We all know that wichcraft is alive and active in Africa. We all know its more positive role is to provide Africans with a rudementaryperhapsmore spiritualform of healthcare. We all know that it is the shame of Africa as its negaive attributes are shocking. Mutilated bodies found everyday in various parts of the continent,very few are willing to tackle its detrimental effects head-on.

What are your views? Does this practice have a place in todays society? Does witchcraft deserve its bad name?

I consider witchcraft(mambo jumbo superstitions)as a cause and effect of poverty. Its an issue of people having too much time on their hands and being unable to explain scientifically whats happening around them.....so they look to spirits and ghosts etc....

But if you change the economical and social dynamic of these countries, then you'll see how quick people would drop these silly ideas.....in fact they would laugh at themselves for believing in such none sense.

Education is the key!

Mezmerised...again you show your insight concisely and quite brilliantly. I happen to share you view, infact i have been watching for such signs of progression to be actively seen. Lets take South Africa for instance, it is presently one of (if not the strongest) African economies, but when i read the newspapers sent to me i still read of tokoloshes, sangombasand other such "mumbo jumbo". Perhaps then witchcraft is an ingrained cultural perspective that can never be totally erased from African heritage???

FIRST OF ALL WITCHCRAFT ISNT MUMBO JUMBO. IT IS VERY TRUE AND FACTUAL. NOT

EVERYBODY PRACTICES IT FOR THE SAME REASONS. IT IS ALSO PRACTICED IN THE CARIBEAN, SOUTH AMERICA AND OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD. IT CAN BE USED FOR BAD AND GOOD.

AND MESMERIZED I LIKE YOUR PICTURE.

it is a FACT that witchcraft is a practice still used in Africa (true it is a worldwide issue), but the actual condusiveness will always be questionable and dubious.

@ black_power.. im not sure if you are being serious?!!

@ black_power.. im not sure if you are being serious?!!

Whether witchcraft is good or bad.....that should not be the question. If you are talking of African spirituality, then thats a totally different idea all together. Growing up in Africa, i saw a CLEAR distinction between people who were African Animists(basicaly practicing certain aspects of African spirituality which relates to nature:?) and people who practiced so called witchcraft......and there was always a big social and economical difference between the two....with the people who practiced witchcraft being the poorer and uneducated members of society

Its a believe rooted in superstitions and i hardly see what good can come from being so superstitious about everything around you just because you lack the ability to explain it. You hear of families dumping their children on the streets because they believe the children to be possesed.....i don't think a well rounded and educated individual with no superstitious ideals ruling their mind.

Like i said, i am not going by what i have heard about Haitians or other Africans in the diaspora who practice it......i am talking about the effect this thing has had on some African countries........its a big problem as gun crime is in the US at the moment...how could such a cruel belief be any good for some?confused3

There is African spirituality and there is witchcraft.....and just because something is practiced by some Africans it doesn't mean its a good thing.

http://www.arushatimes.co.tz/2003/37/front_page_2.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4276406.stm

http://www.factnet.org/cults/Sangoma...r.html?FACTNet

Nothing positive comes out of Witchcraft surely? If money and power are all the substance you require out of life, then surely you need a new education? (no offence intended).

@Malaika

The phenomena of the NTOKOLOSHE and the ISANGOMA, for those who believe, is very real. In the same way as the Virgin Mary and the Angel Gabriel, for those who believe, is very real. To term that which we have no understanding of as mumbo jumbo, is quite myopic, to say the least. Precolonialism, Africans had their own belief systems. The term witchcraft was used to define African medical practices and religious beliefsthat the Europeans could not understand. The other day, I was in clinic with one of my patients who has severe excema. The parents are from Ghana. Whilst in Ghana, instead of applying steroidal creams with their dire side effects, they used something called WAWA (not sure of the spelling) cream. The improvement of this chilld's skin was remarkable, to say the least. In days of yorn, this cream would have been ridiculed because of its origins. You look at where the term mumbo jumbo stems from. It describes foolish religious reverence, rituals or incantations. So, in the same vien, we could argue that tarrot readings, signs of the zodiac etc are all nosensical, because we do not understand where their origins. Furthermore, one could argue that witchcraft is not just an African phenomenon.

As to providing Africans with a rudimentary form of healthcare. Well, one of my colleagues is currently researching the benefits of traditional African herbal medicine in the symptomatic relief of retroviral illnesses. His findings thus far are very impressive. Taking into consideration the fact that western pharmaceutical companies have no vested interest in Africa and are selling anti retoviral drugs at exorbitant prices. When sangomas are advising grown men to rape children in order to rid them of HIV, when they demand the heart of a new born to ensure financial success, that is when it becomes mumbo jumbo and they turn into murderous evil practioners. Otherwise, I feel they have a place in African society. Ntokolotshes, I do not know about as I have never had first hand experience with them.

YOU DO LOOK LIKE HER LOL

WITCHCRAFT AND SPIRITUALITY ARE NOT THE SAME. THEY ARE LINKED. WITCHCRAFT AND THE WAY IT IS PRACTICED IS EFFECTED BY DIFFERENT GOVERNMENTS, ITS PEOPLE AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TWO. ITS GOOD TO JUST LEARN ABOUT WITCHCRAFT IF YOU WANT TO USE IT TO LEARN ABOUT SPRITUALITY OR CERTAIN SCIENCES. BUT I WILL BE THE FIRST ONE TO SAY IT IS QUITEDANGEROUS AND YOU HAVE TO GO AT IT WITH GOOD INTENTIONS, A GOOD HEART, AND INTELLIGENCE.

@ Gazzelle good points.

Being of South African decent i was told (warned)about the Tokoloshe from an early age but my mother and grandmother always started the "stories" with saying:"kwaseka kusela" thus i had grown to regard it as mere myth, a comforting thought to a child too scared to sleep close to the floor! But i am aware that the tokoloshe is a reality to many people still.

I agree with Mezmersied to the point that a vast gap of differentiation should be made from African Spirituality practiced by some and the Mumbo Jumbo that brings it into disrepute. But in reality this is very difficult as in the sangoma example, there are those who can heal with a intricate knowlege of herbs and such and those who manipulate vulnerable minds and cause terrible acts to occur. Did you hear of the man who raped 11 women stating that the sangoma told him to abide by the words of the tokoloshe that she said followed him?

I would be very interested to know of the findings your friend documents!

It is definatley not an exclusively African issue to tackle, but its always good to start at home before i try to decifer the rest of the world.