Witchcraft,riches and roulette

Abstract

This article builds on research carried out at western Ghana’s anti-witchcraft shrines and on post-1996 fieldwork among Ghanaian gamblers in a major UK city-port, here named Northington. Unemployed or in a low-paid job, the gambler’s pursuit of excitement, financial respite and hope via his furtive endeavours tends, self-defeatingly, to add to his anxieties and, when he is lucky, guilt over accumulated ‘bad’ wealth. He is terrified that a witch, usually a female relative, suspicious about his prosperity, will punish him for ‘cheating’ her and other relatives of much-needed cash by ‘spiritually’ taking away his winnings. Fearing that his ‘illicit’ gambling has undermined the efficacy of charms and talismans to ward off the effects of witchcraft, his engagement with more elaborate rituals in the hope of stronger protection represents his attempt to manage anxiety and bring events under control.