Witchcraft Accusations and Economic Tension in Pre-Colonial Old Calabar

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Periodical article

Title:	Witchcraft Accusations and Economic Tension in Pre-Colonial Old Calabar
Author:	Latham, A.J.H.
Year:	1972
Periodical:	The Journal of African History
Volume:	13
Issue:	2
Pages:	249-260
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	Old Calabar polity witchcraft Religion and Witchcraft Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) History and Exploration
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/180854
Abstract:	While studying the economic and social history of Old Calabar, it became apparent to the author that witchcraft accusations played an important role in Efik society of the late 18th and 19th centuries. There was no clue in the sources as to what the social function of these witchcraft accusations was. However, studies of witchcraft in 20th-century African societies offered insight into the way in which witchcraft and witchcraft accusations may have operated in Old Calabar in precolonial times. An analysis of the cases of Efik witchcraft for which there is evidence in the 18th and 19th centuries bears out the suggestions of M.G. Marwick. The suggestion of G.I. Jones that witchcraft accusations are provoked by tensions in a contracting economic situation is not valid for Old Calabar where economic expansion caused the tensions. These tensions manifested themselves at the highest political level in election disputes. Notes, tables, summary.