| African Witchcraft is a collective term used to | | | | as Voudun, Obeah, Santera, Quimbanda and |
| describe the spiritual traditions (both past and | | | | Candombl. |
| present) of the various ethnic groups in Africa. From | | | | What is African Witchcraft? |
| a historical point of view, Egyptian Witchcraft and | | | | African witchcraft is a nature based religion, where |
| Arabic Sihr traditionally formed a part of the mix. | | | | one or more Deities, nature spirits and ancestral |
| These two ceremonial forms of Witchcraft are | | | | spirits are worshipped. The witchdoctor, with his or |
| nearly extinct, and have been replaced by the Islamic | | | | her ability to commune with Deity, nature spirits and |
| faith. | | | | ancestral spirits, is traditionally held in awe - an awe |
| The witchcraft practiced in the rest of Africa is | | | | which is an odd mixture of respect and fear. |
| shamanistic in nature. Long before the East and the | | | | The reason for this fear is simple. Magic in the African |
| West converged on the continent, the shamanistic | | | | sense may be used for both positive and negative |
| practices of Africans were remarkably similar in spite | | | | purposes. It can be used to bless and to curse, to |
| of the ethnic and tribal diversity that prevailed. | | | | cure and cause disease, to bring peace and to initiate |
| This is no longer the case, though. The influences of | | | | battle, to protect and to harm, to create and to |
| the Christian and the Islamic religions on African | | | | destroy. |
| Witchcraft are noticeable. The colonization of Africa | | | | The witchdoctor can be either male or female. |
| by the English, Dutch, French, Portuguese and | | | | Although there is no gender equality in African |
| Germans, brought its own set of cultural influences | | | | culture, no distinction is generally made where spiritual |
| too. This accounts for the diversity now to be found | | | | practices are concerned. The witchdoctor is |
| in the practice of African witchcraft from ethnic | | | | responsibile for divination, healing, presiding over |
| grouping to ethnic grouping and from tribe to tribe. | | | | rituals, conducting rites of passage, performing |
| This diversification should not be interpreted as | | | | sacrifices, finding lost cattle, protecting warriors, |
| dilution or intensification, though. It merely implies that | | | | casting and removing spells, and narrating the history |
| African witchcraft in its purest form has been | | | | and myths of old. |
| exchanged for African shamanism of an eclectic | | | | For harmony between the living and the dead, which |
| form. | | | | is an essential component of leading a trouble-free |
| The heinous practice of slave trading led to the | | | | life, ancestors are shown respect by means of daily |
| export of African witchcraft to the Americas, where | | | | offerings, prayers and songs, elaborate rituals and |
| it now survives under the auspices of religions such | | | | animal sacrifice. |