Globalization Hits Nigerian Witchdoctors Hard

In an era of declining transportation and information costs, Nigerian witch doctors are increasingly struggling to adapt to the pressures of globalization. Nigerians seeking spiritual solutions can now more easily seek them from neighboring countries like Benin Republic and Togo, and distant countries like India and the Caribbean Islands. This is as a result of the expansion of the global village through technology. Yet, academics and journalists of the spiritual economy have largely neglected to assess the impacts of this trend on Nigerian witch doctors.

Even the deities are feeling the effects of globalization. Just a few years ago they were very selective in demanding high prices for their interventions, now the prices have dropped significantly. One deity in Akwa Ibom that used to demand the blood of a fair-skinned young female virgin for a money ritual now requests pubic hair of a virgin goat for the same ritual. "Situation is critical," laments a witch doctor who was interviewed, "my deities are pressurizing me to upgrade my business model and update my equipment to attract customers. I am currently working on different promos, such as give two of your enemies elephantiasis for the price of one."

The desperation of Nigerian witch doctors can also be seen by spatial changes. Whereas, decades ago most of them situated their shrines deep inside forests and bushes such that seekers of their powers would incur heavy transportation costs, today most have moved to the fringes of the forest, putting up signs to notify and direct passers by, and organizing flash mobs (featuring the sacred dance of the gods) as a marketing strategy; others have moved into urban residences in residential areas, while many have gone fully digital, attracting clients through the internet without the clients needing to make a physical journey. 

In order to compete, some witch doctors have begun investing in research and development. Many are competing with foreign deities they know nothing about, hence they are trying to understand their competition's methods (catching up to the technology frontier), emulate such methods, and/or modify them. 

For those unable to survive the increased competition, exiting the business is the only option. The number of practitioners in the sector has thus been declining steadily since 2000. The winners have been the consumers of supernatural powers/services and Christians, who have long been opposed to the practices of witch doctors. "God is using the mechanism of market competition to crush the forces of evil and to send demonic forces out of business," said one Christian minister, enthusiastically.