Witchcraft, witchdoctors, and empire: The proscription and prosecution of African spiritual practices in British Atlantic colonies, 1760-1960s

• Main Author: Boaz, Danielle N
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01.01.2014
• Subjects: History; Law; Religion
• ISBN: 1321153228; 9781321153224

Starting in the mid-eighteenth century in the Caribbean and the mid-nineteenth century in Africa, the British passed laws which criminalized certain African spiritual and medico-religious rituals in their colonies. In the Caribbean colonies, these practices were proscribed as "obeah" and in the African colonies they were banned as "pretended witchcraft." Although obeah and witchcraft statutes shared many similar characteristics, the purpose and enforcement of these provisions varied greatly. In the Caribbean, obeah laws evolved over time to address shifting colonial complaints about African spiritual practices. In Britain's African colonies, witchcraft laws were primarily designed to address one concern —indigenous methods of accusing and punishing suspected witches. Based on my comparative examination of the proscription and prosecution of obeah and witchcraft, I argue that British colonial laws and policies prohibiting African spiritual practices were region-specific and that there was never a coherent policy throughout the British Empire regarding the suppression of the "pretended" practice of witchcraft or other supernatural rituals. In this dissertation, I examine how the colonial response to African medico-religious practices differed on each side of the Atlantic and explore the reasons for these disparate policies.