Factors involved in the rise of anti-witchcraft cults, late 19th- early 20th century

(Note that in most cases, several of these factors probably worked in combination, and it is not always possible to separate them out.)

Psychological
-Ongoing violence in the 19th and 20th centuries, either through local civil wars or colonial conquest, or often both, could cause trauma and insecurity in individuals affected by it.
-This insecurity could be expressed as the perception that witchcraft - evil and misfortune - was on the rise.
-Anti-witchcraft cults that emerged as a response can be seen as offering a strategy for addressing and healing psychological difficulty.

Political
-In many African cosmological systems, the political leadership of a society was seen as responsible for the spiritual and moral order and well-being of their people. Legitimacy of rule was intimately connected to the ability to maintain this, which in turn was conferred though mythological lineage connecting the ruler to the founding deities of the community.
-The removal of such legitimate rulers (eg the Asantehene, or king of Asante) by colonial administrations, and the appointment through indirect rule of new, illegitimate chiefs, created a void in which the spiritual health of the community was no longer ensured by its leadership. This void could be filled by witchcraft.
-The outlawing by colonial authorities of the pre-colonial mechanisms to deal with witchcraft such as corporal or physical punishment, and ordeal trials, which were often practiced by the political leadership of a community, resulted in both the conviction that witchcraft could now flourish unpunished, and that new powers were required to deal with it.
-This could explain the rise in anti-witchcraft cults in which individuals now felt the need to deal with witchcraft themselves, as well as the importation of new powers (deities, ritual knowledge and practice) from other cultures and regions.

Social
-Colonial rule and the forces of modernity could cause considerable social upheaval. Old hierarchies based on age-sets which ensured strict control of village and community life by elders weakened as some young people moved to towns, became involved in wage-labour and cash-cropping, converted to world religions, etc.
-This weakening or even break-down of the older social order could also create the perception that the moral/spiritual well-being of a community was becoming fractured and at risk. It was perceived in some cases that witchcraft could flourish in such a situation.
-We may also link this to psychological insecurity on the part of individuals who experienced profound social change in a relatively short period.

Gender
-The ability by the patriarchy to control women’s sexuality and labour (both productive and reproductive) was largely enforced through marriage.
-As part of the social upheaval of the early 20th c. onwards, it was possible for some women to escape the rigid control by kin and elders.
-Although in reality the numbers of women who achieved greater autonomy remained low, especially in the early 20th century, patriarchal authorities (both indigenous and colonial) frequently viewed this as a ‘crisis’ as they lost some control over women.
-This crisis was understood in terms of sex and marriage. Unmarried and otherwise independent women were blamed for the spread of STDs, a decrease in fertility (both real, and in some cases, imagined), the breakdown of social and moral order, etc.
-The male fear of loss of control over women and their sexuality can be seen in the language and practice of identifying witches: witches were nearly always women. Witches were seen to affect fertility, engage in debased sexual behaviour, and so on. Those identified as witches were often women to be seen to be outside of the bounds of control of men: unmarried, widowed, economically autonomous, etc.
-Increase (however slight) in the independence of women --> perception of increase in witchcraft --> increase in anti-witchcraft cults.

Disease
-The late 19th/ early 20th century was a very unhealthy period in Africa.
-Europeans introduced new forms of disease to populations, as did migration and urbanization.
-There was a rise in STDs, especially syphilis, fueled by the same processes. STDs and other diseases can have a negative effect on fertility.
-Rinderpest devastated cattle populations throughout the eastern and southern regions of the continent.
-Land alienation by colonial authorities in some areas (esp. white settler colonies in eastern and southern Africa) reduced the capacity of people to produce enough food at subsistence level.
-Rapid bush-clearance for farming as part of the push towards the cash-crop economy disrupted local eco-systems and increased pests and diseases that affected crops.
-The decrease in many places during this period in the fertility of people, land, and animals is strongly expressed in the notion of witchcraft and the idea that it consumes, interferes with the fertility of young women, eats children, causes crops to fail, kills animals, and so on.