Encounters with Witchcraft: field notes from Africa by Norman Miller (review)

It is hard to imagine that one could publish a book about witchcraft in Africa in 2012 and have something refreshing to say on a topic that has been the subject of many monographs. Yet Norman Miller succeeds in doing just that. In this memoir about living in and travelling through East Africa, Miller presents us with a narrative of his pursuit of 'the language of witchcraft'. Having being initially befuddled by reading about the murder of a young British mineral prospector and the alleged connection to witchcraft in a newspaper in Mombasa, Miller sets off to acquaint himself with witchcraft and its impact on African life. While most of the book focuses on his experiences in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya, we are also treated to brief excursions into belief systems in Malawi, Zambia and DR Congo. Miller brings to light not only the differences but also the links between conceptions of witchcraft in these locations.

Apart from the geographical differences, the reader is given a variety of perspectives that are made possible by the author's own transformational journey - as an adventurer, a student, then an academic - a process that certainly adds to the complexity of the narrative that he weaves. Whether they are new to his subject or experts, Miller invites his readers to share in his intellectual growth as he navigates his way through the hazy language and world of witchcraft. His first-person account of its impact on various facets of African life over the course of forty-five years is revealing and refreshing, providing a rich intimacy that is rare in the anthropological and historical literature on witchcraft. His interactions and conversations with Africans and foreigners, aristocrats and non-aristocrats, rich and poor, help to enrich the complexity and nuance of his story. Miller raises a number of important questions about witchcraft that have still to be properly answered: for example, why is it that witchcraft seems to be prevalent among settled pastoralist groups and not nomadic ones?

Confronted with witchcraft in East Africa, British colonial officials struggled to come to terms with its perceived immorality. If there was one thing about which the British were in agreement with their African subjects, it was that witchcraft was antisocial and harmful to the society. However, they disagreed over was what to be done about the menace. The colonial implementation of laws with the goal of suppressing the activities of so-called 'witchdoctors' encountered the practical concerns of Africans who saw these individuals as performing a 'public service' (p. 21). The futility of outlawing witchcraft, a fact that was not lost on the colonial officials, attests to the difficulty of dealing with it. Miller's adventures also point to the weakness of the now disproved modernization theory that Christianity and education would lead to the elimination of witchcraft in Africa. Here Miller's work is in agreement with scholars such as the Comaroffs and Peter Geschiere who have championed the discourse on the 'modernity of witchcraft'.

Miller's ten chronological chapters make it evident that witchcraft is not some relic of the African past but a quotidian part of life, so much so that 'like sex and soccer, witchcraft was often on the "street radios"' (p. 166). One of the obvious strengths of the book is Miller's application of the phenomenological epoché (or bracketing) that enables him to suspend judgement and give voice to his informants and subjects, allowing them to come alive. Although Miller's own perceptions about witchcraft are discernible, the book's characters speak for themselves, thereby adding additional layers of insight on the subject. As a result, Miller is able to tackle a very controversial and touchy subject in African studies without denigrating the thought processes that 'produce' witchcraft.

This book is a worthwhile addition to the numerous books on witchcraft in Africa and would serve as a good introduction to...