Concepts & Definitions
The ethnic community in Kenya’s Taita Hills featured in James Howard Smith’s research
Who are the Wataita?
This category of witchcraft includes both traditional beliefs and newly acquired local knowledge.
What is African witchcraft?
Shape-shifting coastal spirits believed to grant owners money and goods in exchange for heavy sacrifices
What are majini?
IMF-related policies introduced during this era that forced spending cuts and reduced government civil-service jobs
What are Structural Adjustment Policies?
Traditionally, men held authority in Taita households and were primarily associated with this sector of the economy.
What is formal employment / production?
Smith argues that witchcraft accusations occur when these social distinctions, such as local vs. foreign or legitimate vs. suspicious wealth, are violated.
What are boundaries?
This form of witchcraft is associated with Kenya's coast and involves supernatural spirits known as majini.
What is Arabic / Coastal witchcraft?
This specific group experienced fits of screaming, trances, and spirit attacks
Who are schoolgirls?
The economic system that promises progress through market integration but often leads to job cuts, inequality, and insecurity
What is neoliberalism?
Economic restructuring pushed women into wage work, commerce, and activities funded by these external organizations
What are NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations)?
In Taita society, this concept is associated with schooling, formal employment, modernity, and prosperity
What is development?
This category of witchcraft reflects local fears of globalization, foreign influence, and powerful international forces
What is American / Transnational witchcraft?
Attacks on schools created panic because this institution was viewed as the main pathway to future economic security.
What is formal education
The loss of these specific government positions caused widespread loss of faith in the promise of development.
What are civil-service / public sector jobs?
Stories about majini partly express this feeling among men whose traditional economic position was eroding.
What is male anxiety?
Rather than an ancient tradition surviving despite modernity, Smith argues witchcraft actually does this alongside development
What is changes/transforms?
The three different categories of witchcraft show how people’s understanding of where this originates has changed over time
What is power (or influence/wealth)?
the costly sacrifices required by majini symbolize the dangers of this habit, where immediate wealth sacrifices family tie
What is commodity consumption / consumerism?
Smith emphasizes that witchcraft is not a failure to understand economics, but rather a way to give name and form to these emotional feelings
What are insecurity, inequality, frustration, or powerlessness?
Women challenged traditional male authority because they increasingly became key producers of this.
What is wealth / household resources?
Accusing someone of witchcraft is often a cultural way of saying a person is doing this.
What is violating expected social order / breaking community boundaries?
American/Transnational witchcraft is frequently linked to this specific spiritual threat to highlight the dangers of foreign influence.
What is Satanism?
According to local explanations, majini began attacking schools because their owners could no longer do this after losing their civil-service jobs.
What can afford to maintain / feed them?
The central paradox of globalization is that while it produces new opportunities, it simultaneously reduces local people's sense of this.
What is control over their economic and social lives?
Beyond supernatural entities, stories of witchcraft ultimately reveal conflicts over these three social elements.
What are power, gender, and money (or social change)?