The Summary: First International and Interdisciplinary Conference On Witchcraft At UNN: Prof. Opata

The Summary: First International and Interdisciplinary Conference On Witchcraft At UNN: Prof. Opata

The first international and interdisciplinary conference on witchcraft at the University of Nigeria took place yesterday and would continue today against widespread outrage from the poorly informed members of the Christian community in Nigeria and social media users. The conference, as publicized, aims to share meaning, factors and practices of witchcraft from the academic point of view. The Prof. B.I.C. Ijomah Centre for Policy and Research at the University of Nigeria organized it. 

I looked forward to two presentations and when it was over, I left the venue of the conference for other engagements. This clarification is necessary, especially for people who expect a detailed report on paper presentations at the conference. 

Prof. P.J. Ezeh, a Fellow at the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and professor at the University of Nigeria was the second paper presenter, one of the lead presenters after Prof. Damian U. Opata who has master’s degrees in Philosophy and Literature. 

While I live-streamed Prof. Opata's presentation, I paid little attention to all he shared since I invested greater amount of time in making sure the filming was perfect with good sound and pictures. Prof. Opata referenced actual incidents and consultations that may prove the existence of major powers that have been given labels. He expressed his dislike for the word 'witchcraft' but stayed within the Igbo cosmology and acknowledged 'amosu', its operation and remedy. One area where Prof. Opata has spent great amount of time is the study of Igbo folktales, and after studying about two hundred of these tales, he mentioned that the place of such craft that has passed for witchcraft has been more of an interventionist acts rather than outright malevolent acts.  Prof. Opata also has a book about Ekwensu and in it; he clarified the misnomer among Igbo Christians who use the term to describe the devil instead of its original root as a warring spirit or deity in Igbo cosmology that had no resemblance to the vilified status of the Christian devil.

At the risk of sounding patronizing, Prof. Opata mentioned an instance when he lived in an area that was terrorized by an act, where people woke up to scratches on their bodies and how they shared this experience with him. And at some point, drawing from passed-down information, a certain leaf was recommended. The leaf was to be placed at the doorpost. After that, the terrorizing act stopped. Prof. Opata  also shared his visits to diviners when his father fell sick and how the Professor who doubled as a diviner combined literature with the act. While he consulted, he wrote materials on a modern day notebook. His other story happened when his father-in-law died and a diviner was contacted. It was revealed that there were plans to cause death at the funeral and blames would be heaped on the family of the bereaved. But a sacrifice was prescribed. And after it was carried out, and when the funeral held, they averted the incident that was supposed to claim a live at the funeral. A man whose tooth had fallen off and was stuck in his throat was rushed to a hospital and he was saved, credit to the foreknowledge and intervention of the diviner. 

Prof. Opata also noted the selective labeling of only women, children and the poor as witches, and how the rich and powerful were excluded from bearing the tags of witches. He also busted such myth that these forces may not be as powerful as imagined. He concluded that a perfect or near-perfect prediction from a diviner could be likened to results from medical laboratories, and its accurate or inaccurate predictions were not invalidation of the practice but was a thing of expertise, as may be expected in the medical world. 

Prof. Ezeh’s Presentation 

While Prof. Ezeh traced the term ‘witchcraft’ to the recordings of the bible at 1 Samuel 28: 8 and early documentations from the 14th century in the area now known as Dominican Republic and the 16th century reformation movements in Europe, the high point of his argument was that witchcraft does not exist. But the believe in witches exists. And he noted that backwardness fostered the belief. He gave examples of Europe and the reign of witch-hunts and how it disappeared with the advancement of technology. He cited such documentation as recorded in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, which was a recording of the activities of that time. 

Prof. Ezeh also digressed with defining ‘witch’, ‘sorcery’ and ‘divination’. For witches, he noted that they were portrayed as malevolent, and the people who were witches may be unaware of what they are or what they are said to represent. He also noted that those who were branded witches were also people with mental health challenges. He defined sorcery as service provision and divination is also about service rendering such as prediction of the future, and it may and may not cause harm. He said witchcraft in developed countries only exists in lexicons. 

He also spoke about the methodology of the researches – regional structure and controlled regional studies. In it, he mentioned a study that took place in four locations and how three returned positive and one was negative against witchcraft. He referenced S.F. Nadel, an Austrian-born and British anthropologist who died in 1956.  In the ‘40s, Nadel carried out the research in Nupe and Gwari of Nigeria and Mesakin of Sudan and the Korongo people about witchcraft – The Myth of What is Witchcraft – using scientific methods. 

Prof. Ezeh also pointed out that where the concept of witchcraft exists, it is gender bias. Sex antagonism and it exists in conflict societies. He mentioned the Witchcraft Act of 1735 in Great Britain and how its enforcement stopped people who could easily label leftists and enemies as witches and kill them. He cited instances of how rancid butter were at some point called act of witchcraft and people were tortured and jailed.

The Professor also noted that while Europe has given up on witchcraft, that Nigeria lives in the fear of its existence and this fear is exploited in very terrible manner and the only way out is to encourage discourse that would demystify these concepts and free the minds of people. 

Some of his citations include Daniel Offiong, E.E. Evans-Pritchard, and W.R.F. Browning.

Cc: Bura Bari Nwilo

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