In Burkina Faso, tragic events (sudden death, illness, accident, etc.) or out of the ordinary events are necessarily interpreted as being the result of malicious intervention. We therefore need a culprit to be named. Having grown up in this culture, Adrien Bitibaly was able to observe from an early age the importance of traditional religions in Burkinabè society.
Among the manifestations of these beliefs, accusations of witchcraft have always challenged him. As a child, the objects or places he was told were possessed or haunted seemed completely ordinary to him and he never understood what could generate these denunciations.
Witchcraft remains elusive, supernatural, unverifiable. However, the consequences of an accusation are very real: the inequalities and discrimination suffered by the accused (because these accusations affect the vast majority of women) are legion.
As an adult, with Four Eyes, Adrien Bitibaly traveled the country to meet traditional priests, individuals endowed with the “capacity” to determine if a person possesses evil powers and should thus be designated as a witch.
What is their role in this social practice? Possessors of power whose conditions of exercise remain unknown to the majority, can they nevertheless make a mistake? His photographic work seeks to show what can trigger accusations of witchcraft. For him, it is a question of exploring the genesis of a popular belief, and not of seeking to prove a truth. This book received the support of Cnap and the PACA Region.
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