Sir: That a witchcraft conference was held in Nigeria, at the University of Nigeria Enugu to be precise is no longer news. From the day the conference was announced, it was controversy all the way. The conference met with stiff opposition from religious bodies. The stiff opposition had to come because the conceptualization was wrong from the beginning.
The naming of the conference was against the objective the organizers aimed at. They should have named the idea African indigenous science or knowledge. Yes witches practice African science but they are not the only one doing that. Naming the conference witchcraft conference was confusing because witchcraft cannot stand as an umbrella name for African science. African indigenous science is broader than witchcraft.
There are Africans with deep knowledge, astounding sciences and they are neither witches nor wizards. That you know how to do sciences that are indigenous to Africa does not make you a witch or a wizard. The organizers should have put into consideration the negative perception majority of Africans regardless of their religion leaning have about witches. Even many that have benefitted from African native medicine still believe it is witchcraft! A conference whose goal is to tap into African knowledge should have been given a theme that is all encompassing.
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There is nothing bad for the organizers of the UNN conference to want to have a parley on witchcraft; after all, it is an African reality. It is even a good idea for Africans to focus on how to get African witches to begin to use their knowledge for the development of the continent but describing it as witchcraft conference is a mixed up that should certainly make some people to opt out.
We heard that some Christian groups stood against the conference on witches. Those were the ones that have access to the media; that was why we heard about them. There are those that are neither Christian not Muslim that certainly opted out that we did not get to hear about and they should have been part of the conference because they are versed in African knowledge or science but are not in agreement with witchcraft. An average Yoruba person grew up to know that the Ogbonis, Babalawos and others like that are not witches but they practice some form of African science. How do you know call a witchcraft conference and expect them to show up?
If the conference had been tagged as African native science conference or something like that, definitely it would have welcomed not only witches but also other groups that practice African science and that would have created a better environment for cross-fertilization of ideas. It is a fact also that some Christian denominations and Islamic clerics practice some form of African science. These ones too will certainly not show up for a conference on witchcraft whereas they would have been great addition to a conference like that.
There are a lot of misconceptions about African native knowledge. Many believe it is all dark. Many believe it is all spiritual. In actual fact, African native knowledge is of two types, herbal and spiritual. There are those that practice both, Babalawos in Yorubaland are good example. The witches are spiritual and there are those who only understand the medicinal uses of our flora, the different herbs God endowed Africa with.
These facts have to be taken into consideration for success to be made out of this foray into the realm of African indigenous science. Certainly, the field of medicine, agriculture, the military, internal security and so on stand to gain a lot from a foray into African indigenous knowledge.
- Kehinde Akinlade anipr, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
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