Witch Camps and Witchcraft Discourse in Africa - by Matthew Gmalifo Mabefam (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book explores how local development interventions related to witchcraft in Africa intersect and conflict with globally accepted development practices. It argues for expansion and diversification of development practices and problematizes international development practice...

Book Synopsis

This book explores how local development interventions related to witchcraft in Africa intersect and conflict with globally accepted development practices. It argues for expansion and diversification of development practices and problematizes international development practices that can jeopardize the well-being of the people it seeks to support.

Review Quotes

Although perceptions about witch camps are negative, surprisingly, this book projects the camps as safe sanctuaries because the alleged witches are under the protection of the chief who oversees the camp. I recommend this book because there is something almost valiant in the way inescapably invisible dogmas about witchcraft are carved as confusing and at the same time, the phenomenon is queried as to whether it is an opportunity for wealth or a course for (in)equality and (dis) empowerment.

Development and occult power are two perennial topics in African studies scholarship. This fascinating work examines how beliefs in occult force and development policies meet in contemporary northern Ghana. Mabefam, an anthropologist from this region, uses his insider knowledge and his mastery of the literature on witchcraft well. Rejecting claims that beliefs in occult force are hindrances to social development, he shows how the impact of neoliberal policies led to changes in how and why people were accused of using occult methods to harm others. In northern Ghana, the predominately female and elderly people charged with witchcraft have been forced into settlements for their own protection against their accusers. State and NGO representatives find themselves uneasily balancing personal beliefs in the power of witchcraft with their responsibilities to protect marginalized people and to promote economic growth. People living within these settlements generally oppose leaving, even if development agencies would prefer they reintegrate into their home communities. This analysis serves as a very good introduction to the literature on development and witchcraft, to the point faculty should consider using it in undergraduate and masters-level courses. Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals.

If you want to know about witchcraft and witch camps in Africa, this is the book for you. Although perceptions about witch camps are negative, surprisingly, this book projects the camps as safe sanctuaries because the alleged witches are under the protection of the chief who oversees the camp. I recommend this book because there is something almost valiant in the way inescapably invisible dogmas about witchcraft are carved as confusing and at the same time, the phenomenon is queried as to whether it is an opportunity for wealth or a course for (in)equality and (dis) empowerment.

Mabefam's excellent and engrossing study offers a sound ethnography of the controversial 'witch camps' and local witchcraft ideas in northern Ghana. The book shakes and reshapes our understanding and intellectual engagement with the highly positional, slippery and tensional concepts such as witchcraft and 'witch camps', and calls to attention the need to decolonize orthodox scholarship and neo-liberal (presumably Western) epistemologies that have dominated development and academic discourses on African witchcraft since the time of colonialism.

About the Author

Matthew Gmalifo Mabefam is a lecturer in anthropology and development studies in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne.