CONTEMPORARY “WITCHDEMONOLOGY” IN AFRICA
Opoku Onyinah
Jul 10, 2004
Citations
15
Citations
Journal
International Review of Mission
Full text
Semantic Scholar
Key Takeaway Key Takeaway: Contemporary "deliverance" ministries in Africa focus on divinatory-consultation and the search for meaning, but their preoccupation with demonisation and exorcistic practices can tension family ties and other religions.
Abstract
Abstract This paper is a study of the current deliverance ministry in Africa, with reference to Ghana. The general opinion gathered from current anthropological studies on witchcraft is that the ultimate outcome of exorcism is for it to become modernized. However, the paper departs from this and contends that it is divinatory-consultation, or an inquiry into the sacred and the search for meaning that underlies the contemporary "deliverance" ministry, where the focus is to identify and break down the so-called demonic forces by the power of God in order to "deliver" people from their torment. This paper represents a further attempt to contextualise the gospel to African people. However, its preoccupation with demonisation and its exorcistic practices are found to bring Christianity into tension with family ties and other religions. Therefore, the paper suggests that there is the need to develop a properly safeguarded ministry of exorcism in an African context. Introduction Witchcraft and sorcery, and the ways of dealing with them have continually posed problems for African ethnic groups. Following Evans-Pritchard's research into witchcraft among the Azande of Congo, and his advancement of the misfortune or the explanation theory, the phenomena of witchcraft and sorcery in Africa have become prominent on the agenda of anthropologists. (1) Various terms and interpretations have been offered in attempts to understand these phenomena in Africa. Evan-Pritchard's classic distinction between witchcraft and sorcery, which has been altered by other anthropologists, is relevant in many places in Africa. The assumption is that witchcraft is an inherent quality and a psychic act. The witch performs no rites, utters no spells, and possesses no medicine. Sorcery is the deliberate employment of magical rites, and the use of spells or mechanical aids in the attempt to bring a result. Witchcraft can be used either for a good or an evil purpose. (2) Others have, however, attempted to amalgamate the two in one term. For example, Middleton and Winter combine the two in the term "wizardry". (3) Mary Douglas' use of the term "sorcery" significantly includes witchcraft. (4) The problem with these terms is that often the intended meanings are conveyed to societies other than those researched into, and sometimes they fail to be relevant some years after the research was carried out. Consequently there is a constant struggle for terms to identify these phenomena. Various interpretations have been offered for the belief in witchcraft and sorcery. Evans-Pritchard's work revealed that misfortunes in society were a strong basis for the belief in witchcraft. Other significant interpretations offered include the works of J. Clyde Mitchell, Middleton and Winter, Max Marwick and Mary Douglas; they theorized that the function of witchcraft offered a release of tension within certain types of African social structures. (5) The studies of S.F. Nadel, M. Gluckman and Debrunner also demonstrate that witchcraft belief is the outcome of social instability, such as famine, rapid change, oppression and economic distress. (6) Other works, including Margaret Field's case studies and analysis of so-called witches in Ghana, reveal how witchcraft is rooted in the psychological reactions of those suffering from ill health, misfortunes and the inability to control their destinies. (7) These interpretations led some anthropologists and missionaries to assume that witchcraft belief was only a superstition that modernity would dispel. For example, Parrinder argues, "An enlightened religion, education, medicine and better social and racial conditions will help to dispel witchcraft beliefs." (8) Unfortunately Parrinder lives to become "a false prophet" in the sense that, although an enlightened religion, viz. Christianity, has grown in Africa, belief in witchcraft has survived and even been revived. The current studies on witchcraft and sorcery in Africa, such as those of Peter Geschiere, Birgit Meyer, and Jean and John Comaroff show that the concepts are no longer "traditional" but operate as a very important aspect of "modernity. …