AMỤSU: A STUDY OF WITCHCRAFT - AN AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Essentially, witchcraft is the old craft of the wise (Bramshaw, 2009). It often refers to the traditional religious practices of people and nations, the kind seen in the encounter of Saul at Endor with a witch (1 Sam. 28:7-25). Witchcraft is both a religion and craft (Farrar and Farrar, 1984), at least in its modern form. Until recently, it would be safe to understand witchcraft as the totality of science, arts and religion practiced outside Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It includes sorcery, clairvoyance, necromancy, divination and other physical/material practices all aimed at achieving practical ends. The present work explores the Igbo-African perspective of witchcraft which is often rendered Amusu. The researcher found out that the practice of Amusu among the Igbo is not homogenous. The work is an ethnological research into the understanding and practices of Amusu in the Omambala area, Awka area and Owerri area. It then went ahead to do a comparative study of witchcraft and Amusu to find the suitability of the two concepts translating each other. It is this Igbo Amusu which the work referred to as an African perspective of witchcraft.