ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationship between "law" and "religion" by focusing on state and non-state reactions to acts and discourses of witchcraft in Cameroon. In recent years local actors have explored a variety of strategies in containing witchcraft, including customary and state legal approaches as well as violent encounters and mediation via non-governmental associations. Over the past two decades, however, the efficacy of customary methods of witchcraft containment has been doubted, and individuals have resorted to alternative strategies, such as violent witch-hunts which, in consequence, have triggered the response of state authorities, and church and human rights activists. Due to the absence of efficient local institutions, occult aggression is experienced as a predicament that threatens to dissolve the society from within and requires external mechanisms of resolution. Moreover, Christian human rights activists and state agents look to traditional authorities to implement their strategies of containing witchcraft and securing public order.
