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Malleus Maleficarum: Scrutinizing Sorcery in Cameroon
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 January 2018
Abstract
Drawing on ethnographic research, this article reflects critically on the current involvement of the Cameroonian state in witchcraft accusations. Unlike other African states where witchcraft is connected to religion and culture and as such is far detached from economics and politics, post-colonial Cameroon associates witchcraft and other occult practices with being a major factor in its slow economic development. The state resorted to criminal law in its attempts to eradicate the practice. Its penal code subjects persons accused of witchcraft to imprisonment for up to ten years. This provision has been subject to great criticism, as its application has led to a high conviction rate of indigenous Cameroonians. The aim of this article is not to determine the appropriateness of this approach, but to raise questions and shed light on the various inconsistencies with criminalizing a practice that arguably constitutes an underlying basis of indigenous Cameroonian cultural heritage.
Keywords
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © SOAS, University of London 2018
Footnotes
*
LLB (Nelson Mandela University, South Africa); LLM (University of Cape Town, South Africa); LLM (McGill University, Canada); PhD candidate and research assistant, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, Canada.
References
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31 The 1985 study also equated witchcraft practice to alcoholism and stressed the need to fight these abuses. It stated that failure to do so would inevitably result in a weakening of moral behaviour, which would slow down provincial development. It also highlighted that indigenous Cameroonians used witchcraft as a weapon to dispel civil servants posted to communities other than their own. See id at 146.
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42 See for example The People v Betta Samuel and Akama Epong KM/193c/86; Ministere Public & Mvondo c/N Jacqueline [1984] 355/COR.
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44 Fisiy “Containing occult practices” above at note 25 at 160.
45 Ibid.
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