as mega wealthy pastors in a world of great inadequacy as well as the world of belief in spiritual evil as a primary source of people's problems, witchcraft being at the centre of such evil, in these beliefs.
Should Africans have serious public discussion about witchcraft in an effort to disentangle fact from fiction?
I am convinced that much of what passes as witchcraft in Africa is pure fiction and superstition.
It is true though, that England dealt with its similar witchcraft problem which was even more virulent in the West than it is now in Africa, a social horror represented by the burning of many women as witches in the West, by making it a crime to refer to anyone as a witch.
When this law was repealed many years later, under the inspiration of Gerald Gardner witchcraft emerged as a serious spiritual, cognitive and artistic discipline in England and spread to other parts of the West, particularly the US.
Today, its a thriving core of the new Pagan culture with its ecosystem of books, groups, history, prominent figures, historical controversies, rich body of concepts, workshops, conferences and a related rich academic literature.
Belief in ideas similar to the various ways the witchcraft concept has been understood over the centuries in the West has long been part of African systems of thought, but there is an urgent need for better public perception of views on witchcraft, a need for more prominent public analysis of these ideas, ideas from the general public, scholars and from people who claim to be witches, such the Witches and Wizards Association of Nigeria, or the bold Osemwegie Ebohon of Benin-City who has publicly declared himself a witch.
Ebohon has mounted spirited public efforts over the years, built a cultural centre, engaged in media appearances defending witchcraft, , some of which I have witnessed, has made himself accessible for interviews, one of which I conducted and can recall clearly although I was not mature enough then to know how maximize the opportunity of access to this clearly very informed man and has written books, such as Ebohon and his Centre : A Life, Paganism : Not My Religion, Cultural Heritage of Benin, Life and Works of a High Priest of African Religion: A Guide to the Ebohon Centre Museum and Hospital Complex, With Interviews by Osamwọnyi Osagiẹdẹ and Efe Jereton Mariere, and others as indicated by the School of Oriental and African Studies library listing under his name, books which are visible online and which I am only just learning about.
Such efforts as that by Ebohon contribute to the urgent need to publicize readily accessible coherent statements of what may be understand as witchcraft, its significance,pros and cons, how people may become witches or stop being witches, in a manner that members of the public can freely access and examine.
The only other effort known to me, apart from that of Ebohon, but much more specific in relation to witchcraft as a textually presented idea, to develop African witchcraft concepts in a manner that the public can access, in terms of ideas and practices clearly spelt out and publicly propagated by a person or group of people sharing a lifestyle they describe as embodying those beliefs, is the Egbe Aje Iyami Aje Temple of America, an organization deriving inspiration from Yoruba concepts of female centred spiritual power, Awon Iyami which may be translated as "Our Mothers Arcane " and their description as aje, which bears a similarity to aspects of the witchcraft concept in the West and which I learnt about through the active promoting of this group in the work of Mercedes Morgana Bonilla, also identified in terms of her initiatic name, Iyanifa Fakinsuyil'Aje Afirimaako Iku Ladde, on Facebook, where one may also see the Egbe Aje Iyami Temple Worldwide and Egbe Aje Iyami Temple de America Facebook pages of the group.
We need a similar expansion of the space of discourse, of belief and of engagement with the idea of witchcraft in Africa.
Conceptions of witchcraft, whether in the West or their equivalents in Africa and other parts of the world, may be seen as fundamental to humanity-they are not going anywhere regardless of the levels of scientific, technological and social development of a civilization.
The best that can be done is to sanitize and streamline these concepts and beliefs.
An aspect of witchcraft lore, since that is largely what t it is in Nigeria, to which I have some exposure, at least in Yorubaland which I have read about, relates to ideas of feminine creative and destructive power emerging from procreative capacity, a body of ideas of profound significance and one which has also central to Western Paganism and witchcraft.
Could such concepts not be examined for their value, contributing to removing witchcraft in Africa from the domain of superstition to that of definite knowledge, eventually doing away with the culture of victimizing people, particularly the weaker members of society such as children and old women, in the name of something which the communities in question cannot defend in a rational manner?
I make my own contribution to this effort through the imaginative creations and expositions posted on the Facebook group I founded under the inspiration of the work of Mercedes Morgana Bonilla, Rethinking Iyami : An Autonomous Yoruba/Orisa Female Centred Spirituality, describing it as autonomous spirituality because
it is not circumscribed by although it has links to other aspects of
Yoruba Orisa spirituality and may be understood as a distillation of perceptions of relationships between female biology and its spiritual significance, ideas resonate across and unify various aspects of Yoruba culture
and Orisa spirituality but receive their most potent integration in
Iyami spirituality.
--
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
Charles Kehinde Alasholuyi on Facebook
31 March at 22:40 ·
A 2-year-old Nigerian 'witch' boy who was found
emaciated and riddled with worms after his family left him for dead in Akwa
Ibom state has made an incredible recovery
Many thanks to Anja Ringgren Lovén [shown in the picture feeding Hope ] who adopted him
Two months ago Hope was living on the streets of Nigeria, riddled with worms, on the brink of starvation and cast out from his community accused of being a “witch”.
Now, new pictures shared by Anja Ringgren Loven who adopted him
reveal the extraordinary transformation he has undergone in a matter of
weeks.
She said she first saw the problems created by superstition in rural
Nigeria when she travelled there alone three years ago and met children
“who had been tortured and beaten almost to death because they were
accused of being witches and therefore left alone on the street”
‘Thousands of children are being accused of being witches and we’ve
both seen torture of children, dead children and frightened children,’
she wrote on Facebook, accompanying images of her feeding the young boy
and appealing for donations to help pay for his medical bills in
January. ‘With all the money, we can, besides giving Hope the very best
treatment, now also build a doctor clinic on the new land and save many
more children out of torture!’ she said.Ms Loven runs an children’s centre where the youngsters she saves live and receives medical care, food and schooling. She and her husband, David Emmanuel Umem, began building their own orphanage in late January- "Incredible Recovery of the Nigerian Boy Saved by Anja Ringgren Loven" Goals Daddy.- Anja Ringgren Loven's personal Facebook account
- DINNødhjælp - deres overlevelse Anja Ringgren Loven's non profit organization
- Anja Ringgren Loven's official Facebok page
What should be done about the problem of children and old women, the primary victims-I wonder why men are not singled out- being turned out of their homes and communities on being accused of witchcraft?
Ebohon has mounted spirited public efforts over the years, built a cultural centre, engaged in media appearances defending witchcraft, , some of which I have witnessed, has made himself accessible for interviews, one of which I conducted and can recall clearly although I was not mature enough then to know how maximize the opportunity of access to this clearly very informed man and has written books, such as Ebohon and his Centre : A Life, Paganism : Not My Religion, Cultural Heritage of Benin, Life and Works of a High Priest of African Religion: A Guide to the Ebohon Centre Museum and Hospital Complex, With Interviews by Osamwọnyi Osagiẹdẹ and Efe Jereton Mariere, and others as indicated by the School of Oriental and African Studies library listing under his name, books which are visible online and which I am only just learning about.
Such efforts as that by Ebohon contribute to the urgent need to publicize readily accessible coherent statements of what may be understand as witchcraft, its significance,pros and cons, how people may become witches or stop being witches, in a manner that members of the public can freely access and examine.
The Facebook page of the Witches and Wizards Association of Nigeria, which I discovered on reading this essay, has some valuable information on child victimization and on ethics in seeking initiation into witchcraft, but its sadly little more than another platform for political expressions, a central preoccupations of Nigerians in cyberspace. A comparison between the page and those of the Egbe Aje Iyami
Aje Temple of America,described below, makes clear what is required to demonstrate a serious public presentation of a spiritual discipline.
The only other effort known to me, apart from that of Ebohon, but much more specific in relation to witchcraft as a textually presented idea, to develop African witchcraft concepts in a manner that the public can access, in terms of ideas and practices clearly spelt out and publicly propagated by a person or group of people sharing a lifestyle they describe as embodying those beliefs, is the Egbe Aje Iyami Aje Temple of America, an organization deriving inspiration from Yoruba concepts of female centred spiritual power, Awon Iyami which may be translated as "Our Mothers Arcane " and their description as aje, which bears a similarity to aspects of the witchcraft concept in the West and which I learnt about through the active promoting of this group in the work of Mercedes Morgana Bonilla, also identified in terms of her initiatic name, Iyanifa Fakinsuyil'Aje Afirimaako Iku Ladde, on Facebook, where one may also see the Egbe Aje Iyami Temple Worldwide and Egbe Aje Iyami Temple de America Facebook pages of the group.
Mercedes proudly posts on the social media site pictures of her husband, son and other family members living a fulfilling ling life as normal
human beings, along with her vast collection of witchcraft materials and
images and icons on female spirituality from various parts of the
world, thereby indicating witchcraft in the African or African inspired context
does not have to be seen in terms of the life destroying demons of
African lore.
Recent literature on ideas similar to witchcraft in Africa include the books of Teresa Washington, Our Mothers, Our Powers, Our Texts: Manifestations of Àjé in Africana Literature and The Architects of Existence: Aje in Yoruba Cosmology, Ontology, and Orature,
building on the Yoruba Iyami conceptions, while older works from the
same body of ideas include Hallen and Sodipo's Knowledge, Belief and Witchcraft: Analytic Experiments in African Philosophy and Oyerunke Olajubu's Women in the Yoruba Religious Sphere also addresses the subject, while works outside the scholarly
domain but focused more on the perspective of a practitioner of Yoruba
spirituality include Àràbà Ifáyẹmí Ẹlẹ́buìbọn 's The Invisible Powers of the Metaphysical World: A Peep Into the World of Witches.
To the
best of my knowledge, the impact of Washington's books is primarily in
the West, as in its being used as a storehouse of ideas by the Iyami
Aje Temple of America, as shown by its Facebook page and that of
Mercedes, even as the influence of the other scholarly productions seems centred on
scholars in the field, while I understand Elebuibon as elaborating on
the generally held orientation on the idea in Yorubaland.
Scholarship
on witchcraft in the West, however, was central to inspiring its 20th century public
discussion and its flowering as a new religious community shaped by and
identified with a flood of literature and artistic forms produced by its
practitioners and about them, in the context of formations of
various groups practicing different kinds of witchcraft based on the
founders of their central ideas, Gardnerian or Alexandrian witchcraft,
for example, as well as the development of solitary, individualistic witchcraft, hedge witchery or hedgecraft,
which relates chiefly to herbalism and movement between human and spirit worlds, and kitchen witchcraft, "a form of witchcraft
practiced concurrently with tasks centered on the kitchen, such as
cooking and baking, and making use of readily available items".
All these varieties
can be traced, even if not in a direct line, to centuries of growth of
beliefs and practices in Europe, which have fed some of its more
vigorous literary traditions, beliefs and practices now formalized,
institutionalized in some cases, and publicly presented in a manner that
opens it to public examination even as the practitioners are at liberty
to maintain a degree of exclusivity as they may see as relevant to a
system that requires a degree of privacy.We need a similar expansion of the space of discourse, of belief and of engagement with the idea of witchcraft in Africa.
Conceptions of witchcraft, whether in the West or their equivalents in Africa and other parts of the world, may be seen as fundamental to humanity-they are not going anywhere regardless of the levels of scientific, technological and social development of a civilization.
Could such concepts not be examined for their value, contributing to removing witchcraft in Africa from the domain of superstition to that of definite knowledge, eventually doing away with the culture of victimizing people, particularly the weaker members of society such as children and old women, in the name of something which the communities in question cannot defend in a rational manner?
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Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Apr 6, 2016, 12:37:27 PM4/6/16
to WoleSoyin...@yahoogroups.com, Edo Global, Esan_community yahoogroup, Abdulwaab Momoh, USAAfricaDialogue, Mwananchi Mwananchi, Ra'ayi Riga, Yan
Thanks Julius but what shall we mere mortals do but struggle to understand what is difficult to understand, particularly as the lives of innocent people and our general development depends on such as undrestanding?
Can you share more of what you know as far as you can?
We urgently need to discuss the issue to help get as close as possible to the truth of it.
Thanks
Toyin
On Wednesday, April 6, 2016, 'Julius Etinosa Odia' askfo...@yahoo.com [WoleSoyinkaSociety] <WoleSoyin...@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
On Wednesday, April 6, 2016, 'Julius Etinosa Odia' askfo...@yahoo.com [WoleSoyinkaSociety] <WoleSoyin...@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
I reckon this will be a wonderful treatise worth reading. Thanks for your efforts in trying to shed light on the Dark Arts!
However , with all Due Respect to all parties involved , I discovered that the Truth about Witchcraft can never be found on the media , its far to complexly simple and secret for the profane to understand !
While I don't want to ascribe similar status on understanding /dissenting concepts on the Divine creator of the Universe (let's call him God for lack of better description ) to this thing called Witchcraft, the only clue I can confidently share is that JUST LIKE GOD, the MOMENT YOU THINK YOU CAN DEFINE OR DESCRIBE WHAT WITCHCRAFT IS , THEN YOU JUST LOST IT BECAUSE YOU JUST CREATED YOUR OWN VERSION OF IT. ITS TRULY BEYOND LOGIC, WORDS OR WRITINGS!
Need I say more ! Yes If I knew or could !
All the same , thanksFrom: "Oluwatoyin Adepoju oluwak...@gmail.com [WoleSoyinkaSociety]" <WoleSoyin...@yahoogroups.com>Sender: WoleSoyin...@yahoogroups.comDate: Wed, 6 Apr 2016 08:03:53 +0100To: Edo Global<edo_g...@yahoogroups.com>; Esan_community yahoogroup<Esan_Co...@yahoogroups.com>; Abdulwaab Momoh<afe...@yahoogroups.com>; USAAfricaDialogue<usaafric...@googlegroups.com>; Mwananchi Mwananchi<Mwan...@yahoogroups.com>; Ra'ayi Riga<Raay...@yahoogroups.com>; Yan<yana...@yahoogroups.com>; WoleSoyinkaSociety<WoleSoyin...@yahoogroups.com>ReplyTo: WoleSoyin...@yahoogroups.comSubject: [WoleSoyinkaSociety] Fwd: Rethinking Witchcraft in Africa : The Witch Victimization Problem [ Response from Teresa Washington, Central Author on Female Centred Iyami Aje Yoruba Spirituality]
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