Uchawi

Uchawi (kwa Kiingereza "Witchcraft") ni nguvu zinazotumiwa na watu wenye maarifa maalumu yasiyo ya kisayansi katika jamii nyingi duniani (zikiwemo za Afrika, Asia, Ulaya n.k.), ingawa kuna tofauti nyingi kulingana na mahali au utamaduni.

Lengo lake ni kujaribu bahati ya mtu na kujilinda na maadui wengine kimazingara, au kwa ajili ya kujifurahisha, japo wenye imani potofu hulichukulia maanani na kupandikiza chuki kwa ndugu jamaa hata jirani kuwa ni mchawi. 

Kwa mujibu wa vitabu vya dini uwezo na nguvu zote za asili ni za Muumba wa mbingu na ardhi na vyote vilivyomo, hivyo yeye anampa mwanadamu uwezo kadiri tofautitofauti kama apendavyo, kwa maana uwezo huo hufanya kazi katika hali ya kubahatisha, yaani ni bahati, hakuna mwenye mamlaka ya kuongoza uwezo huo wa asili ila Mwenyezi Mungu. 

Kadiri ya dini mbalimbali watu wote wanaotumia nguvu hizo za asili katika hali (hasi) wapo kinyume na Mungu Muumbaji wa mbingu na dunia, hawajui kuwa yeye ndiye mwanzilishi wa nguvu zote za asili ikiwa ni pamoja na wanadamu.

Elimu pia inaweza kusaidia kuondoa imani hizo kwani hata baadhi ya madhehebu ya dini zinachochea kuziamini imani hizo. Wasomi wa karne ya 21 wanapinga imani hizo potofu ambazo zimesababisha mateso kwa wazee wasio na hatia hasa vijijini wakishtumiwa uchawi. Tena kumekuwa na mafarakano na chuki katika jamii na familia mbalimbali kwa ajili ya imani ya uchawi; kwa mfano, watu kuuana, kuharibiana mali na mifugo kwa kuhisiana uchawi kwa sababu ya watu waliopandikizwa imani za kishirikina. 

Serikali ya Tanzania imetumia jitihada zaidi pamoja na kuelimisha wananchi hasa kutokana na suala la imani potofu na tafsiri mbaya ya uchawi ambayo imepelekea watu takribani 5000 kupoteza uhai toka mwaka 1961 kutokana na mateso, kuchomewa nyumba na vibanda katika mikoa ya Tabora, Kigoma, Shinyanga na mikoa mingine; ni vilevile katika sehemu mbalimbali za Afrika ya Mashariki na ya Kati. Mwaka 2008 Rais wa Tanzania Jakaya Kikwete alilaani uchawi kama chanzo cha mauaji ya maalbino 25. Imani hizo potofu ni maarufu hata kwa viongozi japo kwa siri.

Tazama pia
 Uchawi wa Kiafrika

Marejeo 
 Alan Macfarlane, Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England, Psychology Press, 1999 (orig. 1970)
 University of Kansas Publications in Anthropology, No. 5 = John M Janzen and Wyatt MacGaffey: An Anthology of Kongo Religion: Primary Texts from Lower Zaïre. Lawrence, 1974.
 Studia Instituti Anthropos, Vol. 41 = Anthony J. Gittins: Mende Religion. Steyler Verlag, Nettetal, 1987.

Marejeo mengine 
 
 Boyer, Paul and Stephen Nissenbaum, eds. The Salem Witchcraft Papers: Verbatim Transcripts of the Legal Documents of the Salem Witchcraft Outbreak of 1692, Volumes I and II. New York: De Capo Press, 1977.
 
 
 
 Gaskill, Malcolm. "Masculinity and Witchcraft in Seventeenth-century England." In Witchcraft and Masculinities in Early Modern Europe, edited by Alison Rowlands, 171-190. New York: Palgrave-McMillan, 2009.
 
 
 Hall, David, ed. Witch-hunting in Seventeenth-century New England: A Documentary History, 1638-1692. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1991.
 Henderson, Lizanne, Witch-Hunting and Witch Belief in the Gàidhealtachd, Witchcraft and Belief in Early Modern Scotland Eds. Julian Goodare, Lauren Martin and Joyce Miller. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007
 Hutton, Ronald (1999) The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, Oxford, OUP.
 Hyatt, Harry Middleton. Hoodoo, conjuration, witchcraft, rootwork: beliefs accepted by many Negroes and white persons, these being orally recorded among Blacks and whites. s.n., 1970.
 Kent, Elizabeth. "Masculinity and Male Witches in Old and New England." History Workshop 60 (2005): 69-92.
 
  Levack, Brian P. ed. The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America (2013) excerpt and text search
 Moore, Henrietta L. and Todd Sanders 2001. Magical Interpretations, Material Realities: Modernity, Witchcraft and the Occult in Postcolonial Africa London: Routledge.
 Notestein, Wallace. A history of witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718. New York : Crowell, 1968
 Pentikainen, Juha. "Marnina Takalo as an Individual." C. JSTOR. 26 February 2007.
 Pentikainen, Juha. "The Supernatural Experience." F. Jstor. 26 February 2007.
 
 Ruickbie, Leo (2004) Witchcraft out of the Shadows: A History, London, Robert Hale.
Stark, Ryan J. "Demonic Eloquence," in Rhetoric, Science, and Magic in Seventeenth-Century England (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), 115-45.

 Worobec, Caroline. "Witchcraft Beliefs and Practices in Prerevolutionary Russia and Ukrainian Villages." Jstor. 27 February 2007.

Viungo vya nje

 Kabbalah On Witchcraft – A Jewish view (Audio) chabad.org
 Jewish Encyclopedia: Witchcraft
 Witchcraft and Devil Lore in the Channel Islands, 1886, by John Linwood Pitts, from Project Gutenberg
 A Treatise of Witchcraft, 1616, by Alexander Roberts, from Project Gutenberg
 University of Edinburgh's Scottish witchcraft database 
 'Witchcraft and Statecraft, A Materialist Analysis of the European Witch Persecutions'

Utamaduni
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