A growing number of Africans-Americans women and others with African ancestry in the U.S. are leaving traditional churches in favour of the witchcraft-based religions of their ancestors, WJZ TV’s Vic Carter reports.
The report, which looks into the trend and discovers it is about more than spells and rituals, shows African-American women in Maryland forsaking hitherto religions they subscribed to for African spirituality.
The college-educated professionals, who have no problems being described as witches, said they were leaving traditional churches for spiritual beliefs which connect them to their ancestors, noting that those beliefs empowered them to control their well-being. It fills a need not found in traditional worship, they say.
Having subscribed to the ancient form of spiritual contact, the women have a high priestess, Iyanifa Oyadele Ogunsina, who leads and performs rites.
When asked if they were, in fact, witches, Iyanifa notes that anyone who comes with good intent is welcome and embraced, but, if one came with a vile spirit and aimed to disrespect, they will find that she can quickly become a nightmare.
“That depends on how you look at it,” said the Coppin State graduate. “I am whatever the situation calls for. If you come at me with respect, you get Glenda the Good Witch from the suburbs, but if you come at me with negativity, meanness, and disrespect, then you get Evilene, your worst nightmare.”
The Maryland group, also going by the name ‘Dawtas of the Moon’, say they welcome both men and women. They have many names, titles, and ranks within their belief system.
At their meeting centre, prayers and supplications are offered to the deity, Oshun.
Rites are performed for those seeking love, marriage, children and business.
There is also the Black Witch Convention which registered at least 200 women in a Baltimore reception hall last year.
The Dawtas of the Moon says worshipping African deities “is something our ancestors did and we are tapping into it, so that we can become our best selves individually and collectively.”
Shango Yemi, a realtor, notes that although her granddad was a preacher, she’s had to give up the Christian faith to seek her own path.
“I was Christian, I was raised Christian,” said the Morgan State graduate. “There are Christians in my family. In fact, my grandfather was a preacher in the south. I also grew up Christian. I grew up Anglican, in the Episcopal Church. The older I got, the more disconnected I felt with the church and not being moved by anything, Like it just felt like words, like really empty.”
With a Baptist background where parents were deacons, Iyawo Orisa Omitola has also joined the folks to venerate the ancestors.
“I was raised Baptist,” she said. “My father is a deacon; my mother is a deaconess. I was in church all the time, three times a week.”
The Atlantic’s Sigal Samuel reports that many of these women sought witchcraft as an escape from Christianity.
“We may not be Christian here, but we still pray. I understand God more now, doing what I’m doing than I ever did in the Church.” said a woman standing behind a lectern and dressed entirely in white as she addressed a large audience of African American women, speaking in the cadences of a preacher.
Monica Jeffries, a 28-year-old teacher who had playfully donned a pointed witch hat for the convention, grew up in the Apostolic Church, but she broke ties with it four years ago. She said her mother had “forced” Christianity on her. Jeffries sometimes calls home trying to figure out why.
“I’m asking her questions about Christianity, and I’m like, “Why would you do this to us?’ She still can’t give me answers,” said Monica.
Many of these women blame the oppression of the church for turn to darkness.
“The Church is oppressive for a lot of black women,” said Tamara Young, a 32-year-old government program analyst. “But these African traditions empower women. They’re empowering you to have a hand in what you’re doing—to create your own magic.”
ShaVaughn Elle writes for Medium:
“They scold you. Tell you it’s wrong to teach others because you aren’t ordained by their standards. Speak of many characters chosen by God, who lived not so great lives, but assert you can’t be the same. Made you feel insecure for sharing the knowledge because it’s not wrapped in scripture or because they didn’t teach it to you. Deem it incorrect or inadmissible. Ostracized because those church walls no longer connect with you and the truth which festers so deep, your Spirit can no longer contain.”
Perhaps, not being fulfilled with their faith, a new consciousness has dawned to connect with their heritage. It could also be that the many scandals of the Christian faith leaders have proven too much for these sisters, hence a return to their roots.
While some Millennials enter the witch community seeking answers, others are simply hungry for a place where they can belong. Mambo Yansa, a witch who grew up in Panama, told me witchcraft serves as a “safe haven” for some LGBT youth who don’t feel welcome in the Church. The number of online posts by and about LGBT witches attests to the overlap between queer and witch communities.
The members wear African fabric, adorning their bodies with beads, shells, ankh, rings and other African themed items.
According to “The Witches of Baltimore” piece;
African-American witchcraft originated in West Africa, the birthplace of Yoruba, a set of religious traditions focused on reverence for ancestors and worship of a vast pantheon of deities known as orishas. Those traditions accompanied West Africans who were brought to the Americas as slaves and were eventually combined with Western religions, such as Catholicism, that many slaves were pushed to embrace.
By the early 19th century, Cuban Santeria, Brazilian Candomble, Haitian Vodou, and other syncretistic faiths had emerged as a result. In cities like New Orleans, voodoo (slightly different from Haitian Vodou) and hoodoo, which also descend from West African faiths, grew popular. These practices—which often involve manipulating candles, incense or water to achieve a desired result—may have helped give slaves some sense of power, however minimal.
Watch WJZ TV’s reports here;
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