In a recent educational policy statement, the South African Government announced the addition of the study of witchcraft for the award of Bachelor of Sciences to its educational curriculum. According to the South African Minister of Education, Dr. Emmanuel Nzimande, “Africans can learn how to fly in winnowing baskets in order to reduce traffic jams and the importation of fuel,” by receiving a degree in witchcraft. In the spirit of South-South development struggles, this paper interrogates the South African policy comparatively with narratives from other global south nations, including India and Ghana vis-à-vis developments in the developed North. For South Africa, the movie Shaka Zulu provides a historical frame from which to assess the current policy. Based on the narratives from the aforementioned countries, this paper argues that no African country needs a Bachelor of Science study in witchcraft to educate its citizens on how to use winnowing baskets to avoid gridlock on their roads and to save from high cost of fuel. What South Africa, like other global south nations, needs is the promotion of science, technology, and education to free its population from its unfounded darkest fears, ignorance, and disease. The paper calls on South Africans and the global south to resist the regressive policy as it has the potential to further draw South Africa back, divide families, and promote superstition at the national level with the fear of other global south nations emulating the policy.

1. South Africa’s witchcraft policy: An
infectious retrogressive model for the global
South—Africa and South-East Asia
Dr. Prosper Yao Tsikata
Florida State University, Tallahassee

2. ]
[ Story board
• What values undergird the claim for a cure for HIV/AIDS?
• The story of Janus and Science
• State policy and institutions of interpellation
• South Africa’s B.Sc. Witchcraft and Mbeki’s Traditional Healers Bill 2003
• Shaka Zulu and policy dimensions of the policy
• Discussion and conclusion

3. Introduction and statement of problem
Witchcraft Terms and incidents
• Sorcery/Black magic/insangoma
• Dark ages -1550-1660 80,000 killed in
Europe/80% women
• Salem witches –1692 (18 put to death)
• 2005-2015 2000 women killed in India
• Virginia 1655 criminalized
• Benjamin Franklin’s satire 1730

4. The Story of Janus and Science
Ishmael’s story Science
• A jealous Old lady
• Pot in Ishmaels belly
• What about cocaine addicts?
• External locus of control
• Endorphins into nucleus accumbens
• Alcohol-induced pleasure and
analgesic effects
• Internal locus of control

5. Treatment images
A prayer camp A group therapy session

6. ]
[ State policy
• No rehabilitation centers or budgetary allocations
• Religion and other esoteric groups fill the void
• A pastor stomping the womb of a visibly pregnant woman
• Lack of creative solutions from the state

7. ]
[ Institutions of interpellation

8. ]
[ Central questions

9. The South African policy
Highlights Comparisons
• Bonginkosi Nzimande & B.Sc. W 2018
• Citation– winnowing basket, gridlock,
and fuel cost
• Green card for renowned witches
• Structure of Govt.
• Point-based immigration
• Fuel efficiency vehicles (hybrid
vehicles, engine parameters,
aerodynamic drag, weight and
rolling resistance)

10. The traditional health practitioners Bills (B66
2003)
Thabo Mbeki Homegrown solutions
• African solution 4 African problems—
Mbeki’s Africa Renaissance
• Manto Tshabalala-Msimang—beetroot,
lemon, and garlic
• Dismissed by SA MOH
• How to classify Insangoma—dreams,
vision, revelations—from a bureaucratic
point to weed out charlatans?

11. ]
[ Science versus religion
“The story of Abraham and Isaac offers a simple but powerful
example. If any of us saw a Twenty-first Century Abraham raising
the knife on the roof of his apartment building, we would call
the police; we would wrestle him down; even if we saw him
lower the knife at the last minute, we would expect the
Department of Children and Family Services to take Isaac away
and charge Abraham with child abuse. We cannot hear what
Abraham hears and cannot see what he sees. So the best we can
do is to act in accordance with those things that are possible for
all of us to know.” (Barack Obama, 2008, p. 261).

12. Jacob Zuma: A true representation of the policy
Shaka Zulu Interpretations
• “a wild tribal image of black South
Africans in contrast to “civilized”
whites.” White Harvard-educated film
critic, Prof. Howard Rosenberg
• Dialogue with Botha’s 1985 racist
speech

13. Jacob Zuma: A true representation of the policy
Jacob Zuma 2012 Interpretations
•
• The spear, the shield, the animal skin,
the kraal, the bare torso, and the
multiple wives—cultural and political
statement
• Atavistic expression—who we are!
• Restoration of Zulu culture $23 million

14. Restoration of Zulu culture complete
Witch in Shaka Zulu
• Sophocle’s Oedipus the King & Virgil’s
Aened
• Everything that has name exists
(creative energies of the mind)
• Handholding for Zuma and cohorts to
dispel their infantile fascinations

15. ]
[ Discussion and Conclusion
• Trevor Noah’s joke about the subject matter
• Potential infectious retrogression
• Laws to protect life and property
• Promotion of Science and technology