By Prof. Januarius Asongu

Abstract

Belief in curses, hexes, spells, and witchcraft remains a significant feature of religious and social life across much of Africa. George Nkeze's Curses, Hexes, and Spells: How to Be Released from Them (2013) represents an influential example of African deliverance theology that seeks to explain suffering through spiritual causation and prescribe religious remedies for liberation. This article critically engages Nkeze's work through the lens of Critical Synthetic Realism (CSR), particularly its concept of Epistemic Fracture. While acknowledging the pastoral concerns that motivate deliverance theology, the article argues that excessive reliance on supernatural explanations may distort causal reasoning, weaken human agency, and obscure social, psychological, economic, and biological causes of suffering. CSR offers an alternative framework that combines openness to spiritual realities with epistemic humility, interdisciplinary inquiry, and a commitment to human flourishing. The article concludes that authentic liberation requires not merely deliverance from presumed spiritual forces but liberation into truth-oriented agency and responsible engagement with reality.

Keywords: Critical Synthetic Realism, Epistemic Fracture, Deliverance Theology, Witchcraft, African Christianity, Human Flourishing

Introduction

Belief in curses, hexes, spells, and witchcraft continues to shape the religious imagination of many African societies. Such beliefs influence how people understand illness, poverty, infertility, unemployment, family conflict, and political instability. In many contexts, misfortune is interpreted not simply as the result of natural or social causes but as evidence of hidden spiritual aggression (Mbiti, 1990; Bediako, 1995).

George Nkeze's Curses, Hexes, and Spells: How to Be Released from Them (2013) belongs to a growing body of African Christian literature that seeks to address these concerns through the framework of deliverance theology. The book assumes the reality of curses and spiritual attacks and offers prayer, faith, and spiritual warfare as pathways to liberation. Such approaches have become increasingly influential within African Pentecostal, Charismatic, and some Catholic circles (Kalu, 2008).

This article examines Nkeze's work through the framework of Critical Synthetic Realism (CSR). CSR is a philosophical approach that combines ontological realism, epistemic fallibilism, interdisciplinary synthesis, and human flourishing (Asongu, 2026a). Central to CSR is the concept of Epistemic Fracture, which refers to distortions in human knowing that prevent individuals and societies from accurately perceiving and responding to reality (Asongu, 2026b).

The article argues that while deliverance theology responds to genuine human anxieties and existential concerns, it often risks reinforcing epistemic fracture by encouraging premature appeals to supernatural causation. Such explanations may obscure more immediate causes of suffering and weaken the agency required for personal and societal transformation.

Critical Synthetic Realism and Epistemic Fracture

Critical Synthetic Realism begins with the assumption that reality exists independently of human perception. Human beings do not create reality; rather, they encounter and interpret it. At the same time, all human knowledge remains fallible and subject to correction. Consequently, no claim—whether scientific, religious, political, or cultural—should be exempt from critical scrutiny (Asongu, 2026a).

CSR seeks to overcome the fragmentation of knowledge by encouraging dialogue among multiple disciplines. Human suffering, for example, cannot be adequately understood through theology alone. It requires engagement with psychology, sociology, medicine, economics, history, and philosophy. Reality is layered, and therefore explanation must also be layered.

The concept of Epistemic Fracture occupies a central place within CSR. Epistemic Fracture refers to a condition in which fear, ideology, superstition, prejudice, or institutional interests distort the human capacity to know reality accurately (Asongu, 2026b). Individuals experiencing epistemic fracture often misidentify causes, misunderstand consequences, and adopt ineffective responses to problems.

Applied to beliefs concerning curses and witchcraft, Epistemic Fracture occurs when supernatural explanations displace careful investigation of alternative causes. Misfortune becomes attributed to hidden spiritual agents before psychological, social, economic, medical, or political explanations are adequately considered.

Deliverance Theology and Supernatural Causality

Nkeze's book reflects a theological worldview in which spiritual realities exert direct influence on human affairs. Within this framework, curses, hexes, and spells are understood as real spiritual forces capable of producing illness, poverty, conflict, infertility, and other forms of suffering. Deliverance from such conditions requires spiritual intervention through prayer, sacramental life, and divine protection.

This perspective possesses undeniable pastoral appeal. Human beings seek meaning in the face of suffering. When tragedy appears arbitrary or inexplicable, supernatural explanations provide a narrative that transforms uncertainty into intelligibility. The belief that suffering results from spiritual attack can offer emotional comfort by assuring believers that their experiences possess a discernible cause and that God provides a pathway toward liberation (Kalu, 2008).

Moreover, African theologians have long emphasized that African worldviews tend to perceive reality as an integrated whole in which spiritual and material dimensions are deeply interconnected (Mbiti, 1990). Deliverance theology therefore resonates with broader cultural assumptions regarding causality and the nature of existence.

However, the explanatory power of a belief system should not be confused with its truth. A narrative may provide psychological comfort while simultaneously misrepresenting the actual causes of suffering. This distinction is crucial from a CSR perspective.

The Problem of Causal Attribution

The primary CSR critique of deliverance theology concerns the question of causality. Human beings naturally seek explanations for suffering. Yet the adequacy of any explanation depends upon its correspondence with reality.

Deliverance theology often attributes misfortune to spiritual causes before alternative explanations have been thoroughly examined. Illness may be interpreted as the result of curses rather than biological disease. Poverty may be attributed to witchcraft rather than economic conditions. Marital conflict may be explained through spiritual attack rather than communication failures or psychological dynamics.

Such explanations risk what Evans-Pritchard (1937) famously identified in his study of the Azande as a tendency to supplement ordinary causation with supernatural causation. While the Azande recognized natural causes, they often sought ultimate explanations in witchcraft. Contemporary deliverance theology frequently operates in a similar manner.

CSR does not deny the possibility of spiritual realities. Rather, it insists that extraordinary claims require careful evaluation. Human suffering is multidimensional, and explanations should reflect this complexity. A person suffering from depression, for example, may require psychological treatment, social support, and spiritual care. To attribute the condition solely to demonic influence may delay appropriate intervention.

Consequently, CSR advocates causal proportionality. Explanations should correspond to available evidence and consider multiple levels of analysis before arriving at conclusions. Spiritual explanations should remain possible but never automatic.

Fear, Agency, and the Externalization of Responsibility

A second concern involves the relationship between deliverance theology and human agency. CSR regards agency as essential to human flourishing. Individuals become fully human through their capacity to make choices, assume responsibility, and participate actively in shaping their lives and communities.

Belief systems centered on curses and spiritual attacks can unintentionally weaken this agency. When failures are consistently attributed to external spiritual forces, individuals may become passive recipients of circumstances rather than active agents of change. Poor academic performance becomes a curse. Financial difficulties become witchcraft. Organizational dysfunction becomes spiritual warfare.

This tendency toward externalization can discourage critical self-reflection and practical problem-solving. It may also divert attention from structural causes of suffering such as corruption, inequality, inadequate education, poor healthcare, or ineffective governance.

As Meyer (1999) observes, deliverance-oriented religious movements often create interpretive frameworks in which invisible spiritual forces become the primary explanation for social and personal difficulties. While such frameworks may offer meaning, they can also foster dependency upon spiritual specialists and reinforce cultures of fear.

From a CSR perspective, liberation must involve more than protection from supernatural threats. It must include empowerment, responsibility, and the development of capacities necessary for individual and collective flourishing.

Human Flourishing and the Ethics of Explanation

CSR evaluates explanatory systems not only by their intellectual coherence but also by their consequences for human flourishing. The ethical question is straightforward: What kinds of persons and communities are produced by particular beliefs?

Deliverance theology undoubtedly offers benefits. It provides hope, community, spiritual support, and a sense of divine presence amid suffering. These contributions should not be dismissed lightly.

Nevertheless, explanations that generate chronic fear, suspicion, and dependency may ultimately undermine flourishing. In many African societies, accusations of witchcraft have contributed to family conflict, social exclusion, violence, and the marginalization of vulnerable persons (Geschiere, 1997). Although Nkeze's work does not advocate such outcomes, the broader logic of supernatural causation can sometimes create conditions in which suspicion and fear flourish.

CSR therefore proposes an ethics of explanation. Explanations should be evaluated partly by their capacity to enhance truth, agency, dignity, and social responsibility. The goal of knowledge is not merely to identify causes but to enable individuals and communities to respond constructively to reality.

Toward a CSR Reconstruction of Pastoral Theology

Rather than rejecting deliverance theology outright, CSR seeks its reconstruction. Such a reconstruction would preserve sensitivity to spiritual concerns while incorporating greater epistemic humility and interdisciplinary engagement.

First, pastoral theology should acknowledge the limits of human knowledge. Spiritual leaders should avoid unwarranted certainty concerning hidden causes of suffering.

Second, theological interpretation should engage insights from psychology, medicine, sociology, economics, and other disciplines. Human suffering rarely has a single cause.

Third, pastoral practice should emphasize agency rather than dependency. The purpose of ministry should be to empower individuals to participate actively in their own flourishing.

Fourth, truth-seeking should take precedence over fear. Theological claims should encourage investigation rather than discourage it.

Finally, liberation should be understood holistically. Genuine freedom involves not only spiritual well-being but also psychological health, social responsibility, economic participation, and moral development.

Such a framework remains open to the possibility of spiritual realities while refusing to reduce complex human experiences to supernatural causation alone.

Conclusion

George Nkeze's Curses, Hexes, and Spells: How to Be Released from Them addresses questions that remain deeply important within African Christianity. Its pastoral concern for suffering individuals reflects a genuine desire to bring hope and healing to those confronting adversity.

However, from the perspective of Critical Synthetic Realism, the book also illustrates the dangers of epistemic fracture. By privileging supernatural explanations for misfortune, deliverance theology risks obscuring complex causal realities, weakening human agency, and reinforcing fear-based interpretations of human experience.

CSR offers an alternative path. It affirms the reality of spiritual questions while insisting upon critical inquiry, interdisciplinary synthesis, and epistemic humility. Authentic liberation requires more than deliverance from presumed spiritual attacks. It requires liberation into truth, responsibility, and human flourishing. The deepest challenge facing contemporary theology is therefore not simply how to combat evil but how to cultivate forms of knowing that enable individuals and communities to engage reality truthfully and flourish within it.

References

Asongu, J. (2026a). The splendor of truth: A critical philosophy of knowledge and global agency. Wipf & Stock.

Asongu, J. (2026b). The epistemic fracture and the fate of civilizations: Knowledge, power, and human flourishing. Generis Publishing.

Bediako, K. (1995). Christianity in Africa: The renewal of a non-Western religion. Edinburgh University Press.

Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1937). Witchcraft, oracles and magic among the Azande. Oxford University Press.

Geschiere, P. (1997). The modernity of witchcraft: Politics and the occult in postcolonial Africa. University Press of Virginia.

Kalu, O. (2008). African Pentecostalism: An introduction. Oxford University Press.

Mbiti, J. S. (1990). African religions and philosophy (2nd ed.). Heinemann.

Meyer, B. (1999). Translating the devil: Religion and modernity among the Ewe in Ghana. Edinburgh University Press.

Nkeze, G. (2013). Curses, hexes, and spells: How to be released from them. Maryland Printers.