Magic believes in Africa: the defeat of science?
In the following article, Mr. Uchenna B. Okeja, a postdoctoral research fellow at the department of philosophy at the University of Frankfurt (Germany) is analysing the phenomena of magic belief in Africa south of the Sahara. His investigation is based in Nigeria, a country of western Africa. However, the situation that he described is characteristic of postcolonial African societies, and could also be experienced in the diaspora. Africans in Europe and America are strongly attached to exoterical and religious organisations prophesising redemption through prayers. The Historians Elikia Mbokolo mostly refer to these believes in almost all his interventions in mass media. Even if he usually refers to his native Congo-Kinshasa, this reality is common to the entire Africa south of the Sahara. The take off of this Phenomena does simply testify the fact that the development of science and technology in Africa is yet to produce the so awaited dismantling of “pagan” mental infra-structures.
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Witchcraft and Magic in African Context
By Benedicht UCHENNA OKEJA,
University of Frankfurt/ Main, Germany
Abstract
The phenomena of Witchcraft and Magic have been recurrent decimals in African consciousness. Even the wave of globalization which has made itpossible for people within Africa to share in humanity’s demystification ofthese phenomena has not been able to calm the tempest of belief in and fearof these phenomena. The extent of the belief in these phenomena manifestsitself in forms ranging from media stories (Nigerian home videos forexample), stories (in the Newspapers) of magical infliction of injury and cureof same, miracle workers in both churches and other places of worship,placement of curses through some mysterious ways to witch-hunting andexecution. Though not new, the belief in these phenomena has beensomewhat on the increase in many parts of Africa in recent years. Thissituation makes it a contradictory reality because economic advancement andeducation which have visibly touched more parts of Africa today than somedecades ago, are supposed to lead to demystification of this belief system.This paper seeks to do two things:
1) to inquire into the nature of thesebeliefs with a view to establishing why advancement in man’s knowledge ofthe world (science) in Africa seems not to impact on these beliefs
2) toanalyze the truth value of these beliefs based on some selected cases with aview to showing what the impacts of these beliefs are on the contemporary African reality.
The argument of this paper is that the deep seated belief inthe phenomena of witchcraft and magic, though outside the realm of science,since they can neither be rationally (or logically) comprehended norempirically proven (or convincingly demonstrated), have led to dysfunctionalpolitical, religious, social and economic symmetry which have bred direconsequences for the African society as a whole.
The entire article is available in the following book: Scott Hendrix & Brian Feltham (Eds.), Rational Magic, Fisher Imprints, 2011, 197p.
The link to the book: http://www.amazon.com/Rational-Magic-Scott-Hendrix/dp/1848880618
Source de l’image du crâne humain: Collection, Archéologie paléolithique et néolithique, musees-midi-pyrenees.fr
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