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‘The Daughter she will Eat Agousie in the World of the Spirits’ Witchcraft Confessions in Missionised Onitsha, Nigeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Misty L. Bastian
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Abstract

This article deals with witchcraft, missionisation, domestic slavery and social life on the emerging colonial ‘frontier’ of Onitsha, Nigeria, during the last years of the nineteenth century. The analysis centres on the confession of an accused witch and former domestic slave in the Waterside area of the town. It uses the document as a springboard for a larger discussion of the intersecting lives of Africans and Europeans in this marginal location at a moment when social relations there were undergoing radical transformation. By addressing such a text, taken down verbatim at the time of the confession, the author argues, we can gain a privileged insight into women's unofficial (and even prohibited) religious practice as well as the everyday lives of persons—notably female domestic slaves—who ordinarily receive little notice in the African colonial record. From Okuwan's confession we also learn something about how the increasing flows of commodities and new forms of colonial authority along this mercantile border were changing (and possibly devaluing) African women's labour as well as their religious power.

Résumé

Cet article traite de sorcellerie, de missionnisation, d'esclavage domestique et de vie sociale à la “frontière” coloniale émergente d'Onitsha (Nigeria), au cours des dernières années du XIXème siècle. L'analyse s'appuie sur les confessions d'une sorcière accusée et ancienne esclave domestique du quartier Waterside de la ville. Le document sert de tremplin à un débat plus large sur le croisement des vies des Africains et des Européens dans ce lieu marginal à un moment où les rapports sociaux y connaissent des changements radicaux. En abordant ce texte, noté mot pour mot au moment de la confession, affirme l'auteur, nous avons la possibilité de mieux connaître la pratique religieuse officieuse (et souvent interdite) des femmes, ainsi que la vie quotidienne de personnes—notamment des femmes esclaves domestiques—qui d'ordinaire passent presque inaperçues dans les archives coloniales africaines. Les confessions d'Okuwan nous apprennent également comment le flux croissant de marchandises et les nouvelles formes d'autorité coloniale le long de cette frontière marchande changeaient (voire dévaluaient) le travail des femmes africaines ainsi que leur pouvoir religieux.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 72 , Issue 1 , February 2002 , pp. 84 - 111
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2002

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