Defending African “Superstition” and “Irrationality”

(Pictiure from Tribeca Films/New York Times)

Oh dear.

In a (quite positive) review of the new film War Witch, which is set in an anonymous Sub-Saharan African country (but was filmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo and clearly is intended to evoke that country’s conflicts), Stephen Holden drops this little observation: “Superstition, witchcraft, exorcism, talismans that ward off evil: in this land of the supernatural, irrationality prevails.”

This is a pretty much perfect embodiment of the othering of Africa. Africans believe in superstition! They believe in withchcraft! Exorcism! Talismans that ward off evil! Look how irrational they are!

Look, I was born and raised Catholic. But are African forms of worship and belief and symbolism really any more irrational than many aspects of Christianity? Take away one’s own dogmas and consider whether the belief in virgin birth or the concept of transubstantiation (isn’t it just a form of ritualized cannibalism?) are fully rational. Was Jesus walking across water (or turning it into wine) not a form of witchcraft? Are crosses (symbolizing a human being being crucified to death, after which he experienced resurrection) not just talismans? And in every horror film involving exorcism that I have ever seen, the person engaging in the exorcism has been a Catholic priest. In other words: If one does not share in the Christian faith, doesn’t it all just look like superstition in which irrationality prevails?