Witchcraft, Violence And Democracy In South Africa

by Ashforth, Adam

• ISBN13: 9780226029740
• ISBN10: 0226029743
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-01-01
• Publisher: UNIV OF CHICAGO PRESS

Summary

How does democracy fare when the people governed insist they live in a world with witches? If the government of a people afflicted by witchcraft refuses to punish witches, how does it avoid becoming alienated from the perceived needs of its people or, worse, seen as being in league with witches? In Soweto, South Africa, the constant threat of violent crime, the increase in black socio-economic inequality, the AIDS pandemic, and a widespread fear of witchcraft have converged to create a pervasive sense of insecurity among citizens and a unique public policy problem for government.In Witchcraft, Violence, and Democracy in South Africa, Adam Ashforth examines how people in Soweto and other parts of post-apartheid South Africa manage their fear of 'evil forces' such as witchcraft. Ashforth examines the dynamics of insecurity in the everyday life of Soweto at the turn of the twenty-first century. He develops a new framework for understanding occult violence as a form of spiritual insecurity and documents new patterns of interpretation attributing agency to evil forces. Finally, he analyzes the response of post-apartheid governments to issues of spiritual insecurity and suggests how these matters pose severe long-term challenges to the legitimacy of the democratic state.

Author Biography

Adam Ashforth is visiting associate professor in the School of Social Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study. He is the author of two previous books including Madumo, a Man Bewitched, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Acknowledgments	xvii
A Note on Nomenclature	xix
Introduction	1	(6)
Part One/SOWETO
1. Spiritual Insecurity and Political Power	7	(13)
2. Dimensions of Insecurity in Contemporary Soweto	20	(43)
3. On Living in a World with Witches	63	(25)
4. Freedom, Democracy, and Witchcraft: Soweto in the 1990's	88	(23)
5. On Believing, and Not Believing, in Witchcraft	111	(22)
Part Two/SOURCES OF SPIRITUAL INSECURITY
6. Poison, Medicine, and the Power of Secret Knowledge	133	(21)
7. Death, Pollution, and the Dangers of Dirt	154	(16)
8. A Brief History of the Spirit World	170	(24)
9. Invisible Beings in Everyday Life	194	(29)
10. Vulnerabilities of the Soul	223	(20)
Part Three/SPIRITUAL INSECURITY AND THE STATE
11. Witchcraft, Violence, and Justice	243	(36)
12. Democratic Statecraft in a World of Witches	279	(32)
Epilogue	311	(8)
Appendix 1: The Literature on Soweto-a Brief Excursus	319	(6)
Appendix 2: The Thohoyandou Declaration on Ending Witchcraft Violence, Issued by the Commission on Gender Equality	325	(6)
Selected Bibliography	331	(56)
Index	387