Scholarly essays on the interactions of witchcraft history with colonialism and black history across the Atlantic.
 
The growing popularity of African diaspora religion and folk magic has often reduced it to its technical, practical aspects, but no approach towards these traditions can be genuinely authentic or meaningful without an understanding of the profound legacy – and trauma – of colonialism. This collection of scholarly essays examines different aspects of sorcery and witchcraft history across the Atlantic world: sorcery and fetishism; candomblé and slave resistance in Bahia; the Pondoland Revolt in South Africa; the political implications of sorcery and magic in modern-day Cameroon and South Africa – amongst many other fascinating subjects. This is long overdue scholarship, and invaluable reading for those with a profound interest in ATR (African Traditional Religion) and African diaspora magical and spiritual traditions.
 
Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2011. Paperback, 306 pages. New.