The magic that's not there

The fear of sorcery is one of humanity's deepest fears, and deepest shames. Belief in sorcery is the ultimate conspiracy theory: all bad things can be explained not as nature taking its course, not as blind chance, not as bad luck, but as the deliberate, malign actions of an identifiable enemy. Today in Africa, sorcery becomes the explanation for death, disease, misery. And the 'guilty' are women, the elderly, and children. Witch scares in the past have served as means of social control, or political advantage. In Africa today, I suspect, the witch scare substitutes for something else -- fear of the rapid changes in the world which aren't merely leaving people behind but are also rendering them powerless against the impersonal forces of global capitalism. The poor in Kinshasa or Nairobi or Lagos cannot hurt the bankers of Zurich, London, New York Paris, or Montreal but they can do something to the old woman or the troublesome child. In itself, this is a form of magic; but like the sorcery it seeks to prevent, it too is a figment.

Of course, here it also a tool by which evangelical churches can gain power over the hopeless, the marginalised, and the powerless, by bringing 'godly magic' into their lives and uncaringly destroying equally valuable lives. It is, after all, the Christian way.