Child-Witch Phenomenon: A Stratagem for Capital Accumulation

Abstract

Witchcraft labeling in the past had been expressed towards women and the elderly, but in recent times labeling of children has become a fad for some clergy who find exorcism a veritable enterprise for capital accumulation. Although studies have concentrated on witches as beneficiaries and principal actors in the witchcraft riddle, this paper focuses on the economic gains that accrue to the clergy and other stakeholders in the Akwa-Ibom child-witch phenomenon. The ethnographic study examined the role of the church in witchcraft labeling and the motives behind the act. The study revealed that the church plays key role in authenticating witchcraft label, which is successfully linked to profiteering on religious pretext. Social visibility and capital accumulation are the motives in stakeholders maintaining the enterprise. Since these are motivated by economic and religious reasons they are serious indictment on the church in Akwa-Ibom state as a moral institution.

Key words: accumulation, child-witchcraft, capital, stratagem.