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Human Security and Spiritual Insecurity: Why the Fear of Evil Forces Needs to Be Taken Seriously
Abstract
http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116822/1/Ashforth on Human Security and Spiritual Insecurity.pdf
... How much has actually changed in the "postcolonial" knowl- Early anthropological and colonial theories on "witchcraft" have been critiqued for equating the African cosmological worldview and etiology of evil with "traditional" thought and "irrational" behaviour (Sabar, 2010). But still, to the disagreement of many from the African continent, the early derogatory associations of all that is African with irrationality have been supplanted in academia by the shared "modernist" view that "witchcraft" signs and practices crystallize the experiences of the "modern" African world (Sabar, 2010;Ashforth, 2001;Comaroff and Comaroff, 1993). The argument often advanced is that 'modernity has injected African postcolonial "witchcraft" discourses with a new dynamic, which reflects the ability of "witchcraft" beliefs to adapt to the modern nation-state and to new types of entrepreneurship' (Sabar, 2010: 111). ...
... In everyday life in Africa and elsewhere it is a discourse about action and the urgent necessity to handle these dangerous but hidden forces ' (1988' ( : 3, cited in Sabar, 2010. In the work of Adam Ashforth, while obviously concerned with explaining people's existential anxieties, it is, in the final analysis, the entire African etiology of evil and theology, reduced to the simple issue of "spiritual insecurity" (See Ashforth, 2011Ashforth, , 2010Ashforth, , 2005Ashforth, , 2002Ashforth, , 2001. ...
... In everyday life in Africa and elsewhere it is a discourse about action and the urgent necessity to handle these dangerous but hidden forces ' (1988' ( : 3, cited in Sabar, 2010. In the work of Adam Ashforth, while obviously concerned with explaining people's existential anxieties, it is, in the final analysis, the entire African etiology of evil and theology, reduced to the simple issue of "spiritual insecurity" (See Ashforth, 2011Ashforth, , 2010Ashforth, , 2005Ashforth, , 2002Ashforth, , 2001. ...
Abstract
We are currently witnessing an increased diversification of the field of academic knowledge production where more and more, forms of knowledge kept at periphery for centuries are claiming recognition at centre stage. This reality has pushed scholars to question the impact and lasting legacies of historical processes of racism and colonialism still embedded in mainstream academic knowledge production. This translates today into a major critic of the social science methodologies, critiqued as “master’s tools” serving to reproduce contested coloniality of academic knowledge in most non-Western regions today. In Africa this debate is framed as knowledge decolonial option looking particularly at what forms and whose knowledge is legitimised, reproduced, and for what purpose through the current education structure and what socio-political and cultural functions it plays. This is the debate this paper contributes to. It suggests an ontological turn in order to move from an emphasis on the identities of the producers to focus instead on the knowledge production process itself. The main argument is that there is indeed a timely necessity to advance an ontologically relevant Africanist scholarship that gives a sympathetic theological reading of the African lived experience. As a methodology and scholarly language, ontology constitutes a neutral ground in knowledge production, validation and consumption debates that needs to be taken seriously as it allows scholars to take into account the lived worlds people inhabit and the correlating ways of Being and knowing. The paper highlights particularly the current issues of misreading, misrepresentations as well as the need to avoid reading African realities with external interpretative and explanative lenses.
Keywords: Ontological Turn, coloniality, African, Cosmology
... Everyday life in Malawi is permeated with anxiety and fear of misfortunes. This 'spiritual insecurity' reflects the sense of danger that many experience when they perceive suffering and hardships as caused by spirits, witches, or ordinary people who possess evil forces to hurt them (Ashforth, 2010). ...
Belief in evil and hidden supernatural forces, generally referred to as witchcraft, is widespread in many parts of the African continent. In addition to affecting individual health, perceived security, and social relations, witchcraft allegations may be used as covert political instruments, resulting in governance challenges such as lack of trust, transparency, administrative delegation, and political accountability. Since witchcraft is commonly associated with physiological and psychological violence, some citizens may be less willing to participate in political activities, including seeking elected office or criticizing political elites for fear of falling victim to witchcraft. The focus of our study is Malawi where large groups in the population believe in the power of witchcraft. We aim to unpack how local witchcraft beliefs have a bearing on governance-whether, and the extent to which, witchcraft influences how citizens understand and practice transparency and accountability in everyday life. Particularly, the belief in witchcraft among Malawian elites' warrants closer scrutiny, especially since existing literature and local discourse on the impact of witchcraft tend to largely focus on rural and less educated groups in the population. As the highly secret and complex dimensions of witchcraft resist clear-cut definitions, representations, and analysis, it is not our intention to describe witchcraft in everyday life. Rather, we explore the potential political implications of not addressing elite discourses of and belief in witchcraft. We find that belief in witchcraft can influence citizens' perceptions of power and authority and can potentially undermine the legitimacy of democratic institutions and processes.
... Recently, Fisher and Leonardi (2021) have argued that in the global search for security, too much attention is placed on the tangible and visible. Taking a vernacular security approach (Bubandt 2005), they argue for more attention for 'spiritual (in)security' (Ashforth 1998(Ashforth , 2010 as people in many parts of the world experience insecurity as caused by transcendental forces. We side with their plea to emphasise that in the eyes of many, daily risks and spiritual insecurity are closely associated with each another. ...
... The experience of its implementation shows that the success of mastering the ideas and technologies of personality-oriented education depends on a certain readiness of the teaching staff for this type of activity. Indicators of this readiness include (Ashforth, 2010): ...
Education today is an area around which heated discussions are unfolding, both at the state level and in society. The processes of integration and globalization are especially active today, but they should not replace the content of national cultures and educational systems on which they occur. It should combine an openness of education with its general availability at all levels, in the interaction of interested parties and, above all, the state, in all components of this process in order to preserve society’s intellectual potential. Scientific analysis of any phenomenon involves considering it from several positions. Nowadays, modern society is going through complex processes of revaluation of basic values in all spheres of life - material, spiritual, socio-political, social (in the narrow sense) against the background of various activation of the human factor in the above areas. The analysis of global problems should consider the principal objects of influence of these problems and the subjects whose activities cause their aggravation. In other words, it is necessary to distinguish between the spheres of interaction between the individual, nature, society (in this case, the world community), which comprises states with different forms of social structure, economy, national-state organisation, different mentality, legal systems, and the like.
... To understand why former militants felt safer inside the group, one must keep in mind that "both the state of feeling safe and the practices for procuring such safety are multiple and ever changing, in response to multiple sources of threats (real or imagined)" (Orock 2014, 411-412). Material and spiritual insecurity, violence, and its imaginative aspects are indeed often closely linked in Africa (Ashforth 2010). Some Nigerian Pentecostal churches, such as the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, may also be reasonably understood according to the rubric of the "safety gospel": much of their preaching and activities are centered on countering the malign forces unleashed by the discovery of oil and the resulting crises (Adogame 2012). ...
Since the early 1990s, the Niger Delta has been the scene of armed struggles between militants and other armed groups aimed at controlling natural resource revenues in Nigeria. After nearly a decade of violence, the Presidential Amnesty Program (PAP) was successful in disarming and co-opting the militant groups. This article is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Port Harcourt during 2016 with one Pentecostal group instrumental to the PAP’s success. The former militants in this group, now born-again, use Christian language and concepts to discuss the reasons for their agreement with and adherence to the PAP. However, while collaborating with the government on some important tasks, they also use the language of religion to criticize some of its actions. I argue that it is precisely through these ambiguous negotiations that sovereignty, articulated through diverse authorities, is constructed as a representation, replacing trust in government with faith in God’s plan.
... The problem of pragmatic approach to relations and spiritual needs, causing spiritual distrust, is particularly relevant. Security is therefore a concept of human relations [22]. We believe that the effectiveness of these relations depends on the level of spiritual worldview of citizens. ...
Spiritual security should be a priority in our modern globalized society. Therefore, the study provides convincing evidence that it is important to develop a theoretical understanding of spiritual security. Several theoretical concerns regarding the establishment and maintenance of spiritual security are addressed in the article. He explores many ideas that are interrelated, including spiritual security, worldview, and spirituality. To ensure spiritual security, a practical analysis is carried out of the need to carry out various measures that strengthen the spiritual health of society.The article explains the methodology used in spiritual Security Investigations. According to the author, different levels of spiritual security can be analyzed using a structural-logical model and a dialectical method of cognition. Comparative analysis is also seen as a valuable tool. Spiritual intelligence is essential to overcome barriers, manage change, and ensure personal security and its impact on relationships. The process begins with introspection and evaluation, concluding with the ability to assess and understand the environment. By analyzing and understanding natural phenomena, it is possible to develop a sense of reality and a deeper appreciation of the nature of human existence. A person can feel spiritually safe if he adheres to his moral and spiritual beliefs and complies with the norms of society. It contains such things as worldview, social behavior, culture, research and social development. By expanding the spiritual point of view, the danger to the spiritual security of a person can be reduced.
This paper provides new insights into how violence in war structures peacetime violence by highlighting how war alters ontological positions or worldviews, such as those concerning the relevance of threat of harm through spiritual means. It presents a detailed case study of sorcery accusations and related violence before, during and after Bougainville’s decade long civil war. New empirical data are used to illustrate the mechanisms through which violence against those accused of sorcery was enabled and legitimized during the war and how this remains linked to contemporary sorcery accusations and related violence two decades after peace. Drawing on Braithwaite and D’Costa’s framework of cascades of violence, the paper also tracks the ways in which sorcery discourses, practices and beliefs cascade to war.
As whites consolidated political control over South Africa in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the economies of rural African families transformed. Redding investigates how, with the exodus of men as migrant labourers to the gold mines, African women became entrepreneurial market farmers in the Eastern Cape region. However, Redding contends, the colonial state’s legal restrictions on women’s property rights drained women’s economic resources and redefined them as dependents of men and ‘subsistence’ farmers. In tandem, accusations of witchcraft against women, often from relations or neighbours, increased as women exercised more power over familial resources. The cumulative impact of legal restrictions and witchcraft accusations threatened African women’s status and their opportunities to engage in entrepreneurial market farming by the late 1920s.
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