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 crucially 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 'enchantments' 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 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 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 amongst anthropologists and social scientists. Adam Ashforth Institute for Advanced Study , Misty Bastian Franklin and Marshall College, Rijk Van Dijk African Studies Centre, Cyprian Fisiy, The World Bank, Peter Gesc