Lecture Notes

1. Lecture Notes Program: BSc Social Work Course Title: Witchcraft Accusation/Stigmatization Course Code: SOWO 212 & GEPM 711 Total Credits: 1.5 Total lecture Hours: 7.5 Course Lecturer: Uwem Essia

2. A. COURSE OVERVIEW AND OUTLINE Course Description • Witchcraft accusation and stigmatization and its impact on development. • Emphasis is placed on the individual, family and the society as a whole. Pedagogic Goal • The students understand and have the required skills to deal with issues of witchcraft accusation and stigmatization, through effective concertization and collaboration with the relevant stakeholders.

3. A. COURSE OVERVIEW AND OUTLINE ..1 Pedagogic Objectives • Understand the global context of witchcraft and the witchcraft phenomenon in Africa. • Able to carry out researches and manage projects related to witchcraft accusation and stigmatization. Learning Objectives • Information on the history and dimensions of witchcraft in African societies discussed. • The social economy of the witchcraft phenomenon explained. • Case studies of selected experiences of the witchcraft phenomenon reviewed. • A community-based approach to dealing with witchcraft stigmatization and labeling developed.

4. A. COURSE OVERVIEW AND OUTLINE ..2 Learning Outcomes • Decent treatment of accused and stigmatized persons. • “Positive” witchcraft investigated and treated as a stock of indigenous technological skills and knowledge. • The perverted New Pentecostal Ethic popularized by today’s revivalist Christian movement restructured. Content Session 1: The origins and Meaning of Witchcraft • 1.1. What is Witchcraft? • 1.2. What is the origin of witchcraft? • 1.3. The context of contemporary witchcraft in Africa

5. A. COURSE OVERVIEW AND OUTLINE ..3 Session 2: The context of Witchcraft in Africa • 2.1. The common thinking about witchcraft in Africa • 2.2. How witchcraft Accusation affect societies Session 3: The Challenge of Witchcraft Accusation • 3.1. Witchcraft stigmatization as a permanent disability • 3.2. Laws against child witch accusation and victimization • 3.3. Sources of witchcraft accusation • 4: The Social Economy of Witchcraft stigmatization • 4.1. The demographics of accused children • 4.2. The relationship between child witch accusation and poverty

6. A. COURSE OVERVIEW AND OUTLINE ..4 • Session 5: Ideological dimensions of witchcraft accusation • 5.1. Child Witch Accusation and the New Protestant Ethic • 5.2. Child Witches as Mythomanes • CASE 1: Witchcraft Accusation Among the Tiv, Nigeria • Session 6: Re-constructing the Witchcraft Discourse in Africa • 6.1. Adjudication of witchcraft

7. Session 1: The origins and Meaning of Witchcraft 1.1. What is Witchcraft? • The practice and belief in magical skills and abilities. • Can be exercised individually or in groups by those with the necessary esoteric knowledge. • Witchcraft’s form and manifestation varies across cultures, making its definition difficult. • Witchcraft shares common ground with sorcery. • Witchcraft involves controlling persons, nocturnal meetings, wickedness and cannibalism.

8. 1: The origins and Meaning of Witchcraft .1 1.1. What is Witchcraft? • Witchcraft has existed throughout recorded history in nearly all cultures and societies. • The science of witchcraft lacks credence and is not supported by testable evidences. • But the practice and perceived effect of witchcraft are widely accepted but despised in many cultures. • That witches use mystical powers to manipulate occurrences in real life is taken for granted by many. • It is believed also that witches take the spirits of living human beings out of the body on errands to either wreak havoc or change things positively. • Some societies cultures belief that people can be bewitched by giving them the “witch” substance in food. • Others belief that witchcraft is purely pyshic.

9. 1: The origins and Meaning of Witchcraft .2 1.1. What is Witchcraft? • In the ancient European tradition witchcraft was considered as anti-Christian and heretic. • Suspected witches were usually burned at stakes. • Those pleading their innocence were stoned to death. • Some were made to prove their innocence in different ways. • Though its existence is difficult to prove, witchcraft is a sociocultural reality. • Witchcraft accusation and stigmatization occur in most societies.

10. 1: The origins and Meaning of Witchcraft .3 1.2. What is the origin of witchcraft? Witchcraft & Sorcery • Witchcraft is equated to sorcery by many. • However, many sorcerers use physical tools or actions to curse, but many witches do not. • Sorcerers are conscious of their activities, but some witches may not know that they have witchcraft. Anthropological context of witchcraft • European witchcraft is more of an ideology for explaining misfortune. • African witchcraft is believed to cause misfortunes. • The concept of “white witches” or “positive witchcraft” that do not cause harm is widely accepted. • The English term “witch” is not given an exclusively negative meaning. • In many instances, witchcraft is associated with being wise. For example, an intelligent boy can be named a ‘wiz-kid’.

11. 1: The origins and Meaning of Witchcraft .4 1.2. What is the origin of witchcraft? Expanding scope of witchcraft • Witches are increasingly characterized by the ability to cast a spell by means of incantation and libation. • Witchcraft is also being associated with necromancy or conjuring the dead, e.g., Biblical Witch of Endor (1 Sam. 28). Long History of witchcraft related violence • In the fifteenth century tens or hundreds of thousands of people were executed, imprisoned, and tortured. • The majority of those accused were women, particularly the elderly. • Even in the advanced countries, witchcraft accusations is associated with satanic ritual, abuse, and moral panic.

12. 1: The origins and Meaning of Witchcraft .5 1.3. The context of contemporary witchcraft in Africa • Witchcraft in Africa plays enormous economic, social and psychological roles than witchcraft in Europe. • Three main classifications of witchcraft exist in South Africa • the thakathi,a ‘witch’ who is capable of causing harm. • the sangoma,a diviner or fortune teller, • And, the inyanga, a “witch doctor” or healer. • In Central African child witches are believed to be the cause of many illnesses. • In the DRC in 2006, between 25,000 and 50,000 children were accused of witchcraft and thrown out of their homes. • In Ghana, women accused of witchcraft seek refuge in six witch camps. • However, in some African societies, traditional beliefs support the view that witchcraft can be beneficial.

13. 1: The origins and Meaning of Witchcraft .6 1.3. The context of contemporary witchcraft in Africa • Witchcraft is a major issue for the mass media in Nigeria in recent times. • Several confessions and personal experiences of 'repented witches‘ are in the news. • Like in other parts of Africa, it is hard to hear that someone dies a natural death. • Every disease has a witchcraft origin before manifesting as a medical or accidental condition. • Witchcraft is reified and venerated and given an over bloated spiritual and socioeconomic relevance. • Witchcraft is believed to be practiced within kinship groups. • It is easier for a person to be harmed by a member of his/her family. • However, in the wider social context, witchcraft accusations reflects the struggle for resources and power among people.

14. REVIEW QUESTIONS • Explain the context of contemporary witchcraft in Africa. • Highlight the major differences in the anthropology of witchcraft in African and European societies. • Witchcraft accusation and stigmatization is as old as human history. Discuss.

15. Session 2: The context of Witchcraft in Africa 2.1. The common thinking about witchcraft in Africa • African societies commonly believe in the potency of witches. • The strong belief in witchcraft can explain why: • many ignore healthcare facilities even when it is affordable, and hence morbidity and mortality due to preventable illnesses tend to increase. • the traditional kinship support system is failing because the scare of witches promotes mutual distrust and individualism. • Many societies believe that witchcraft is a tangible substance that is passed on from parent to child. • Some indeed think that the ‘substance’ can be determined through a postmortem examination. • It is believed that witches can turn themselves into animals such as dogs, cats and owls.

16. 2: The context of Witchcraft in Africa ..1 2.1. The common thinking about witchcraft in Africa • It is also believed that witches leave their physical bodies during sleep. • They can change into rats and eat up crops, books, electric wires, and certificates, and spread diseases among people. • They can suck the blood of their victims, and make the person dehydrated or anemic. • Whether witchcraft exist scientifically or not is not the issue. • Many Africans - educated or non-educated - see life as a struggle between evil and good. • The evil force is personalized in demons or witches.

17. 2: The context of Witchcraft in Africa …2 2.1. The common thinking about witchcraft in Africa • People brace up to combat the evil force by any means. • Misfortunes are often considered first as an attack from the devil (witches). • Misfortunes are perceived as a signal to intensify the search for suitable means to defeat witches. • Following the digital age, witches today not just in a village but a single spot, attack can come from anywhere. • The modern witch no longer respects boundaries, attacks can now come from a neighbor, friend or colleague. • The power of witches increases with human sacrifices, and is reduced through 'deliverance'. • In microeconomic terms, a rational witch suffers from the non-satiated quest for misfortunes.

18. 2: The context of Witchcraft in Africa …3 2.1. The common thinking about witchcraft in Africa • The new Pentecostal Churches have helped the witchcraft scare to grow in many ways. • By making witchcraft a leading cause of inequality, misfortunes, and poverty. • And, making Christianity a religion that has power to deal with witchcraft. • This has led to the emergence of a neo-witchcraft mentality in the new Pentecostal doctrines. • It can be argued that the revivalist churches spread the scare of witchcraft than ‘deliver’ people from it.

19. 2: The context of Witchcraft in Africa … 4 2.2. How witchcraft Accusation affect societies • Witchcraft scare and accusations is increasingly the cause of social and family conflicts. • Children and adults accused of witchcraft are often victimized, and in some cases killed. • Stigmatization remains regardless of whether they were indeed 'witches' or not. • Accused persons often carry the label even after being 'delivered', 'saved' or 'healed'. • The siblings of accused or labeled persons may as well be stigmatized and abused.

20. 2: The context of Witchcraft in Africa -- 5 2.2. How witchcraft Accusation affect societies • People predisposed to witchcraft accusation are generally poor, incapacitated, sick, or orphaned. • Therefore accusations often lead to double victimization. • Witchcraft accusation and hunting generate negative economies to the victim, the accusers, and the society • the accused is stigmatized, and the accusers are usually suspected and overtime labeled and stigmatized as well. • And society loses when more people focus on fighting witches.

21. REVIEW QUESTIONS • How has witchcraft accusation affected the solidarity economy of many African countries? • Explain the socioeconomic impact of witchcraft accusation. • Explain how the new Pentecostal churches have helped the witchcraft scare to grow in recent times. • Discuss the common thinking about the modern witch is several African countries. • How has the belief in witchcraft affected the medicare seeking behavior of many Africans?

22. Session 3: The Challenge of Witchcraft Accusation 3.1. Witchcraft stigmatization as a permanent disability • Persons accused of witchcraft may be labeled for life. • Even after undergoing treatment or 'deliverance' the witchcraft past sticks on. • The accused person may be ostracized in the family, neighborhood, community, school and workplace. • Repeated accusations is frequent, thus dampening their chances of re-integration into the society. • Stigmatization and discrimination can lead to traumas, psychological and emotional suffering. • The victims can become mentally ill equipped and prone to character neurosis. • This makes attempts to reintegrate the accused persons into the family and social life more difficult.

23. 3: The Challenge of Witchcraft Accusation ..1 3.1. Witchcraft stigmatization as a permanent disability • Traditionally, the victim of witchcraft is the person who suffered the consequences of an attack. • An accused child becomes a witch, and seizes to be a child. • Violence against witches is justified since witchcraft with seen as a social malaise. • People must be deterred from engaging in witchcraft (the social ill).

24. 3: The Challenge of Witchcraft Accusation ..2 3.2. Laws against child witch accusation and victimization • Child witch stigmatization violates Article 2, Paragraph 2 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; “States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child's parents, legal guardians, or family members.” • Violence against children violates their fundamental rights as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. • Accused children are often disadvantaged already: accusation makes them the quintessential scapegoats.

25. 3: The Challenge of Witchcraft Accusation ..3 3.2. Laws against child witch accusation and victimization • Abandonment of the accused children violates Article 18 paragraph 1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child: “States Parties shall use their best efforts to ensure recognition of the principle that both parents have common responsibilities for the upbringing and development of the child. Parents or, as the case may be, legal guardians, have the primary responsibility for the upbringing and development of the child. The best interests of the child will be their basic concern.” • Abandonment can also be a cause of witchcraft accusations: • children who are forced into the streets by deprivation or poverty are highly vulnerable to witchcraft accusation.

26. 3: The Challenge of Witchcraft Accusation ..4 3.2. Laws against child witch accusation and victimization • In Nigeria, the Child Rights Act (2003) protects children against all forms of physical, mental, and emotional torture and abuse. • Prior to its passage, child protection in Nigeria was defined by the Children and Young People's Act (CYPA), a law relating primarily to juvenile justice. • Nigeria ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), and the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC), in 1991. • The Nigerian Child Right Law has been domesticated in many Nigerian States.

27. 3: The Challenge of Witchcraft Accusation … 5 3.3. Sources of witchcraft accusation • People allegedly caught in the act of positive or negative sorcery, spell casting or necromancy. • People found to be either exceptionally successful, poor or atypical in one way or another. • Accusations can be linked to disputes, jealousy and conflicts between neighbors or family members. • Children are generally accused of witchcraft by churches or family members.

28. 3: The Challenge of Witchcraft Accusation … 6 3.3. Sources of witchcraft accusation • Children accused of witchcraft are often pre-adolescent or adolescent. Many of them enter adulthood stigmatized. • Orphaned children sent to live with another relative. Such children are often maltreated in the new homes. • Children losing one parent and the other remarries. The step-parent can be the origin of an accusation. • Physically disabled and sick children, and even specially gifted children.

29. REVIEW QUESTIONS • In what ways can witchcraft accusation be described as permanent disability? • In which ways can child witch accusation be described as “double victimization”? • Explain the possibility of a two-way causation between abandonment and child witch accusation • Child witch accusation is a violation of the child’s fundamental human rights. Discuss • Describe the major sources and causes of witchcraft accusation • Discuss the key demographics of children accused of witchcraft.

30. 4: The Social Economy of Witchcraft stigmatization ..1 4.1. The demographics of those child witches • Children showing any unusual behaviors, e.g., stubborn, aggressive, thoughtful, withdrawn or lazy children. • Abnormal behaviors of any sort can be taken as evidence of witchcraft possession. • De-parented children - children rejected by the parents. • Studies indicate that boys are targeted for accusation more than girls. • Living in the street is one of the common consequences of witchcraft accusations, and boys do have greater visibility. • However, the population of accused girls is obscured by other phenomena, such as prostitution, which is affecting increasingly younger girls.

31. 4: The Social Economy of Witchcraft stigmatization ..2 4.2. The relationship between child witch accusation and poverty • Two sides to the link between child witch accusation and poverty: • On the one hand, children from poor homes are most vulnerable to witchcraft accusation; • On the other hand, child witch accusation exacerbate poverty by distancing the children from avenues that should offer them help. • Growing dysfunction of the family and "African" solidarity, has distanced the poor from sources of help. • Questioning of the authority of the elders by youths and growing individualism, have turned the tide against poor children.

32. 4: The Social Economy of Witchcraft stigmatization ..3 4.2. The relationship between child witch accusation and poverty • When misfortune befalls the family, the orphan is a favorite target for witchcraft accusations. • Witchcraft accusation exposes the victims to further abandonment, neglect, de-parenting, and in extreme cases infanticide. • But it is rare to see children living with both parents labeled as witches. • The scare of child witchcraft has contributed significantly to the further breakdown of communal solidarity and the extended family system. • Traditionally in African societies, children belonged to the extended family and communities; not necessarily the immediate parents.

33. 4: The Social Economy of Witchcraft stigmatization ..4 4.2. The relationship between child witch accusation and poverty • The extended family system sustained the mechanism where those who are well off support weaker uncles, aunties, cousins, nephews, and so on. • The concepts of 'father', 'mother', 'brother', and 'sister' applied to people belonging to the same community or ethnic group, beyond the normal meanings • The scare of witchcraft attack has contributed to the break down of the traditional African solidarity and the extended family system.

34. 4: The Social Economy of Witchcraft stigmatization ..5 4.3. Violence related to accusations • Belief in witchcraft and witchcraft accusations have triggered serious forms of violence, including murder in countries such as Burkina Faso, Ghana, India, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal and Tanzania. • In addition to extrajudicial violence, there are also state-sanctioned violence in some jurisdictions. In Saudi Arabia for example, practicing witchcraft and sorcery is a crime punishable by death. • Harm occasioned by witchcraft accusation are both physical and structural. • Physical harm or violence include burning the children, pouring acid on them, and sometimes killing them. Some are kept in the forest, bathed in acid, burned, and buried alive following the accusation of witchcraft. • Structural harm are indirect economic, political, and cultural violence that impose harm through the social system.

35. Review Questions • Do you agree with the view that the ease by which many Africans explain away the “abnormal” or “unusual” is an indicator of intellectual laziness. • Discuss how growth in witchcraft accusation has hastened the dysfunction of family ties and breakdown of the traditional African solidarity.

36. Session 5: Ideological dimensions of witchcraft accusation 5.1. Child Witch Accusation and the New Protestant Ethic • The new Pentecostal movement differ from the Pentecostal churches that Max Weber alluded to in his Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism(1905). • The discourse of Protestant churches (particularly the Calvinist) influenced people to become more interested in wealth accumulation. • The Protestant work ethic was an important force behind the growth and blossoming of capitalism. • This idea is also known as the "Protestant Ethic thesis."

37. 5: Ideological dimensions of witchcraft accusation ..1 5.1. Child Witch Accusation and the New Protestant Ethic • However, the new Protestant Ethic sees the Devil (witches) as the omnipresent obstacle to success and wealth accumulation. • The solution to witchcraft attack is to spend days in the church singing and praying, and seeking for miracles. • Revivalist churches stand Weber’s “Spirit of Capitalism” on its head by seeing success as a miraculous gift rather than the outcome of hard work. • The complex reality of material existence is oversimplified and revivalist churches have become the success workshops and supermarkets. • Believers regularly 'work' out their faith through prayers, fasting and payment of ‘tithes and offerings’. • Using the “Protestant Ethic thesis” as a case, discuss how religion or the common belief of a people in an ideology can promote and accelerate socioeconomic development.

38. 5: Ideological dimensions of witchcraft accusation .. 2 5.1. Child Witch Accusation and the New Protestant Ethic • The revivalist churches operate in a market that is monopolistically competitive, where customer loyalty is critical for sustainability and success. • Witchcraft accusation and the capacity to deliver people from the power of witches generate monopolistic rents and sustain shoppers' loyalty. • Miracle shoppers are lurked in the lifelong search for new experiences from one 'strong' pastor-prophet and deliverance ministry to another. • But past experiences supports the argument that the pastor-prophet of several deliverance ministries sooner or later become victims of the witchcraft accusation – the very ill they fought.

39. 5: Ideological dimensions of witchcraft accusation ..3 5.1. Child Witch Accusation and the New Protestant Ethic • Witchcraft accusation and the capacity to deliver people from the power of witches generate monopolistic rents and sustain shoppers' loyalty. • Miracle shoppers are lurked in the lifelong search for new experiences from one 'strong' pastor-prophet and deliverance ministry to another. • Most often, however, the pastor-prophet (miracle dispenser) is sooner or later suspected and accused of witchcraft, once misfortune strikes.

40. 5: Ideological dimensions of witchcraft accusation ..4 5.2. Child Witches as Mythomanes • Recent findings in therapeutic psychology suggests that witchcraft, may be a figment of socio-theological imagination. • Few witchcraft accusers and the victims can tell what witchcraft really is. • Therapeutic psychology submits that many people who confess to being witches indeed suffer from "mythomania“. • The technical terms for mythomania is "pseudologiaphantastica“. • Mythomania refers to a person's compulsive lying and making up fantastic stories. • Mythomaniaoriginated from experts in forensic psychiatry who had opportunity to observe children giving false testimony. • Psychiatrists discovered that a mythomanelies deliberately and consciously, and eventually comes to believe and act out the lie to make it appear real.

41. 5: Ideological dimensions of witchcraft accusation ..5 5.2. Child Witches as Mythomanes • Those susceptible to being mythomanes are children, the aged, and the mentally retarded. • These vulnerabilities also expose these people to witchcraft accusation. • Experts have found that lying by children is more normal and may not indicate a chronic pathology to be classified as mental illness. • But persistent lying by adults can be seen as the onset of mythomania. • It is believed in forensic medicine that children have an incomplete grasp of the contours of the real world and often resort to making up stories if they are under pressure. • Or, if they sense that such stories are expected or the stories will make them important and revered.

42. 5: Ideological dimensions of witchcraft accusation ..6 5.2. Child Witches as Mythomanes • Other motivations for story making include to gain attention and praise, appear mysterious, or use it as a vehicle of pure malice. • Where mythomanes are motivated by attention-seeking, they are susceptible to suggestion. • Mythomanes have a flair for figuring out what is expected, responding quickly to compelling autosuggestions. • Mythomanes program their brains to confer reality status to the makeup stories. • Over time, the mythomane starts to believe in the reality of the story. • Mythomanes use information from others, television, Internet and mental imageries to build imaginative structures.

43. 5: Ideological dimensions of witchcraft accusation .. 7 5.2. Child Witches as Mythomanes • Mythomanes constantly scan the social horizon for cues to spin stories rewarding them recognition. • They can quickly evaluate what they overhear and form make-believe stories. • They generally have the skills for verbal expressivity, thus enabling them to tune into a theme compellingly. • Through eloquence and strategic gossiping they can draw attention to themselves, and make their lies believable. • The ultimate escalation of mythomania is acting out the lie, with the classic case of "possession." • Once ‘possessed’ the mythomane becomes a "demonopath," a person claiming to be suffering from demonic torments. • Historically, demonopaths were the active initiators of witch panics, playing aggressive roles in the prosecution of witches.

44. 5: Ideological dimensions of witchcraft accusation .. 8 5.2. Child Witches as Mythomanes • Mythomanes generally and demonopaths in particular rely on group reinforcement and an accepting audience. • Indeed demonopaths in particular perform only when they are able to captivate an audience. • Demonopaths take their role enactment from the cultural context, the social context, and personal motives. • Children in particular mix the most popular concern with other imageries to mold stories. • In the process, they take advantage of the credibility and naivety accorded them in several traditional cultures. • Often, however, the children may not recognize their own motives or long term implication of being labeled. • Mythomanes generally act on the basis of a variety of emotional needs unexamined by the rational mind.

45. 5: Ideological dimensions of witchcraft accusation .. 9 5.2. Child Witches as Mythomanes • Mythomania involves a process of self brain washing. • Self-brainwashing involves the mythomane acting out the lie to the extent that he/she no longer considers it to be a lie. • This starts with persuading oneself to accept that the lie is true and reorienting one’s mind around the ‘constructed truth’. • It is possible that many who confess to being witches or demonopaths are victims of mythomania. • At the same time, many witch-doctors, prophets of revivalist ministries, and sorcerers may also suffer from mythomania. • Equally, several actors, dramatists and teachers apply mythomanaic schemes at different levels.

46. Review Questions • Using the “Protestant Ethic thesis” as a case, discuss how religion or the common belief of a people in an ideology can promote and accelerate socioeconomic development. • Discuss ways that governments can intervene to ensure that the new Pentecostal Movement supports development. • Explain the overall macroeconomic effect of a religious orientation that encourages people to shop for “miracles”. • Explain the term mythomania. Describe using simple example its positive and negative uses.

47. REVIEW QUESTIONS 5. Poverty can lead to witchcraft accusation, at the same time witch craft accusation can cause poverty. Discuss 6. Explain how the scare of witchcraft has led to the breakdown of the traditional African solidarity. 7. Violence against accused persons can be physical and structural 8. How is the New Protestant Ethic of the Revivalist movements different from Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism? 9. What is mythomania? It is possible that accused persons and their accusers suffer from mythomania?

48. CASE 1: Witchcraft Accusation Among the Tiv, Nigeria (See NgutorSambe et. al. (2014) Meaning of witchcraft • In the Tiv culture, witchcraft (Tsav) is mystical power; a substance that grows in the chest of people and animals. • It can be passed on to children by birth. • Sometimes the chest of a dead suspected witch is opened to ascertain whether he/she possesses the witchcraft substance. • A person found not to have the substance is described as one with “an empty chest” (vangergbilin). • A man found with the substance has a malevolent chest (vangerubo). Good and bad witchcraft • The Tiv believe that there is good and bad witchcraft. Good witchcraft can be used to heal sicknesses and protect people from harm.

49. CASE 1: Witchcraft Accusation Among the Tiv, Nigeria ..1 Poverty and witchcraft Accusation • People from impoverished backgrounds are more susceptible to witchcraft accusation. • Elderly persons, particularly those having deformities are also susceptible to witchcraft labeling. Application of Conflict Theory • Karl Marx’s conflict theory can be applied to explain witchcraft accusation among Tiv people. • The theory assumes that society is composed of inherent contradictions and struggles between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. • From the conflict theory perspective witchcraft can be linked to the struggle for resources and domination of man.

50. CASE 1: Witchcraft Accusation Among the Tiv, Nigeria ..2 Application of Conflict Theory • The resources include land and other inheritances, and money; influence, power and spiritual artifacts and tokens. • The rich class acquire witchcraft to maintain their control over resources and men and subdue their enemies. • At the same time, poor and misfortune persons are also accused of using witchcraft to bring down others who are doing well. • In other words, both the very poor and very rich are vulnerable to witchcraft accusation and labeling. • Witchcraft accusation and labeling is thus the outcome of competition for resources, struggle for power and domination.