Africa Colonialism Psychiatry Traditional Medicine Witchcraft

My current research explores the debates surrounding colonial and indigenous concepts of witchcraft in Ghana. I argue that these debates have reshaped local ideas of witchcraft as destructive, which underpin contemporary accusations, harassment, and lynchings of older women labelled as witches in Ghana. I draw on interdisciplinary sources, including colonial, anthropological, and missionary correspondences concerning witchcraft, as well as oral interviews with older women, traditional healers, African church leaders, newspapers, African films about witchcraft, and relevant Ghanaian voices from archives such as members of the Ghana Psychic and Traditional Healers Association. I contest the idea that witchcraft is solely malevolent and propose it as a framework for understanding and addressing mental illnesses in Africa. I also explain why older women are particularly vulnerable to witchcraft accusations, a process rooted in colonial gendered histories. Through these sources, I construct an intersectional history of gender, power, and medicine, where global colonial narratives depicting witchcraft as destructive are decolonized to reveal its complex meanings, uses, and understandings within Africa. In doing so, I situate the global patriarchal biases and unfair treatment of older women within the context of witchcraft in Ghana. I then highlight how these older women can help reveal how witchcraft offers valuable insights into mental health from an African perspective. By decolonizing these narratives, I show how witchcraft acts as a source of cultural resilience and identity across Africa and the African Diaspora

Bachelor of Arts (Hons) History - Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, 2017 

M.A. History - University of Saskatchewan, 2022

PhD History (ABD) - University of Saskatchewan, 2022 - Present