What are some of the different superstitions that [eople in Africa practice?

Superstitions run rampant in African stretching from Nigeria to sudan and india and
even some African Americans living in the us still believe in superstitions. degrading
treatment or outright liquidation of alleged witches. West Africa being deemed by the un as
one of the poorest areas in the world practice a lot of old traditions. Speaking of
superstitions, there are so many of them in different parts of Africa but emphasizing
on the ones that directly affect the Africans and some of them are discussed below;
Belief in witchcraft; most Africans believe in sorcerers they believe witches are real
active beings that act to influence,intervene and alter the course of human life for
good or ill. Witchcraft is accepted as a mode of explanation, perception,
interpretation of life events and reality. Witches are believed to cause poverty, disease,
accidents, business failures, famine, earthquake, infertility and childbirth difficulties. Africans also
attribute any extraordinary, mysterious or inexplicable phenomenon to sorcery. In some African
communities there is even a talk about positive and negative witchcraft. While positive witchcraft is
used to do good cure diseases or solves problems negative witchcraft is used to do evil. But
generally in Africa witchcraft is associated with evil, harm and destruction. Africans believe sorcerers
are spirits who carry out their nefarious activities as human beings, animals or insects. In countries
like Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Malawi and Uganda, witches are identified mostly with women or
infants. In my country Nigeria all nocturnal insects and animals, especially birds, are suspected
sorcerers. In the Gambia or Senegal, witches are associated with owls. Witches are believed to
operate mainly in the night they organize nocturnal meetings in the seas, oceans and forests where
they allegedly feast on human blood, flesh or fetuses. The general belief is that sorcerers always
convene to plan evil. They plot harm for people, especially their own family members. As a result of
this, throughout Africa, witchcraft accusations in families are common. People blame their fathers,
mothers, husbands, wives, children, uncles and aunts, grandfathers and grandmothers for any
misfortune that befalls them even, even the ones they caused themselves.
In most cases these accusations have led to ostracism, persecution, torture, and inhuman and
degrading treatment or outright liquidation of alleged witches.

(IHEU 2007)

Belief in ghosts and spirits; An obsession with the dead from superstitions embedded in the cultural
lifestyles of the peoples of West Africa have led them to the act of spending more money and time on the peaceful
resting of the deceased to rid the living of angry spirits, rather than spend the same money, time and effort on
enhancing the area around them to halt the accidents. Africans believe that when a person is killed brutally that
person always comes back from the spirit world to hunt those that kllled him or her and some times both the innocent
ones suffer especially if the person was killed on a major road or public place. Some places in African still believe in
oracles and mermaid spirits like Nigeria. If a major road is built across a bridge and accidents always happen in that
bridge , it is believed that they are caused by these mermaid spirits and they want humans for sacrifices and these
accidents give them the blood they need. In some other parts oracles are like gods who sometimes animals are used
to represent them eg snakes,cats,dogs etc. when a child is born and people come to see the new one as it is in
tradition, a day is put out and announced as the day the oracle visits the child and no one is allowed to come to visit
the child except the oracle and this oracle is a snake and imagine a snake coming into the hospital to see a new born
all in the name of tradition. There are also beliefs that when someone dies, the person can still be voked to life by
using some incantations and making this dead person obey anything the person that voked him to life commands it to
do and this is why in Africa when someone wakes up in the morning with weird marks or wakes up really sick when
the person went to bed healthy it is believed that the person was attacked by a dead person or an oracle.people also
believe that when their loved ones die they dont actually die they still see them in their dreams especially bad ones
they watch over them and protect them throughout their lives.(Vicky perry 2011)

Everywhere are rules of pregnancy which bind both

the woman and her husband. During pregnancy neither of them is
permitted to eat the flesh of any animal which was itself pregnant at
the time of its slaughter. Even of the flesh of a non-pregnant animal
there are certain parts--the heart, liver, and entrails--which may not
be eaten by them. It is claimed that to eat of such food at such a
time would make a great deal of trouble for the unborn infant.
During his wife's pregnancy a man may not cut the tbroat of any
animal nor assist in the butchering of it. A carpenter whose wife is
pregnant must not drive a nail. To do so would close the womb and
cause a difficult labor. He may do all other work belonging to
carpentering, but he must have an assistant to drive the nails. When
pregnant, women are told not go to the zoo mostly should not go
close to monkeys because it is believed that the baby might come
out looking like a monkey. Women are also told to be mindful of the
people they spend time with ofen because the persons physical
characteristics determines how the baby will look so because of
Beliefs about pregnancy;