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Witchcraft may be defined for general purposes as the use of supernatural power that can affect the course of happenings by supernatural or magical means. In primitive societies where magic is an accepted part of religious ritual, the witch is the authorized practitioner.
In traditional and popular english usage, it is practically synonymous with sorcery. many present day anthropologists, however, now distinguished between witchcraft as involving an inherent mysterious power and sorcery as the work of an ordinary persons using deliberate techniques and external means familiar to other adult members of the community. Sorcery was the term used for all destructive magic, wether for socially approved purposes like to protect property or not. And, to add to the complexity of terms and meanings, in some societies in medieval Europe, Witches are believed to pursue beneficial aims, such as healing the sick - so called White Witchcraft.
Belief in witchcraft has existed and still exist among a great many people, past and present. In Africa we find two beliefs side by side. There is a belief in harmful magic, practised by those who must learn this art and those who consequently may be referred to as sorcerers. Like European witches, they maybe members of secret societies. On the other hand, there is a belief in witches as people who are thought to posses certain powers which reside in theme as individuals, often by virtue of heredity. Sometimes these powers are thought to exist inside the witch's body in a tangible form, in the form of a PHYTON.
A person may even be a witch without knowing it.
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