Professor Bolaji Idowu in his book, African Traditional Religion: A Definition (1973), said “In Africa, it is idle to begin with the question whether witches exist or not....To Africans of every category, witchcraft is an urgent reality”. Well, while this statement by this foremost scholar might have been true decades ago, when he wrote his seminal book, today it is not. Many of over 70 participants at a local conference on witchcraft and related superstitions held in June at Evan Enwerem University -formerly Imo State University- belonged to a category of Africans for whom one could say that witchcraft was a patent myth and superstition. The event, organised by Marcel Iweajunwa and his New Nigeria Youth Organisation, was part of the public enlightenment campaign to tackle this cultural scourge. The International Humanist and Ethical Union sponsored the event. Imo state is one of the Nigerian states where belief in witchcraft is dominant. Witchcraft related problems are common and accusations are widespread. There is hardly any part of the state that is unaffected by this misguided belief. Apart from the conference, the New Nigeria Youth Organisation sponsored two radio programs that took the campaign to those who could not attend or participate in the meeting. I was among the radio discussants. Many people called in to share their thoughts, experiences, beliefs and doubts about witchcraft and the evils associated with witches and wizards. There were heated debates, arguments and disagreements over the meaning, and manifestations of witchcraft. Non-believers in witches argued to enlighten believers and get them to abandon this primitive belief, which was causing so much confusion in the community. Some witchcraft believers called to warn us and other doubting thomases about the spiritual risk we were taking by challenging this long-held belief. One thing was obvious in the tone and expressions of believers who phoned in – fear, particularly fear of the unknown.

As envisaged by the organisers of the conference, there was strong debate as to whether witchcraft was a fact or fiction, science or superstition, myth or reality. Many callers told us that witchcraft was real and that people actually bewitched their neighbours. They used all sorts of unverifiable stories to make it look as if the existence of witches was self-evident and that those who disbelieved or doubted these ‘principalities and powers’ were just being foolish.

Unfortunately none of the witchcraft believers had any strong or reasonable argument or justification. Nobody produced any concrete evidence. Nobody came forward with any proof or demonstration that witchcraft was a reality. No witches or wizards phoned in to say hello or at least invited us over for a dinner in their coven. Even when one of us -Marcel Iweajunwa- openly challenged the witches and wizards to come and attack him in the night, none of them rose to the challenge. Meanwhile some people called to commend our efforts and urged us to fight on- and we surely will.

At the conference all the speakers eloquently debunked the belief in witchcraft and associated superstitions. Prof Nnabue, Dean, Faculty of Law at Evan Enwerem University, Patrick Naagbanton, a journalist and Chair of the Nigerian Humanist Movement, Chief Ifeanyi Olumba, a social commentator, denounced the witch craze and hysteria sweeping across the state, and the country at large. They decried the dark and destructive influence that witchcraft related abuses was having on the lives of the people and the development of the society in general. The presenters wondered why Africans were so preoccupied with the issue of witches and wizards when developed nations were engaged in various scientific inventions and technological enterprise. They urged the people of Nigeria and Africa to wake up to the fact that witchcraft is superstition and that superstitions are antithetical to African development and civilisation.

One of the participants – a pastor – was visibly furious with the organisers for inviting the wrong persons – atheists, skeptics, freethinkers and witchcraft unbelievers – to handle a spiritual topic like witchcraft. He followed the radio programs. And he said he was there to ‘enlighten us’ and to prove to us that witchcraft attack was real. I adjusted my seat to listen to what I thought would be a life changing encounter. But all in vain. This pastor started rambling using hackneyed expressions, bland Biblical references and nauseating nonsensical god talk. At the end he left us where he met us – without any proof or evidence of witchcraft. The pastor repeatedly said that we needed some spiritual insight to understand how witchcraft works. Unfortunately he never demonstrated such insight. Instead he spoke passionately, out of bloated and fanatical anger I suppose, and at the end of the day made no sense. He only demonstrated his ignorance, blind faith, dogmatic mind and lack of common sense and sound education. So when I made my presentation on Pastors and Witch hunts in Africa, there was a handy example of the damage many Pentecostal pastors were wreaking in society.

Pastors are the modern day witch-hunters in Africa.  These self-acclaimed anointed men and women of god are fuelling this campaign of violence and human rights abuses by promoting witchcraft attacks as real. They attribute all problems in families and communities as machinations of witches and wizards.

Many pastors continue to deceive the people by claiming that they have powers to defeat and subdue witches and wizards. They organise church services and deliverance sessions where they subject alleged witches and wizards to torture, inhuman and degrading treatment in the name of exorcism. The wave of witch hunting sweeping across Africa will not stop until pastors end this campaign of deception, exploitation and abuse. Pastors must begin to tell their church members the truth. That witchcraft is superstition, a fiction and a myth. That their claim to have powers to deliver people from witchcraft is a lie. The church members must begin to think for themselves and stop swallowing hook, line and sinker whatever these charlatans say. The law enforcement agencies should be ready to arrest and prosecute these criminals parading as pastors and get them to answer for their crimes.

Lastly those Africans who think that witchcraft is an urgent problem should speak out and make their voices heard. They should not keep quiet while these witch hunters are ravaging and terrorising the continent. Humanists, skeptics and freethinkers in Africa should rise up to the challenge of African renaissance and enlightenment. They should not relent in their efforts or retreat from this 'culture war' of eradicating witch hunting and other superstition related abuses.

--Leo Igwe