Introducing Dr Saibu Mutaru
The Re-imagining Reproduction project has five postdoctoral research fellows working in various African countries. Over the next few weeks, we will be introducing these incredible researchers to our community. We asked each of our fellows nine questions to get to know them better.
Please tell us who you are, what your area of interest/expertise is, and where in the world you work.
My name is Saibu Mutaru. I was born and bred in northern Ghana. I am a social anthropologist with a special interest in ethnography, witchcraft and magic, the anthropology of ageing, kinship, medical anthropology, and the anthropology of religion and human rights. I am currently a lecturer in anthropology at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Cape Coast, Ghana. I have conducted ethnographic fieldwork focusing on witchcraft beliefs and the so-called “witch camps” in northern Ghana. I have recently been elected as the 2024 Evans-Pritchard Lecturer at the University of Oxford.
What/who inspired your current research field?
The several personal encounters I had in relation to witchcraft and witches while growing up as a child in northern Ghana initially sparked my interest in witchcraft and the occult. Later, my discovery of Evans-Pritchard’s classic ethnography “Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Zande” (1937), and my work experience with development organisations cemented my interest in witchcraft and sparked my interest in the controversial “witch camps”
Who are your research/practitioner partners?
I currently collaborate with individual scholars both in Ghana and abroad on research themes related to ageing, witchcraft and witch camps, and spirits. I also have a lectureship project with the University of Oxford. This partnership requires me to present my research work in the form of lectures at Oxford.
What projects have you been working on recently?
My current research in northern Ghana focuses on the social and family life of former accused witches and their children/grandchildren who have once lived in the “witch camps” and have now been reintegrated into society and reunified with their families. I explore how these former accused witches and their children/grandchildren gain acceptance in their original communities, but more specifically how they navigate acceptance and restore kinship identity. Beyond this, I also collaborate with other scholars on witchcraft and ageing, historical legislations on witchcraft in Ghana, and “understanding spirits in Ghana”. In addition to all these, I have been engaged in the writing of the Evans-Pritchard lectures which will be delivered at Oxford University in April and May 2024.
What about your work challenges you, and which parts make you smile?
When I started doing research in the “witch camps”, I encountered a challenge regarding how to overcome gate-keeping obstacles. In other words, I faced a problem accessing the witch camps until I was introduced to the local, traditional priests who serve as custodians and gatekeepers of these spaces. The challenge has been resolved. I am now happy working with the accused witches (who are still feared by locals in their original communities) and the local gatekeepers because I have developed sufficient social networks in these villages and built the necessary rapport with local custodians. I am excited about the stories of accused women and their children living inside and outside the “camps”, especially the livelihood options they pursue in the absence of their kinsmen.
What three positive things have you achieved in the last year?
In May 2023, I submitted an abstract for the prestigious ACLARS conference in Abidjan. My paper was accepted and full funding was provided by the ACLARS secretariat. This paper will be published in April 2024. Secondly, in August 2023, I was elected by the University of Oxford as the Evans-Pritchard Lecturer, an official role that required me to deliver a series of four lectures in April/May 2024 in memory of the British anthropologist Sir E. E. Evans-Pritchard. Last but not least, my paper titled “Islam and secularism in Ghana: Dissent against the use of hijaab”, which I initially submitted for consideration as a book chapter, has been considered to be published by Ghana Studies in its 2026 special issue.
What advice can you give to people aspiring to work in your field?
Witchcraft is a somewhat difficult area to work in because of its sensitive nature. On the one hand, the problematic relationship between human rights and gender activists who do not believe in witchcraft and the locals who do sometimes lead to difficulties in gaining access to the “witch camps” because the local custodians are “tired” of the frequent media condemnations of these “camps” as places of forced custody and abuse. Researchers aiming to work in the area of witchcraft (and with accused women and their children living in the “camps”) must carefully navigate local gate-keeping protocols which start with obtaining permission from chiefs/tindaamba who are the principal gate-keepers in these communities
What impact would you like your work to have?
My work on witchcraft and the controversial “witch camps “could have great impact on policy. My work shows that the “witch camps” certainly have domestic and foreign policy-related implications for the Ghanaian state concerning the human rights project. Since the accused witches largely view these spaces as sanctuaries and not as places of desolation and abuse, the government must find a way of balancing its aspirations regarding the consolidation and protection of its human rights records on the one hand, and the protection of human life on the other hand. Rather than sending these elderly accused witches (and their children) home and disbanding the settlements, the government could take over these settlements and improve or “modernise” them to serve as elderly care homes for the current inhabitants. Perhaps rebranding these settlements as care homes would erase notions of prisonisation and rights violations often associated with them. Such a humanitarian approach would reduce the present level of stigmatisation being faced by the accused who inhabit these settlements.
If you had the opportunity to change anything in your field: what would it be, how would you change it, and why?
The study of witchcraft and its regulation in Ghana are still largely dominated by colonial values and mentality. The recent anti-witchcraft bill that was passed by the Parliament of Ghana (awaiting Presidential assent) criminalizing witchcraft accusations and witch-hunts is a demonstration of the return to the colonial enterprise. Far from perpetuating the colonially-inspired approach to the study and regulation of witchcraft, I would suggest a reconsideration of the current approach. Witchcraft studies and its regulation ought to be decolonised. This can be done by taking conscious steps to decolonize the curriculum and state management of witchcraft-related issues. Such a change is crucial because it allows for the production of knowledge and policies that take into account local context, understanding, and demands.