WAS there real justification for the controversy that threatened the recent International Conference on Witchcraft organized by the University Of Nigeria Nsukka, UNN? Or were the prejudices that led to its stigmatization by some Christian groups, part of the contradictions the conference was set to confront?
These questions are raised because of issues bandied before the conference; issues that led to the replacement of its original theme and the withdrawal of the Keynote Speaker. But for this thematic change, the conference may not have seen the light of the day given the negative meanings and coloration assigned to that intellectual harvest by some protesting groups.
What were the issues? The Prof. B.I.C Ijomah Center for Policy Studies and Research, UNN had slated an International Conference on Witchcraft with the title, “Witchcraft: meanings, factors, and practices”. But as soon as it was unveiled, there arose strident outcries from some Christian groups and students of the institution protesting the purpose the conference was meant to serve.
Interpretations ranged from allegations that it was a gathering of witches to an attempt to promote evil with some calling for its outright cancellation. There were even demonstrations within the campus of the university with some of the placards reading “we plead the blood of Jesus over UNN. We reject all forms of witchcraft overtly or covertly”.
Apparently succumbing to pressure, the management of the university directed the organizers to change the theme if they wanted the conference to go on. This was done. Thus, the new theme became “Dimensions of human behavior”. The conference has come and gone. But with its emerging proceedings, was there real justification for the hullaballoo and its stigmatization in the first place? That is the searing question. And we may find out the attacks were highly misplaced as there is ample justification for the conference and its theme as originally conceived. What is witchcraft? Wikipedia described witchcraft as the practice of magical skills and abilities – a broad term that varies culturally and societally and thus can be difficult to define with precision. A witch in the definition of Merriam Webster is one that is credited with usually malignant supernatural powers especially a woman practicing usually black witchcraft often with the aid of a devil.
Evident from the above is that witchcraft and witches are practices and beliefs shared across countries and boarders and therefore not just a Nigerian phenomenon. The fact that dictionaries have definitions or explanations as to what they entail shows that the white man has some knowledge of such beliefs either in their real or imaginary frame. There is also a convergence of views that what constitutes witchcraft varies culturally and does not lend itself to precise explanation or interpretation
That ipso facto, makes it a research question. Thus, a conference with the title “Witchcraft, meanings, factors and practices” seeks to dig deeper into the phenomenon with a view to unraveling some of the misconceptions that hitherto surrounded it, misconceptions that had led to the killing and burning alive of some old women on these shores on mere suspicion of witchcraft. Moreover, issues surrounding witchcraft and witches have at best, remained mysterious and contentious. A society that desires progress cannot but interrogate such issues. There was therefore, vision and foresight in both the organization of the conference and its subject matter.
Curiously, the so-called Nigerian factor soon reared up its ugly head as some groups began to cast aspersions on that intellectual inquisition. They did not want the conference to hold as they considered it a gathering of witches and the sponsorship of evil. The director-general of the centre, Prof. Egodi Uchendu was so frustrated by these misplaced attacks that she lamented how ordinary academic conference was twisted to cause confusion.
She was so piqued by events before the conference that she had to explain in a statement that the subject of the conference is on witchcraft and NOT the gathering of witches. Hear her: “surprisingly, some persons erroneously concluded that only witches can discuss witchcraft. We are not witches. We are professors and scholars intrigued by this phenomenon of witchcraft. Our conference is mere academic discussion where we shall review journals and information gathered over the years on the subject matter”. For her, the essence is the advancement of knowledge. She said it all.
But arising from her frustrations is the propriety of the attacks mounted by some Christian organizations. Perhaps, she had this dialectics in mind when she rightly observed that church pastors discuss witchcraft regularly and also preach against it all the time. If that is the case, why were they opposed to an academic inquisition on the matter? What is there in an issue they regularly preach that scholars should be barred from discussing it? And whose interest was the stoppage meant to serve? These posers are given fillip given that sundry pastors, seers and fortunetellers capitalize on the purported existence of witches, wizards and blood sucking demons to hoodwink and deceive their followers.
Could the attacks have stemmed from pathological fear that some of the antics of these preachers stand the risk of being exposed by the conference? Or were there genuine issues in the challenges mounted by the Christian bodies? As things turned out, the attacks were grossly exaggerated and misconceived. It was sheer smear campaign. The argument that only witches can discuss witchcraft makes no sense at all.
Are we now being made to believe that those preachers who regularly discuss witchcraft and blood sucking demons; sometimes setting families against each other, children against parents and wives against their mothers-in-law are witches? If that is the case, then the boundaries of witchcraft are very inelastic. We are then all witches since at one time or the other we find ourselves discussing the subject matter. That is the futility in stretching that argument further.
Those who wanted the conference scuttled could be excused on grounds of ignorance. They may also be accused of nursing some hidden agenda. But it is this culture of ignorance that nurtures and sustains the myth of witchcraft the conference was set to expose. With the frequent deployment of such mystic and magical occurrences to explain life situations and their negative effects on the psyche of the ordinarily man, we run a mortal danger if conscious efforts are not made to reverse such narratives. That in my mind was the essence of the intellectual engagement on witchcraft. We cannot just run away from interrogating such social phenomenon if we must detach our peoples from the culture of fear and superstition that has overtime stultified national development.
The conference was a success given the way the phenomenon was handled by various speakers. In his own paper titled, “The wealthy are no witches: towards an epistemology and ideology of witchcraft among the Igbo of Nigeria”, Prof Damian Opata said the way witchcraft was propagated and believed here had continued to kill the development of knowledge on the issue.
Lamenting the deployment by pastors, prophet and seers of variegated foreign religions of perceived attacks by witches and wizards to put fear in the minds of their congregations, he said the truth is that witches exist for those who believe it exists and does not exist for those who do not believe in it.
Peter Jazzy-Eze, head, Department of Sociology and Anthropology UNN, in his paper titled, “Which Witch? What anthropology knows of the adult Bugbear” argued that witchcraft did not exist but only existed in the minds of those who believe in it. For him, science and technology have overtaken superstitious belief on witchcraft which has no practical proof. He urged Africans to drop the belief in witchcraft and embrace robust knowledge in science and technology that have practical and verifiable applications.
The issue is clear. It was neither a case of witches discussing witchcraft nor a gathering of witches. It was an intellectual inquisition into the phenomenon of witchcraft. And we are better off with the conclusions that witches only exist in the imagination of the gullible.
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