Sorcery and Jurisdiction in Angola: Law and Multinormativity in Early Modern West Central Africa

When the Portuguese arrived in West Central Africa in the late 15th century, they encountered African normative systems that bore little resemblance to their Ius commune legal tradition. 

In a challenging environment where even natural law and Ius gentium seemed contingent, what ‘bridge concepts’ helped align the normative expectations and ideals of Africans and Europeans? 

Sorcery and Jurisdiction in Angola argues that the key to answering these questions lies in understanding how the acts of declaring the law and anti-sorcery practices, which are fundamental to European and African legal traditions, respectively, were perceived as overlapping forms of confronting evil. 

Organiser

This event is part of the SOAS History Seminar series event jointly organised with IHR African Histories Seminar.