What if I told you there is a law about witchcraft in my country that is still on the books?
It’s the Witchcraft Act No. 23 of 1925, CAP 67. And yes, I’m serious. It criminalizes witchcraft and “related practices,” saying this, among other things:
| Any person who holds himself out as a witchdoctor able to cause fear, annoyance or injury to another in mind, person or property, or who pretends to exercise any kind of supernatural power, witchcraft, sorcery or enchantment calculated to cause such fear, annoyance or injury, shall be guilty of an offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years. |
Notice that “sorcery or enchantment” part? I can make it a big problem for a lot of people: Because what if I were in power, and I chose to define “sorcery or enchantment” as “trying to convince people to believe the wrong things?” That’s one reasonable interpretation … and remember: Since I’m in power, I get to decide what the “wrong things” are.
To put an even finer point on it: What, other than “enchantment,” would you call the practice of burning sage to cleanse? What would you call horoscopes, zodiac signs, and affirmations? Or, consider the general practice of meditation, even just run-of-the-mill spirituality, which can enrich people’s lives and make them more meaningful — outcomes any liberal society should encourage. They can be easily categorised as witchcraft, and are even more dangerous because they fall outside of the protection of religious tradition.
As you can see, the current generation is living under the threat of this witchcraft law, even if it SEEMS like a far-off, unlikely threat. (By the way, it’s not as unlikely as it might seem.)
And I get it: One’s pursuit of prosperity, peace, and liberty through religion, ancestral beliefs, or whatever else has the potential to annoy others. But we must allow others to practice their beliefs, as long as those beliefs do not harm, disparage, degrade, or interfere with the interests of another.
Yet another bad law
As crazy as the Witchcraft Act is, the Mental Health Act of 1989 is almost as bad — in the opposite way.
It defines a concept not too broadly, but too narrowly. Under the Act, a person with a mental illness is defined as “a person diagnosed by a qualified mental health practitioner to be suffering from mental illness.” And it categorizes mental illness into two boxes;
1. A person diagnosed with alcohol or substance use disorder
2. A person with suicidal ideation or behaviour
The concept of mental health has gained recognition as the 20th Century has become the 21st. That’s great, because it allows us to appreciate and have compassion for individuals and their struggles, even when they don’t seem “normal.”
Learn more about the author of this post:
But let us also appreciate: Mental illness has now been defined over a larger spectrum, and much of it falls outside these two categories. Under this law, however, in court, a defense doesn’t have much leeway if their client falls outside the definition … even if that client is, by most modern standards, suffering from a mental illness.
Third time’s a charm?
One more law, and then you’ll see my point:
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreements have recently broadened the free market in East Africa and allowed trade beyond borders. But it’s still being hindered by the Treaty For The Establishment Of The East African Community Act of 2000, which couldn’t even conceive of the world of 2025, and certainly doesn’t reflect these new border changes.
See where Beryl’s tenacity to fight for freedom comes from: A Father, a Daughter, and How Trees Grow in Kenya.
What do these laws have in common? They’re OUTDATED. This is most clear in the case of the Witchcraft Act, but it’s true for all three.
Because it is not a market process but instead based on force, government-imposed law can’t help being outdated. While markets are nimble and ever-evolving, laws like these can stay on the books well past their expiration dates (if they weren’t expired in the first place, as certainly was true of the Witchcraft Act).
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