Witchcraft is a paranormal activity. It is the activity of performing magic to help or harm other people. It is believed that witchcraft has been in existence even before the advent of Christianity. Until the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries when the church started persecuting witches together with Jews and heretical thinkers, witchcraft which many considered a pseudo-religion co-existed with Christianity.
Starhawk, an American witch theorized that witchcraft, which she described as the 'craft of the wise',was not supposed to be automatically associated with evil. But the question is, has any one used witchcraft to do anything good? No, at least not in the African setting. It`s believed that the African witchcraft, popularly called African Technology is just a tool for destruction.
We always hear witches and wizards confessing their bad deeds in churches and other religious centres. Never has any of them said they have used their witching or wizardry powers to help people.
The Bible says in Ephesians 6:12 that "...we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness, against spiritual wickedness..."
Truly, if there is the belief that a spirit of goodness exists in the world then of course there should also exist a spirit of evil. Knowledge of this fact would make one aware that there is an external or spiritual force that can fight against their progress in life so that they also protect themselves with whichever powers they defer to. This is why it is necessary for movies to portray witchcraft, voodoo or juju in movies to at least conscientize viewers of the reality of these powers and how to protect ones self from their wiles and evil activities.
In Ghana, Kumasi is a movie-producing centre that continually churns out a deluge of witchcraft and juju. A research I personally conducted proves that about 90% of their movies that are produced portray witchcraft. Well, in as much as these movies make viewers aware of the machinations of the "African Technologist",there is also a negative side to it; one with an excruciating repercussion.
It appears the attention of arts writers for some time now has been on 'nude' and sexually explicit scenes, forgetting about those that contain witchcraft. Frankly, these movies are brainwashing people into believing that everything that happens to them, good or bad has a spiritual backing.
Already in our Ghanaian society there are a lots of people appealing to religion when a misfortune befalls them, than finding practical solutions. Of course, there are causes to every effect, some proximate, some remote and sometimes spiritual. But attributing all our misfortunes to spirituality will not do us a skerrick of good. And this, unfortunately, is what our movies are teaching us nowadays. Some one dies an untimely death and because they are rich, people tend to believe they were killed spiritually, overlooking other possible causes that the one may have been hypertensive or may have taken in something 'poisonous'.
I am not saying science is important than religion or vice-versa. That's not the argument here but the point is that religion cannot solve all our problems. There are people in this nation who fear to take up greater opportunities because they think witches and wizards will kill them if they do. Superstitious Africans!
I think playwrights should be crafty in developing stories for movies that contain witchcraft or wizardry. Movies of such kind should not make people believe that every bad thing that happens to them is spiritual. Watch a typical Kyeiwaa movie and every scene is about one using witchcraft to cause mischief. Please, movie-makers, enough of those movies. As a nation, if we don't reign in on how some of these films are done, we are going to be marking time in developing our dear nation.
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