Witchcraft, Spiritualism, Ritualism and Well-being!!

If you have not grappled with the question of witchcraft, you have not lived in Africa. African traditional Religion (ATR) in all its forms was about witchcraft, spirits, rituals and wellbeing. Modern religious movements are also about those things.

On witchcraft, as part of my social anthropology education, I considered as many traditional societies as possible. I came to the conclusion, witchcraft must have been real. But considering individual acts of witchcraft, many appeared to be belief based; more of self prophecy. Conclusion: you can live a full life by ignoring witchcraft stories.

On spiritualism, all people seem to believe in spirits. Some believe there are spirits following them all around; whether your spirit form is an ancestor, an angel, satanic element or some godly element, I personally do not know whether to believe in any such or not. In ATR, everything had a spiritual cause. So disease and wellness was attributed to spirits. In world religions, the same belief seems to apply. But it is difficult verifying spiritual causes and ascertaining the actuality of such causes.

On ritualism, all religions are organized and institutionalize faith through rituals. In ATR, rituals were the life. There was a ritual for every thing. Modern religious movements are also terribly ritualist. If not by ritual utterances then by ritual acts are people bound in a "spiritual state".... An emotional state according to me.

All witchcraft and spiritualistic rituals are about one thing; man's well-being. Whether you are invoking Jesus' name, Mohamed's name, Mother Shitra's name or your ancestor's name, I do not see the difference.

I am not a ritualist and I even abhor spiritualism. I do not take waganga wakienyeji seriously just as I have no time for pastors who claim to know how to break generational curses, witchcraft and any other such bonds. To me the two groups are one and the same.

Wellness for me is physical, emotional, psychological, social and mental. Physical because we are physical bodies susceptible to injury, pathogenic attack and dysfunctional growth. Mentally our brain development is different, we think differently and as we think we become. Emotionally, some people are emotional wrecks and do not know how to channel emotional energy. Socially, we deal with different people from different value systems. Psychological we have conditioned ourselves overtime and each of us suffers some disorder due to conditioning. Psychosomatic diseases are real; one can suffer in his or her body forever due to psychosomatic conditioning.

As we seek wellness, the choice is ours. Go to a diviner, appease ancestors, go to the funny pastors of generational curses or believe that a natural cause exists and seek not just opinions of Doctors but Psychologists and social experts.