Witchcraft

Witchcraft is universal and historical phenomenon which continues to attract wide interest.The belief in witchcraft and consequent witch-hunt is found in many cultures all over the world particularly in sub-sahara Africa amd for that matter Ghana.Witchcraft can be defined as the act of possessing supernatural forces or powers to harm others or to benefit oneself.qitches are therefore people;male and female,who are believed to possess inherent super natural powers which they use to harm others or to benefit them. According to Evans-Pritchard, witchcraft accusations are motivated by jealousy,hatred and envy as well as fear.They are also caused by necesity to account for unexpected or underserved misfortune can happen by chance or natural cause .Again Evans-Pritchard makes a point that witches do not strike at random and that for witchcraft accusationt to come from someone, the suppoaed victim must have some relationship with the accused person.The relationship may be that od kinship, neighbors, friends, colleagues or fellow students. witches , according to Nukunya(2004) are neither revered nor honoured but feared.The activities of witches are regarded as evil and harmful hence once someone is suspected to be a witch,the person is either killed or banished from the community as in the case of western and central Europe between 1450 and 1750 where about 40,000 people were executed for witchcraft.There is voilence against suspected witches in Africa.In south Africa for instance, people accused of witchcraft run out of town and lose their property while over 300 were killed by mob action.In northern Ghana, for instance, people accused of witchcraft mainly old women, and often widows,are banned from their villages and cannot go back because they will not be accepted by thw villages. According to Nukunya(2004) witchcraft may be inherited and it is often transmitted from parents to children.The same observation was made by Evans-Pritchard(1937) who noted that witchcraft is not only a physical trait but also inherited.It is transmitted by unilinear descent from parent to children.It is also a general belief that witchcraft ia associated with certain physical characteristics and behavioral patterns.Thus very old women particularly those with certain physical defects are branded witches.Persons with ill-tempered,rude, quarrelsome dispositions and other queer habits as well as loners and misers are equally suspects.habits considered anti-social may be suspected and accused of witchcraft