AO: This 2015 article in NPR's Goats and Soda series includes quotes by Stacey Langwick and exemplifies how the work of STS scholars' travels beyond the university. Langwick notes: "The term [witch doctor] is a broad, misleading — and somewhat condescending — way to refer to traditional healers in Africa. The label did not originate from the Swahili language. Colonialism introduced this term witchcraft as a legal category based on concepts of witchcraft in Europe. Witchcraft tends to be understood colloquially as the use of medicine to harm rather than to heal, but even today it has very complicated connotations in everyday and formal political speech."
Anonymous, "Poon, Linda. 2015. “Can A New Ban On Witchcraft Protect The Albinos Of Tanzania?” NPR.Org. ", contributed by Angela Okune, STS Infrastructures, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 8 August 2018, accessed 22 December 2024. https://stsinfrastructures.org/content/poon-linda-2015-“can-new-ban-witchcraft-protect-albinos-tanzania”-nprorg
Critical Commentary
AO: This 2015 article in NPR's Goats and Soda series includes quotes by Stacey Langwick and exemplifies how the work of STS scholars' travels beyond the university. Langwick notes: "The term [witch doctor] is a broad, misleading — and somewhat condescending — way to refer to traditional healers in Africa. The label did not originate from the Swahili language. Colonialism introduced this term witchcraft as a legal category based on concepts of witchcraft in Europe. Witchcraft tends to be understood colloquially as the use of medicine to harm rather than to heal, but even today it has very complicated connotations in everyday and formal political speech."