The dangers of anonymity: Witchcraft, rumor, and modernity in Africa

This article deals with a series of rumors that spread across West and Central Africa during the last two decades. These rumors of penis snatchers, of killer mobile phone numbers,and of deadly alms constitute a transnational genre that is characteristic of Africa’s occult modernity. The article casts new light on witchcraft and the occult in contemporary Africa, and suggests new ways of tying together micro and macro levels of analysis, by grounding the wide-ranging dynamics of modernity in the minutiae of human interaction. See here