Perspectives on African witchcraft / edited by Mariano Pavanello.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction 1. Agencies, Jurisdictions and Paradigms in the Shaping of Witchcraft 2. Witchcraft, Medicine and British Colonial Rule: Anthropological Analysis of Colonial Documents in the Gold Coast 3. Witchcraft and Dream. A Discussion of the Akan Case 4. Witchcraft and Religion in the Process of Formation of the Public Space in Ghana 5. Where Christianity is Ancient. Pentecostalism, Evil in the World, and the Break with the Past in Ethiopia 6. `Byesus Sh'm'. Breaking with the National Past in Eritrean and Ethiopian Pentecostal Churches in Rome 7. `I went out into the street...and now I fight for my life'. Street children and witchcraft accusations in Bangui (Central African Republic) 8. Fields of Experience: In Between Healing and Harming. On Conversation between Dogon Healers and Sorcerers

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Notes on contributors -- Foreword -- Introduction -- Painful ethnographic memories -- Witchcraft: A kaleidoscope and an anthropological metanarrative -- Perspectives -- References -- 1 Agencies, jurisdictions and paradigms in the shaping of witchcraft -- A paradigm of power in West Africa -- The glorification of power in sixteenth-century Europe -- Witchcraft as a paradigm of evil power -- The canonical doctrine -- Witchcraft: Dream or reality? -- Popular beliefs: Superstitions or countertheories? -- A bridge across the Atlantic -- References -- 2 Witchcraft, medicine and British colonial rule: Anthropological analysis of colonial documents in the Gold Coast -- The colonial encounter -- Anti-witchcraft laws: The Gold Coast and the new courts -- The health care system: Public health and segregationist politics -- The colonial governance: Between witchcraft and public health -- References -- 3 Witchcraft and dream: A discussion of the Akan case -- My hypothesis -- Akan witchcraft -- My ethnographic evidence -- The reality of dream -- Conclusion -- References -- 4 Witchcraft and religion in the process of formation of the public space in Ghana -- Accra's disenchantment -- Finding magical modernity: Nana Kwaku Bonsam -- Beyond civil society -- Juju, citizenship and political action -- References -- 5 Where Christianity is ancient: Pentecostalism, evil in the world and the break with the past in Ethiopia -- Pentecostalism and charismatism in Africa -- Rupture and continuity in African Pentecostalism -- Pentecostals in Ethiopia -- Two stories regarding the occult -- Demonizing as a way to make a break with the past -- References -- 6 "Be Yesus Sh'm": Breaking with the national past in Eritrean and Ethiopian Pentecostal churches in Rome -- Guerrilla and diaspora: Sixty years of Eritrean history