Pagan belief systems encompass a wide range of spiritual practices that existed before the advent of organized religions like Christianity and Islam. These belief systems were typically polytheistic, meaning they worshipped multiple gods and goddesses, each associated with different aspects of nature and human life. Paganism is often misunderstood and stereotyped, with popular culture often portraying pagans as witches or practitioners of dark magic. However, pagan belief systems are diverse and varied, with each culture and region having its own unique set of gods and goddesses, rituals, and beliefs. In ancient Rome, for example, the Romans worshipped a pantheon of gods headed by Jupiter, the king of the gods, and his wife Juno, the goddess of marriage and family. They also had gods associated with specific aspects of life, such as Mars, the god of war, and Venus, the goddess of love and beauty.
Unfolding at a Zambian “witch camp” where wayward women and their mysterious powers are held responsible for all the wrongs in the world, Nyoni’s swaggeringly assured debut walks the line between inspired lunacy and abject devastation. Screening this weekend as part of the Boston Women’s Film Festival and then throughout the month of October at the MFA, “I Am Not a Witch” is one of this year’s very best films — a blast of absurdist outrage that’s seriously funny until all of the sudden it’s not anymore.
This foolishness is the necessary disordered affection and disposition which assures a continued transfer of personal ownership and capacity out of the hands of the techno-barbarian and the witch and into the hands of the rulers of this world and spirits of the air, respectively. Having moved at the age of eight from Lusaka to Cardiff, where her social-worker mother remarried a white Englishman, Nyoni feels rooted in both cultures.
They also had gods associated with specific aspects of life, such as Mars, the god of war, and Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. In Nordic paganism, which was practiced in Scandinavia and other Germanic regions, gods like Odin, Thor, and Freya were worshipped. These gods were associated with bravery, strength, and fertility, respectively.
I Am Not a Witch: ‘We’re in a time when it’s fashionable to get black female directors’
Welsh-Zambian director Rungano Nyoni has made a splash with her debut feature, a joyfully feminist and satirical story about a nine-year-old exiled to a ‘witch camp’. But, as she tells Stephen Dalton, in this industry she’s taking nothing for granted.
18 October 2017
I Am Not a Witch (2017)I Am Not a Witch, backed with National Lottery funding through the BFI Film Fund, played in the First Feature Competition in the 61st BFI London Film Festival.
The most dazzling British debut feature of 2017, Rungano Nyoni’s I Am Not a Witch is a highly original mix of magical realist drama, deadpan satire and feminist allegory. Set in Zambia, it follows the tragicomic fate of Shula, a nine-year-old misfit exiled to a ‘witch camp’ by superstitious neighbours and crooked bureaucrats. Amazingly, many such camps really exist in parts of Africa, although Nyoni’s fictionalised version is mostly a surrealist fantasy.
Premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, I Am Not a Witch is visually stunning and surprisingly funny. Born in Zambia but raised in Wales, 35-year-old writer-director Nyoni insists the film’s bittersweet humour is both very Zambian and very Welsh, much like herself. “It’s very dry, there is no PC , no boundaries,” Nyoni nods. “It can seem cruel to somebody from the outside, but to us it’s hilarious.”
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Having moved at the age of eight from Lusaka to Cardiff, where her social-worker mother remarried a white Englishman, Nyoni feels rooted in both cultures. “In Africa I’m an African director,” she says. “In Cannes I was a Zambian director, they didn’t even acknowledge the British part. But I definitely feel Welsh-Zambian, if that’s a thing.”
A British-French co-production majority funded by the BFI and FilmFour, I Am Not a Witch features a mostly non-professional cast from all over Zambia. Nyoni’s greatest discovery is Maggie Mulubwa, who plays Shula. The baby-faced nine-year-old debutante’s performance is hugely charming and potentially life-changing, as it paved her way to full-time education.
“We got her a tutor on set and realised she hadn’t gone to school before, she hadn’t even held a pen,” Nyoni recalls. “So I did a fundraising page to take her to school, and now BFI and FilmFour are going to fund her education until she’s about 18. She has already surpassed everyone else in her family, even just after nearly a year of school. On the set she couldn’t speak a word of English, but by Cannes in May she was fluent. And she doesn’t shut up!”
To research her film, Nyoni spent several weeks in a real witch camp in Ghana, where such communities are more established than in Zambia. The population mostly consisted of women over 70, who are ostensibly under government protection but also exploited for their labour. Their reasons for ending up in the camp were various, but most had been denounced as witches by neighbours or family members.
Rungano Nyoni“With some of them it was to do with jealousy,” Nyoni explains. “Some woman had had a successful business so someone accused her of being a witch. The most vulnerable people are widows. Zambia’s actually matriarchal but Ghana’s very patriarchal, and you feel it there. Women can’t own land, you have to own it through a man, all this stuff. So if you are widowed and someone wants your house, they just have to accuse you of being a witch to get rid of you. It’s enough to just accuse someone.”
I Am Not a Witch is clearly less interested in exploring the questionable veracity of witchcraft than in exposing the very real black magic of misogyny. The script began with Nyoni musing on power structures and how oppressed groups sometimes end up colluding in them.
“I grew up with a family of really tough women who had to break bigger barriers than I ever had to,” she says. “I just wondered how they managed that, and how I can’t do small things because I’m thinking about either being a women or being black or knowing my place. Why am I going along with these unsaid rules? So the film ended up being about misogyny because I realised that misogyny has its own set of rules, and in Africa it comes out in this format.”
I Am Not a Witch (2017)If that subtext sounds dauntingly dour, rest assured I Am Not a Witch is the least worthy, most joyful feminist film you will see all year. While Nyoni is a fan of Michael Haneke’s scowlingly serious aesthetic, she also believes the most effective message movies engage and amuse their audience.
“I am very conscious of how people receive the information, without trying to please them but trying to make them understand what I’m saying,” she explains. “It’s also about how I respond to other people’s films. If it’s preachy I just stop listening. It could be the most important true life story, but if it’s being hammered to me I just blank out.”
I Am Not a Witch has earned Nyoni festival prizes and interest from production companies, but she still fears the film’s warm reception may become a fleeting novelty, her gender and skin colour ticking tokenistic diversity boxes in an industry that’s still very white and male. Nyoni’s partner, Gabriel Gauchet, is a fellow director who, she says, has an easier time in the film business simply because he is a “white dude”.
“We are in a time when it’s fashionable to get black female directors, and that’s great,” Nyoni shrugs, “but will it last enough for me to make my next film? Apparently I’m only the fifth or sixth black British woman to have a film released in the cinema. My mum brought me up to be just like everybody else, not to be a black or a woman or anything, but she advised me: ‘if you’re struggling just say it! Use the race card! Just front it until you get what you want!’ Ha! We’re not there yet, thank god.”
The reason for ditching the allures of witching is simply that witches have the unfortunate effect of causing witch-hunts, and I believe witch-hunts to be unconscionably bad. Saint Thomas Aquinas says that magic is unlawful “because the means it employs for acquiring knowledge have not in themselves the power to cause science, consisting as they do in gazing at certain shapes, and muttering certain strange words, and so forth.” In short, the evil of magic consists in its separation of effects from their causes. It seems harmless enough: I employ a means for assuring financial success which has not in itself the power for assuring financial success — say, boiling a frog. But let’s take another historical example of separating cause and effect: The mob employs a means for determining the guilt of a woman which has not in itself the power to determine the guilt of that woman — by dunking her in water. Here, we recoil. The evil of witchcraft is recognized in the witch-hunt and denied in the case of the particular witch — but the practice of the particular witch is simply the habitual preparation necessary for joining in a witch-hunt.
Pagan belief systems often centered around nature and the cycles of life, with rituals and ceremonies conducted to honor and appease the gods and goddesses. These rituals could include sacrifices, offerings, and prayers, and were often conducted by priests or priestesses who acted as intermediaries between the human and divine realms. With the rise of Christianity and the spread of monotheistic religions, pagan belief systems were gradually marginalized and suppressed. Many pagan practices were labeled as sinful or heretical, and pagan temples and sacred sites were often destroyed or repurposed for Christian worship. However, in recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in pagan belief systems, with many people rediscovering and practicing ancient pagan rituals and traditions. This revival has been fueled by a desire to reconnect with nature, as well as a rejection of the strict dogmas and hierarchies of organized religions. In conclusion, pagan belief systems are diverse and rich in cultural and spiritual significance. While they may have been marginalized and suppressed throughout history, they continue to fascinate and inspire people today. Exploring and understanding pagan belief systems can provide insights into the complexities of human spirituality and our relationship with the natural world..
Reviews for "Paganism and Sacred Spaces: Creating Altars and Ritual Areas"
1. Jamie - 1 star
I was highly disappointed with the pagan belief system. It seemed like a jumble of different practices and beliefs with no clear structure or guidance. I couldn't understand how worshipping nature and various deities could bring any real meaning or purpose to life. The lack of logical reasoning and evidence made it feel like a fantasy rather than a valid spiritual path. Overall, I found it to be a shallow and confusing belief system that offered no real answers.
2. Sarah - 2 stars
As someone who values rationality and scientific thinking, the pagan belief system was a complete letdown for me. The idea of multiple gods and goddesses with supernatural powers felt like a relic from ancient times. There is no evidence to support the existence of these entities, and I found it hard to take the beliefs seriously. Additionally, the lack of a clear moral framework and the emphasis on personal interpretation made it feel like an excuse for people to justify their own actions without any accountability. Overall, I found the pagan belief system to be illogical and lacking in substance.
3. Michael - 1 star
The pagan belief system is nothing more than a collection of superstitions and outdated rituals. It promotes a primitive understanding of the world and encourages magical thinking. I couldn't find any objective truth or logic in the beliefs and practices of paganism. The whole concept of connecting with nature and worshiping gods and goddesses seemed like a desperate attempt to find meaning in a chaotic world. I would not recommend this belief system to anyone who values reason and critical thinking.
4. Emma - 2 stars
I tried to give the pagan belief system a chance, but I found it to be too focused on rituals and ceremonies rather than genuine spiritual growth. The constant need for offering sacrifices and performing elaborate ceremonies felt unnecessary and disingenuous. It seemed more like a performance than a genuine connection with the divine. Additionally, the lack of a central authority or scripture made it difficult to find any consistency in the beliefs and practices of paganism. Overall, I found it to be a shallow and ritualistic belief system that offered little substance.
5. Jason - 1 star
The pagan belief system is simply a hodgepodge of random and outdated practices. I found it difficult to take seriously the idea of worshiping gods and goddesses that were supposed to control various aspects of life. The lack of evidence and logical reasoning behind these beliefs made them seem like nothing more than fantasies. Furthermore, the constant focus on nature and its spirits felt primitive and disconnected from the complexities of the modern world. In my opinion, the pagan belief system offers no real value or insight into the nature of existence.