Witchcraft, Development and Malawi’s Elite

Among the myriad witchcraft narratives which operate in rural Malawi is the understanding of the supernatural as empowering the nation's elite and its international donors. This narrative clashes with academic and other literature that ignores contextual understandings of the supernatural and reduces witchcraft accusations to a resistance to development, and leads to the belief (on the part of some academics and many development practitioners) that the solution to witchcraft accusations lies in more development. Conversely, however, this particular Malawian intersection of development and witchcraft/supernatural narratives creates a situation where further development can inadvertently entrench both rural Malawians' renderings of the supernatural and their disempowerment vis-a-vis donors and technocrats. To support this claim, the article builds upon works detailing the intimate relationship between witchcraft and development and foregrounds the Malawi case to show how those invested in development may reinforce witchcraft beliefs.