Pagan Identity Politics, Witchcraft, and the Law: Encounters with Postcolonial Nationalism in Democratic South Africa

Abstract

The public emergence of modern Paganism in South Africa in 1996 occurred shortly after the drafting of a constitution that provided the foundation for a new national identity and which guaranteed protection for minority groups and for individual religious rights and freedoms. Wallace discusses Pagan identity politics in a context of African postcolonial nationalism progressively rejecting Eurocentric influences, and in a nation that is both troubled by witchcraft-related violence and committed to the replacement of extant colonial witchcraft legislation. She examines intra-Pagan conflict over some strategies to reclaim the term “Witchcraft” from its African interpretations, against those of Pagans choosing to participate in the legal decolonization of witchcraft. Wallace concludes that seeking legal recourse in cosmopolitan constitutionalism is inappropriate without engaged dialogue with all stakeholders.