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. Some of these recent conversations suggest that many African academics are out of step with the need for 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 three scholars at the Department of Religion. We discussed plans for a symposium on witchcraft beliefs, and I was sadly unsurprised to hear that all three believed that witchcraft was real, and that witches existed.
It is shocking that many university teachers cannot make basic distinctions between reality and superstition. 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 legitimise and validate absurd claims. This is not only unscholarly, it is unintellectual and unacademic. Many university teachers romanticise and valorise the idea of witchcraft; they claim to have expert knowledge and speak authoritatively about the topic, often based on hearsay and flimsy anecdotal evidence. This pontificating attitude is partly responsible for witch hunts in contemporary Africa.
As I explained to the WhatsApp group for another institute that I am affiliated with, 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 – or at least 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 terrible job. Unfortunately, most seem not to have realised the mistake. African scholars have contributed to misinforming, misexplaining, and misrepresenting the phenomenon of witchcraft in Africa. In my opinion, they have contributed to legitimising witch hunts in the region, unwittingly endorsing the exotic framing of witchcraft and witch hunts in Africa by Western anthropologists. We need to begin undoing this ‘academic’ tragedy in African scholarship, urgently.
A university teacher in the group was unconvinced. “The three scholars at the University of Benin who claimed that witchcraft is real were wrong – what proof do they have?”, he asked me, before adding, “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”.
When I asked what these arguments for the reality of witchcraft were, and what even qualified as a ‘conclusive’ argument when in a case where someone was accused of turning into a bird, he railed against my certainty about witchcraft. “When you make categorical statements on an issue for which you do not have definitive proof,” he told me, “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. We’re just not sure whether witches exist or not”.
In the views of this scholar, we cannot categorically say whether witchcraft is real or a superstition. But whether someone can turn into a bird is a testable, demonstrable physical claim about objective reality, and one that demands clarity. If we were to just accept that it’s impossible to state that witchcraft is a myth or reality, we defer to the claims that witchcraft believers make – and it is those claims that justify the carrying out of witch-hunting activities.
It is worth noting that this university teacher condemned witch hunting, while being equivocal about the existence of witches. To justify this position, they cited an article in the National Geographic, which offered the advice: “Trying to stop a witch hunt by saying witches don’t exist doesn’t work.” However, the advice of this patronising and exoticising piece in the National Geographic is merely 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 ignorantly offer 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 realisation 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?
My lecturer colleague further recounted to me his ‘witchcraft’ experiences:
“In a number of communities where 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. However, when I have argued over this topic with teachers and lecturers, they have been vehement in their opinionated defence of the existence of witches and witchcraft in Africa.
I explained to this university teacher 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 told me,
“The cases I mentioned are real. I witnessed them, they’re 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 this was the case? Did he conduct any medical tests?
I challenged him to take me to these communities where normal people confess to witchcraft but he declined: “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? 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.
Any time I challenge Nigerian or African scholars who make or legitimise witchcraft claims, they back out in this way. As I told this academic, Africans who claim that witchcraft is real must be ready to substantiate their claims. Fortunately, not all of scholars in the group agreed with this lecturer. Someone described witchcraft belief as a fraud, and 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 of the existence of witchcraft as popularly believed, they should produce it, and make it public.
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 ruled by their beliefs, prejudices, and sentiments. African scholars should learn to focus on their areas of specialisation 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 need to wake up, and stop making a scholarly mountain out of a superstitious molehill. They need to stop enabling witch-hunting in the name of scholarship. And African teachers should stop making a caricature of education, research, and studies in colleges and universities. Witchcraft is a myth. Full stop.
