Magical Interpretations Material Reality - Modernity Witchcraft and the Occult in Postcolonial Africa ed by Henrietta L Moore & Todd Sanders (2002).pdf - Magia afrykańska i karaibska - morefaya2006

Recto running head

Magical Interpretations, Material

Realities

Witchcraft is alive and well in Africa today both among the disenchanted and

downtrodden as well as the educated elite. This volume sets out recent thinking

on witchcraft in Africa, paying particular attention to variations in meanings

and practices. It examines the way different people in different contexts are

making sense of what witchcraft is and what it might mean.

Clearly, the promises of countless western social theorists – that such ‘enchant-

ments’ would die a sudden death with ‘modernity’ – have not come to pass. In

fact, despite growing democracy and development throughout the region, the

general sentiment on the continent is that witchcraft is increasing. Indeed,

witchcraft is routinely implicated in modern state politics, free markets and legal

systems. But why, and why now?

Using recent ethnographic materials from across the continent, the volume

explores how witchcraft articulates with particular modern settings, for example:

the State in Cameroon; Pentecostalism in Malawi; the university system in

Nigeria and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Ghana, Sierra Leone

and Tanzania. The editors provide a timely overview and reconsideration of

long-standing anthropological debates about ‘African witchcraft’, while

simultaneously raising broader concerns about the theories of the western social

sciences. This book will be widely read and used by anthropologists, social

scientists, development theorists and policy makers.

Henrietta L. Moore is Professor of Anthropology and Todd Sanders is a

Research Fellow, both in the Department of Anthropology at the London

School of Economics.

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iii

Magical Interpretations,

Material Realities

Modernity, witchcraft and the

occult in postcolonial Africa

Edited by Henrietta L. Moore

and Todd Sanders

London and New York

First published 2001

by Routledge

11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.

Sanders; individual chapters, the contributors

Chapter 3 is an adaptation of ‘Cannibal Transformations’,

in Memories of the Slave Trade , which will be published

reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,

or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including

photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or

retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Magical interpretations, material realities: modernity, witchcraft,

and the occult in postcolonial Africa / edited by Henrietta L. Moore

and Todd Sanders.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Witchcraft – Africa, Sub-Saharan.

I. Moore, Henrietta L.

II. Sanders,Todd, 1965–

BF1584.A357 M34 2001

133.4´3´096 – dc21

2001048185

ISBN 0-203-39825-4 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-39969-2 (Adobe eReader Format)

ISBN 0–415–25866–9 (hbk)

ISBN 0–415–25867–7 (pbk)

Magical Interpretations Material Reality - Modernity Witchcraft and the Occult in Postcolonial Africa ed by Henrietta L Moore & Todd Sanders (2002).pdf

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