page_title: Witchcraft
section_title: Africa
hierarchical_section_title: Witchcraft / By region / Africa
caption_attribution_description: English: The Kolloh-Man (January 1853, X, p.6)
context_page_description: Witchcraft is the practice of magical skills, spells, and abilities. Witchcraft is a broad term that varies culturally and societally, and thus can be difficult to define with precision.
  Historically, and currently in most traditional cultures worldwide—notably in Asia, South America, Africa, the African diaspora, and Indigenous communities—the term is commonly associated with those who use supernatural means to communicate with spirits, deities or ancestors. In the modern era, primarily in western popular culture, the word may more commonly refer to benign, positive, or neutral practices of modern paganism, such as divination or spellcraft.
  Belief in witchcraft is often present within societies and groups whose cultural framework includes a magical world view.
context_section_description: Much of what witchcraft represents in Africa has been susceptible to misunderstandings and confusion, thanks in no small part to a tendency among western scholars since the time of the now largely discredited Margaret Murray to approach the subject through a comparative lens vis-a-vis European witchcraft.
  Complimentary remarks about witchcraft by a native Congolese initiate: "From witchcraft ... may be developed the remedy (kimbuki) that will do most to raise up our country." "Witchcraft ... deserves respect ... it can embellish or redeem (ketula evo vuukisa)." "The ancestors were equipped with the protective witchcraft of the clan (kindoki kiandundila kanda). ... They could also gather the power of animals into their hands ... whenever they needed. ... If we could make use of these kinds of witchcraft, our country would rapidly progress in knowledge of every kind." "You witches (zindoki) too, bring your science into the light to be written down so that ... the benefits in it ... endow our race."
caption: The Kolloh-Man (January 1853, X, p.6)[132]
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