Why Anti Witchcraft Movements Swept the Gold Coast

Introduction

From the late nineteenth century into the colonial era, a series of anti-witchcraft movements spread across the Gold Coast and Asante, attracting thousands of followers. Rather than simply reflecting fear of witchcraft, these movements offered practical ways to explain misfortune, restore social order and cope with the profound upheavals of colonial rule. Shrines such as Aberewa and, later, Tigare promised protection against hidden spiritual attacks, identified suspected witches through ritual procedures, and provided medicines, oaths and cleansing ceremonies that many people regarded as more effective than the distant colonial legal system. Their popularity reveals how rapid political, economic and social change reshaped religious life in what is now Ghana, while also exposing growing tensions between African systems of spiritual justice and British colonial law.[Cambridge University Press & Assessment]cambridge.orgCambridge University Press & AssessmentWITCHCRAFT, ANTI-WITCHCRAFT AND TRANS-REGIONAL RITUAL INNOVATION IN EARLY COLONIAL GHANA: SAKRABUN…

Why anti-witchcraft movements spread so rapidly

The expansion of anti-witchcraft movements cannot be understood simply as a continuation of older religious traditions. Historians increasingly argue that they were responses to a society undergoing unusually rapid transformation.

The British conquest of Asante in 1901 dismantled long-established political structures, introduced new taxation and administrative systems, expanded long-distance trade and labour migration, and altered patterns of wealth and authority. Some individuals accumulated unexpected prosperity while others experienced poverty, disease or family breakdown. Such unequal outcomes often demanded explanation within local moral frameworks, where hidden spiritual aggression offered one possible answer.[Cambridge University Press & Assessment]cambridge.orgCambridge University Press & AssessmentWITCHCRAFT, ANTI-WITCHCRAFT AND TRANS-REGIONAL RITUAL INNOVATION IN EARLY COLONIAL GHANA: SAKRABUN…

Anti-witchcraft movements answered several practical questions at once:

Instead of encouraging indiscriminate violence, many movements claimed to channel suspicion into regulated ritual investigations supervised by recognised shrine authorities. That promise of orderly spiritual justice made them particularly persuasive during periods of uncertainty.[Cambridge University Press & Assessment]cambridge.orgCambridge University Press & AssessmentWITCHCRAFT, ANTI-WITCHCRAFT AND TRANS-REGIONAL RITUAL INNOVATION IN EARLY COLONIAL GHANA: SAKRABUN…

How Aberewa, Tigare and related movements worked

Aberewa and the reinvention of ritual authority

Aberewa emerged as the most influential anti-witchcraft movement in Asante between about 1906 and 1910. Although it appeared suddenly to colonial observers, historians have shown that it developed from an earlier movement known as Sakrabundi, which had gradually spread southwards from the northern savanna regions during the late nineteenth century.

Rather than being an isolated local cult, Aberewa represented an example of religious innovation moving across ecological zones and ethnic boundaries. Ritual specialists adapted older protective practices to new colonial conditions, creating ceremonies that appealed to communities experiencing political disruption and growing social inequality.[Cambridge University Press & Assessment]cambridge.orgCambridge University Press & AssessmentWITCHCRAFT, ANTI-WITCHCRAFT AND TRANS-REGIONAL RITUAL INNOVATION IN EARLY COLONIAL GHANA: SAKRABUN…

Followers typically visited shrines seeking:

Participation often involved voluntary submission to ritual tests or declarations of innocence before shrine officials rather than formal criminal proceedings. Colonial reports sometimes described these practices as “witch-finding”, but modern historians stress that they combined healing, protection, moral discipline and conflict resolution rather than serving solely as systems for identifying alleged witches.[Cambridge University Press & Assessment]cambridge.orgCambridge University Press & AssessmentWITCHCRAFT, ANTI-WITCHCRAFT AND TRANS-REGIONAL RITUAL INNOVATION IN EARLY COLONIAL GHANA: SAKRABUN…

The rise of Tigare

After Aberewa declined, other movements—including Tigare—spread widely through the Gold Coast during the interwar years. Like its predecessor, Tigare claimed power to detect spiritual threats, expose harmful magic and provide ritual protection.

Its popularity reflected the same underlying anxieties but also demonstrated that anti-witchcraft movements continually adapted to changing circumstances. New shrines incorporated different medicines, ritual techniques and regional traditions while maintaining the broader promise that hidden dangers could be made visible and controlled. Colonial officials repeatedly found that suppressing one movement rarely eliminated demand; instead, another emerged with modified practices and a different ritual centre.[ResearchGate]researchgate.netResearchGate(PDF) A Historical narrative of the British Colonial Administration's Clamp down on Witch finding Shrines among the Asante Pe…

Why illness, inequality and rapid change made these movements persuasive

Anti-witchcraft movements became attractive because they addressed problems that neither biomedical knowledge nor colonial administration could adequately explain for many rural communities.

Epidemics, high child mortality, infertility and sudden deaths remained common. At the same time, cash-crop production, wage labour and expanding trade created striking differences in wealth. Individuals who became unexpectedly successful might attract admiration but also suspicion that prosperity had been gained through hidden spiritual means.

Within this setting, anti-witchcraft movements offered a coherent moral explanation. Misfortune was rarely presented as random. Instead, suffering could be interpreted as the result of damaged relationships, jealousy, broken obligations or concealed spiritual aggression. Ritual intervention therefore promised not merely physical healing but restoration of social harmony.

Importantly, these explanations should not be understood as evidence that colonial subjects simply rejected modernity. Historians instead argue that the movements were themselves modern responses to colonial transformation, combining older ritual ideas with new forms of organisation, mobility and communication. They spread along expanding transport routes, commercial networks and migrant communities that were themselves products of colonial change.[cambridge.org]cambridge.orgCambridge University Press & AssessmentWITCHCRAFT, ANTI-WITCHCRAFT AND TRANS-REGIONAL RITUAL INNOVATION IN EARLY COLONIAL GHANA: SAKRABUN…

Why colonial officials tried to regulate spiritual justice

British administrators viewed anti-witchcraft movements with growing concern, although their objections were often inconsistent.

Officials recognised that accusations of witchcraft were socially significant for many communities, yet colonial courts could not accept supernatural evidence as proof of criminal guilt. Administrators also worried that shrine operators sometimes demanded fees, encouraged confessions under pressure or provoked public disorder through accusations against respected individuals.

Missionaries added another layer of criticism, portraying many anti-witchcraft shrines as incompatible with Christianity and as obstacles to conversion. Together, colonial administrators and missionaries increasingly sought to reduce the influence of shrine specialists throughout the early twentieth century.[ResearchGate]researchgate.netResearchGate(PDF) A Historical narrative of the British Colonial Administration's Clamp down on Witch finding Shrines among the Asante Pe…

Colonial responses included:

These measures culminated in regulations such as the 1934 Native Customs (Witch and Wizard Finding) Order, which prohibited organised witch-finding ceremonies in Asante. Nevertheless, official correspondence shows that such practices continued despite repeated suppression because many communities still regarded them as legitimate ways of addressing persistent fears.[ResearchGate]researchgate.netResearchGate(PDF) A Historical narrative of the British Colonial Administration's Clamp down on Witch finding Shrines among the Asante Pe…

What these movements reveal about colonial Ghana

Earlier colonial writing often portrayed anti-witchcraft movements simply as irrational superstition. More recent scholarship presents a far more complex picture.

Researchers argue that movements such as Aberewa and Tigare should be understood as religious innovations that emerged from specific historical pressures rather than timeless survivals from an unchanging African past. Their success reflected people’s efforts to reconcile older moral ideas with unprecedented political conquest, economic inequality and changing forms of authority.

They also demonstrate an important contradiction within colonial government. British rule claimed to establish impartial justice based on evidence, yet many Africans continued to experience illness, bereavement and social conflict through moral and spiritual frameworks that colonial courts neither recognised nor resolved. Anti-witchcraft shrines filled part of that gap by offering explanations and remedies that official institutions could not provide.[Cambridge University Press & Assessment]cambridge.orgCambridge University Press & AssessmentWITCHCRAFT, ANTI-WITCHCRAFT AND TRANS-REGIONAL RITUAL INNOVATION IN EARLY COLONIAL GHANA: SAKRABUN…

Lasting significance

Although the colonial administration suppressed many organised anti-witchcraft movements, the questions they addressed did not disappear. Concerns about hidden harm, unexplained misfortune and spiritual protection continued to shape religious life in Ghana throughout the twentieth century and remain visible today in debates over witchcraft accusations, deliverance ministries and the treatment of alleged witches.

The history of Aberewa, Tigare and related movements therefore illustrates more than changing religious beliefs. It shows how communities adapted creatively to colonial disruption, using new forms of ritual authority to negotiate uncertainty, inequality and the search for justice in a rapidly changing society.[cambridge.org]cambridge.orgCambridge University Press & AssessmentWITCHCRAFT, ANTI-WITCHCRAFT AND TRANS-REGIONAL RITUAL INNOVATION IN EARLY COLONIAL GHANA: SAKRABUN…

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Further Reading

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Endnotes

1. Source: cambridge.org
Link:https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-african-history/article/abs/witchcraft-antiwitchcraft-and-transregional-ritual-innovation-in-early-colonial-ghana-sakrabundi-and-aberewa-18891910/FE5B4DD01E1FF23EC9F839BDAC3BF0F6

2. Source: researchgate.net
Link:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279447812_A_Historical_narrative_of_the_British_Colonial_Administration%27s_Clamp_down_on_Witch_finding_Shrines_among_the_Asante_People_of_the_Gold_Coast

3. Source: cambridge.org
Link:https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/history-in-africa/article/empire-strikes-back-colonial-discipline-and-the-creation-of-civil-society-in-asante-19061940/B6919B27F6A5A83D91750B05D133A61D

4. Source: eprints.soas.ac.uk
Title: Witchcraft Anti Witchcraft
Link:https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/4142/1/WitchcraftAntiWitchcraft.pdf

5. Source: researchgate.net
Title: 379545850 Antiwitchcraft Movements in Colonial Asante
Link:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/379545850_Antiwitchcraft_Movements_in_Colonial_Asante

Published: September 1, 2023

6. Source: cambridge.org
Title: Olsen Show author deta
Link:https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/history-in-africa/article/abs/empire-strikes-back-colonial-discipline-and-the-creation-of-civil-society-in-asante-19061940/B6919B27F6A5A83D91750B05D133A61D

7. Source: cambridge.org
Link:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/FE5B4DD01E1FF23EC9F839BDAC3BF0F6/S002185370400951Xa.pdf/witchcraft_antiwitchcraft_and_transregional_ritual_innovation_in_early_colonial_ghana_sakrabundi_and_aberewa_18891910.pdf

8. Source: researchgate.net
Link:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/231979854_Witchcraft_anti-witchcraft_and_trans-regional_ritual_innovation_in_early_colonial_Ghana_Sakrabundi_and_Aberewa

9. Source: cambridge.org
Title: The Journal of African History: Volume 45
Link:https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-african-history/volume/C3380A05186562A48CE602A017BA7989

Additional References

10. Source: grafiati.com
Title: Journal articles: ‘Political aspects of Witchcraft’ – Grafiati
Link:https://www.grafiati.com/en/literature-selections/political-aspects-of-witchcraft/journal/

11. Source: eajournals.org
Title: EA Journals DO WITCHES ONLY FLY?
Link:https://eajournals.org/ijhphr/vol-1-issue-1-september-2013/witches-fly-historical-narrative-british-colonial-administrations-clamp-witch-finding-shrines-amongst-asante-people-gold-coast-1907-1940/

12. Source: youtube.com
Title: Ghana’s Secret Shrines: Why Locals Never Go Back Twice
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG8M6N9Sp9Q

13. Source: youtube.com
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5ZMy0geS5g

14. Source: youtube.com
Title: Unveiling Yendi: Ghana’s Forgotten Kingdom & Ancient Traditions
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUw-dH0ivjE

15. Source: youtube.com
Title: History of The Ashanti Empire of Ghana
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgWesX2ikP4

16. Source: taylorfrancis.com
Title: On The Spread of Anti-Witchcraft Cults in Modern Asante | 6 | Changing
Link:https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429489068-6/spread-anti-witchcraft-cults-modern-asante-malcolm-mcleod

17. Source: youtube.com
Title: Witchcraft Act Was Used to Suppress Traditional Healers | Gogo Dineo Explains
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nImfi58BeyI

18. Source: docslib.org
Title: sakrabundi and aberewa 1889 8211
Link:https://docslib.org/doc/6529745/sakrabundi-and-aberewa

19. Source: africabib.org
Link:https://africabib.org/rec.php?DB=p&RID=280503075