‘African witchdoctors’ and popular culture: global hierarchies and the reinforcement of the colonial world order

ABSTRACT

This paper makes the case for a closer study as to how Africa and African people are portrayed within popular culture in the Global North, adding to the discussion surrounding the importance of ‘low politics’ in producing and reproducing global hierarchies. It focuses on representations of African traditional healers in Anglo-American popular culture as a way of highlighting deeply entrenched outsider ‘understandings’ of the continent. The colonial trope of the ‘African witchdoctor’ has remained a fixture in the collective Anglo-American cultural imagination since the days of H. Rider Haggard. Evidence demonstrates that these colonial stereotypes have remained remarkably durable, having seen little change in over one hundred and fifty years. Following Cynthia Enloe (1996), this paper argues that, in the interests of gaining a deeper appreciation of the power structures shaping African ‘development’, the realm of the ‘imaginary’ and the ‘made up’ where popular culture is concerned, demands greater scrutiny.

KEYWORDS:

• Africa
• colonial tropes
• traditional healers
• popular culture
• witchdoctor

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Jill Payne, SPAIS, University of Bristol, for her help with this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on the contributor

Adrian Flint is a Senior Lecturer in Development Politics at the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies (SPAIS) at the University of Bristol. His main research interests lie within the field of North–South relations and include issues like health and development (particularly HIV & AIDS), global trade, poverty alleviation, and sustainable development.

Notes

1 This article is informed, in part, by research trips to Ghana (2017), Kenya (2014, 2015, 2017), Nigeria (2013), Somalia (2015, 2016), South Africa (2010, 2012, 2014, 2017) and to Native American nations in the United States (2015, 2017). Interviews were conducted with a range of healthcare providers, traditional healers, public health workers, campaigners and academics. While not the basis for this article, these data contribute to the argument outlined, as do field notes.

2 Based on personal interviews with clients of traditional healers in Kenya, Nigeria, Somaliland and South Africa.

3 This is not to suggest that the IHS is in any way perfect; the service tends to be chronically underfunded and understaffed (Flint 2015).

4 Interviews with medical practitioners in Washington State connected to the IHS relay a similar, albeit anecdotal position.

5 Based on personal interviews with a range of traditional healers from Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, and South Africa.

6 See for example Hewitt’s (2006) argument that ‘good government’ in a development context represents a continuation, in many respects, of British colonial policy from the 1930s. Likewise, Kothari (2009) highlights continuities between colonial officers and development professionals.

7 Howard is probably most famous for his Conan the Barbarian series, in which magic and sorcery also play an important role.

8 As of 2017, Wilbur Smith’s novels had sold a total of 130 million copies; at 84, he signed a new book deal estimated at £10m (https://www.ft.com/content/1d964414-5501-11e7-80b6-9bfa4c1f83d2).

9 Data with respect to MMORPGs are somewhat difficult to pin down, so it is difficult to determine with any certainly which games attract the most subscribers/players.

10 Muti (or muthi) can refer to either ‘medicine’ or ‘poison’, and, consequently, depending on who is employing it, can be used in a positive sense (i.e. to heal) or negatively (i.e. to bring about death or misfortune) (Ashforth 2005). The term ‘muti murder’ is one often used in countries like South Africa to describe killings deemed to have a ‘ritualistic’ element.