Magic and the Supernatural - Lancaster University

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Magic in an African Context
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the African context, though considered as something that is beyond what is normal
or natural is not supernatural. Magic within the African context is simply the
influence on events through the use of paranormal (but not supernatural) powers
available to human beings. Based on this definition therefore, the practice of
divination, or Afa (consultation of the oracle for answers whereby cowries are
repeatedly thrown and read in most cases) or the activity of rainmakers in Igbo
societies, for instance, could be said to be instances of magic. Other practices like
the use of charms, portions and amulets stand somewhere between superstition and
anachronistic practices in African belief system. To conclude this conceptual
sketch within the African context, I would like to point out that a distinction needs
to be made between magic in the strict sense and magic loosely understood. The
first sense corresponds to preternatural events which are commonly believed by
many to be real, though they are inexplicable to the man with ordinary eyes, while
the second corresponds to mere tricks or abracadabra. In the first sense, magic may
be both for positive or negative ends (what has come to be stereotyped as black and
white magic respectively; though I reject the black and white categories because
they are arbitrary) relying on the principles of cosmic sympathy, coercion,
compulsion, contagion and similarity.
2. The Phenomena of Magic in Contemporary Africa
Manifestations of the phenomenon of magic in contemporary Africa is so
endemic that one can, without risking any ambivalence, say that it is pathological.
In the schools, market place, church, government and other offices, streams, rivers,
homes, forests, the floor of the stock exchange market, newspapers, bridges,
government houses, state and federal houses of assembly, senate house, football
stadium and even at the presidency etc., the feeling, reports or affirmation of the
manifestation of these phenomena is commonplace. There is, in short, so much
belief, fear and purposeful recourse to the phenomenon of magic in Africa, or at
least in the part I am conversant with (Nigeria).
To concretize the foregoing, a little example is apt. The Sun Newpaper (in
Nigeria) 7 of Novermber 10, 2009, carried a story with the following caption:
LASU crisis deepens… VC deputy’s offices sealed with charms. The story reads,
in part, as follows:
the crisis in Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, has continued
to stall academic activities in the institution, weeks after the
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) called off its four
months old strike. Administrative offices and lecture halls have
been under lock and key as the university staff stuck to their
guns, never to resume work unless the Vice-Chancellor, Prof.
Lateef Akanni Hussain is removed from office. Our reporter who
visited the institution was greeted by the grave silence at the