Are Witches and Wizards Planning to Meet at UNN or are Scholars Planning a Conference to Discuss Witchcraft
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
"But the President of the Students Union Government (SUG), Chimezie Fortunatus, who spoke to The Guardian on the issue expressed that contrary to various opinions on the upcoming conference on witchcraft, he believes the academia should be open to any form of discussion. “I do not see anything wrong with the proposed topic of discussion, it is supposed to increase our knowledge on the topic and not promote its practice. We are in a learning environment and are supposed to be open to anything new,” he said."
Setting agenda for UNN’s witchcraft conference
UNN cancels venue for conference on witchcraft
Does this last report mean the venue has been changed but the conference proceeds?
One account is stating the conference has been cancelled.
Ibrahim Abdullah
On 22 Nov 2019, at 2:40 PM, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:
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segun ogungbemi
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Cornelius Hamelberg
About Pope Benedict’s 2009 Africa visit, I do recall this one-liner: “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)
My understanding is that “Witchcraft” is not and cannot be good. For those who have beliefs to the contrary, the fact is that they (Witchcraft) could have developed a lot during the past decade; however, how that could have contributed or is contributing to Africa’s spiritual and material well-being or progress is possibly on the agenda of this conference/coven of wizards and witches that is being convened.
Recently I have read quite a bit of Fr. Seraphim Rose on witchcraft, demons and evil spirits
His short essay found here under the heading “ The Rise of Witchcraft” should be sufficient, serious warning ( to the wise)
It is understandable and it is to be expected that some of Church clergy and the Nigerian pastors’ objections will be based on what is written in the Bible that says “You shall not allow a sorceress to live.”
If this conference was going to be held in the type of theocracy that would take the Biblical injunction seriously, then the participants, especially the practitioners ( not the mere theoreticians or teachers and researchers) would be well advised to not even go near the venue lest they be rounded up and lined up for execution. But Nigeria is no such theocracy and at least, Nigeria’s criminal code guarantees those attending the conference some material protection and some freedom of speech ( the pastors can exorcise demons but a child cannot be accused of witchcraft)
On Friday, 22 November 2019 16:07:58 UTC+1, Ibrahim Abdullah wrote:
So the church should determine our research projects? Insane—back to the Middle Ages!Sent from my iPhoneOn 22 Nov 2019, at 2:40 PM, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:
--
"But the President of the Students Union Government (SUG), Chimezie Fortunatus, who spoke to The Guardian on the issue expressed that contrary to various opinions on the upcoming conference on witchcraft, he believes the academia should be open to any form of discussion. “I do not see anything wrong with the proposed topic of discussion, it is supposed to increase our knowledge on the topic and not promote its practice. We are in a learning environment and are supposed to be open to anything new,” he said."
Setting agenda for UNN’s witchcraft conference
UNN cancels venue for conference on witchcraft
Does this last report mean the venue has been changed but the conference proceeds?
One account is stating the conference has been cancelled.
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
About Pope Benedict’s 2009 Africa visit, I do recall this one-liner: “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)
My understanding is that “Witchcraft” is not and cannot be good. For those who have beliefs to the contrary, the fact is that they (Witchcraft) could have developed a lot during the past decade; however, how that could have contributed or is contributing to Africa’s spiritual and material well-being or progress is possibly on the agenda of this conference/coven of wizards and witches that is being convened.
Recently I have read quite a bit of Fr. Seraphim Rose on witchcraft, demons and evil spirits
His short essay found here under the heading “ The Rise of Witchcraft” should be sufficient, serious warning ( to the wise)
It is understandable and it is to be expected that some of Church clergy and the Nigerian pastors’ objections will be based on what is written in the Bible that says “You shall not allow a sorceress to live.”
If this conference was going to be held in the type of theocracy that would take the Biblical injunction seriously, then the participants, especially the practitioners ( not the mere theoreticians or teachers and researchers) would be well advised to not even go near the venue lest they be rounded up and lined up for execution. But Nigeria is no such theocracy and at least, Nigeria’s criminal code guarantees those attending the conference some material protection and some freedom of speech ( the pastors can exorcise demons but a child cannot be accused of witchcraft)
On Friday, 22 November 2019 16:07:58 UTC+1, Ibrahim Abdullah wrote:
So the church should determine our research projects? Insane—back to the Middle Ages!
Sent from my iPhone
On 22 Nov 2019, at 2:40 PM, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:
--
"But the President of the Students Union Government (SUG), Chimezie Fortunatus, who spoke to The Guardian on the issue expressed that contrary to various opinions on the upcoming conference on witchcraft, he believes the academia should be open to any form of discussion. “I do not see anything wrong with the proposed topic of discussion, it is supposed to increase our knowledge on the topic and not promote its practice. We are in a learning environment and are supposed to be open to anything new,” he said."
Setting agenda for UNN’s witchcraft conference
UNN cancels venue for conference on witchcraft
Does this last report mean the venue has been changed but the conference proceeds?
One account is stating the conference has been cancelled.
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
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Cornelius Hamelberg
OAA,
Seraphim Rose makes exactly the same point in Charismatic Revival As a Sign of the Times – you could fast-forward to the” Speaking in tongues” section….
Na serious matter. I wish that I could be there, as an observer. The ambitious themes and agendas of the conference could probably find their place under this general umbrella: “The sociology of witchcraft in Nigeria”
Of course, there has always been Amos Tutuola’s linguistic fireworks and spirits-filled phantasmagoria such as “The Palm-Wine Drinkard”, “My Life in the bush of Ghosts” , “The Village Witch Doctor and Other Stories”, enough fantasy material to fire the imagination if not the brain to a new direction for a J.K. Rowling or a next stage in the fantasy genre for e.g. Tomi Adeyemi
According to the missionary definition, any spirit operating outside of what’s sanctioned by the church, is “Witchcraft” and that includes the “Voodoo drums”
Wizards, I’ve met a few, witches too, for many of us fellow mortal men it has been,
“ Whatever it is, that girl put a spell on me” ( Purple Haze)
Once upon a time back in Sierra Leone, I lived at the epi-centre of Freetown, at number 37 Westmoreland Street, opposite the Cotton Tree and directly opposite the Sierra Leone Museum which I frequented, to study the mysterious Nomoli statues. That is where I wanted to take my Aunty Nelly (Mrs. John Jeffrey-Coker) and Charlotte when they visited me, very briefly, when their ship berthed at the Queen Elizabeth 11 Quay, on their way to Nigeria, just before Nigeria became independent. Alas, no sooner had they arrived, and after just one hug, they had to get back to the ship, they had no time to spare.
Yours truly Cornelius Ignoramus only became interested in religion per se circa, 1970, inspired by Ulli Beier and through studying Yoruba sculptures and Yoruba myths. Robin Horton’s “Kalabari Sculpture” eventually took me to Kalabariland and Akaso. So, there is a point where Yoruba religion intersects with sculpture, theatre, oratory, poetry, music, dance, trance. My own interest in religion (not all that boring ecclesiastical hocus-pocus) started with another curiosity : investigating Wole Soyinka’s “agemo phase” explored in his “ The Road” as a dramatic technique, - a flashback technique , whereby the dancer gets possessed by the spirit of the Egungun mask, and ( as Tony Adepoju would put it) “enters into another dimension of time and space” whilst I suspect some of the Bible-thumping, Pentecostal Nigerian pastors would put it, “ starts speaking in tongues “.
What is still not clear to me is, whether or not, in “the Agemo phase” the speaker behind the mask starts speaking in Yoruba, Hausa, Fulani, Kalabari, pidgin, or indeed Greek and Latin, or, as on that most famous original Day of Pentecost, only in a language intelligible to the individual hearers.
As with religion, ditto, music too , after an early decade of Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, Bach, it just took a few notes from Johnny Pacheco on the flute doing Quitate Tu – and the deal was done.
Formally, Ignoramus checked out Azande Witchcraft because Evans-Pritchard's Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande was required reading but isn’t the witchcraft that is under the purview of this conference of a more urban ( cosmopolitan) hue, and less of a “in the bush of ghosts” phenomena? The point where Witchcraft and “the holy” spirit” intersect since they cannot “join forces”
I am reliably informed that some of the Nigerian pastors and miracle workers use of combination of “the holy spirit “and some more traditional means, that are said to be a lot closer at hand…
This remains one of my favourite quotations:
"Heedfulness leads to cleanliness, cleanliness leads to cleanness, cleanness leads to abstinence, abstinence leads to holiness, holiness leads to modesty, modesty leads to fear of sin, the fear of sin leads to piety, piety leads to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit leads to the resurrection of the dead, and the resurrection of the dead comes through Elijah , blessed be his memory, Amen"
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju,
For me, there is the Shekinah and that is sufficient. On Friday evenings Lecha Dodi is sung to welcome the Sabbath Bride! (N.B. people don’t get married on or during the Sabbath)
Otherwise, I doff my hat to you, for those questions about which the enquirer is himself much more knowledge-able than I am.
Without going into any long-winded mode, I’d say outright that I don’t know so much about the African nature religions, a world inhabited by various spirits, “superstition and unverified claims” or that Witchcraft - such as Wicca exists “in the African sense” – but then again, I know next to nothing about either Wicca or what’s known as “African witchcraft”. Is it about getting close to God? I have not read or studied any of its scriptures or practical manuals so I wouldn’t know if it has the same aims as Kashmir Shaivism, or Tibetan Buddhism or Sufism with which I have been much more practically acquainted. I mention Kashmir Shaivism - and by extension, Tibetan Buddhism and Sufism because in his “Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future” ( with chapters on “The Power of the Pagan gods; Hinduism's Assault Upon Christianity” and in the other chapters in that book) the late Christian Eastern Orthodox Father Seraphim Rose is unequivocal when he says that the Eastern Orthodox church has a monopoly of the holy spirit and that any other spirit or spirits operating outside of the auspices of the Eastern Orthodox Church, cannot be the real Holy Spirit.
Rabbi Yaakov Hillel makes similar exclusive claims for the Holy Spirit which operates among the chosen people, in his Faith and Folly: The Occult in Torah Perspective
From that point of view, should I wish you the best of luck and Godspeed when you “aspire to such visibility for African witchcraft” since your exposé could sound the alarm…
P.s Yes, Benedictus Erectus did say that Africa must be cured of Witchcraft!
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