APQ - APPON PHILOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY

Witchcraft causation is the belief in the use of mystical powers to cause ontological impediments. This is much talked about in African society because of their ontological and cosmological beliefs. When an inexplicable occurrence happens in an African society, witchcraft influence is conceivably the culprit. In the analysis of witchcraft causality, I asserted that for witchcraft causation to be reasonable, a substantial evidence of causal link should be a necessity. Consequently, I adopted Hume's notion of causality which posits that for a cause and effect relationship to exist, the in-built connection between both shouldn't be mere subjective belief / impression but rather 'impression of sensation' even when Sogolo and Oluwole held the contrary view. The focus of this work is aimed at demystifying and critiquing the existence of witchcraft effects in African belief using Hume's causal explanation as yardstick. African belief on witchcraft causality seems moot. In this work, I also held that establishing the existence of witchcraft and drawing causal connection between it and its assumed ontological damage falls below universal or objective standard. Using analytic and expository methods, this paper examined the etymology of causality, witchcraft and Hume's notion of causation. I also analyzed arguments on the existence of witchcraft causality and clinched that the existence of witchcraft efficacy is contentious and if we should assume that it exists for some reasons best known to us, the witch lacks apparent capacity to be directly or unarguably linked to an observable deleterious effect in our contemporary world.

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