Nigeria’s Benue State University will host a 2-day event (through November 19-20, 2024) comprising an exhibition and some roundtable discussions on witch hunts in contemporary times. The event is organised by the university’s Department of Political Science in collaboration with the International Network Against Accusations of Witchcraft and Associated Harmful Practices, and Advocacy for Alleged Witches.

Freely open to the public, the event is supported by the International Network Against Accusations of Witchcraft and Associated Harmful Practices; UK’s Lancaster University and the Arts and Humanities Research Council; and the US-based African Caribbean Institute. The event’s timings are 10 AM-4 PM; its venue will be the Social Science Lecture Theatre Hall.

Leo Igwe, an African leader of the anti-witch hunt movement and a key organiser of this event, claimed in a LinkedIn post on November 13 that this was going to be the first ‘campus exhibition’ of its kind in Nigeria. (Igwe was interviewed by Thoughtfox earlier in July this year; that interview is available here.)

Although this event is expected to focus mostly on witch hunts in Nigeria and other parts of Africa, reports of witch hunts and crimes inspired by a false belief in witchcraft keep showing up in the media from many other parts of the world. In 2021, Sky News had reported on crimes related to witchcraft suspicions and alleged practices of witchcraft in the UK through the previous three years.

Based in Makurdi, Benue State’s capital, Benue State University began its operations in 1992.