“Witchcraft, a perceived facility to summon evil spirits and demons to do harm to others, was linked to religion to the extent that the medieval Church had powers to punish those who dabbled in magic and sorcery. Its priests were able to exorcise those who had become possessed by malign spirits,” reports Parliament UK.

It is said that during the 16th century, many people believed that witchcraft, rather than the workings of God’s will, offered a more convincing explanation of sudden and unexpected ill-fortune, such as the death of a child, bad harvests, or the death of cattle.

Britannica.com has got this to say about Witchcraft, witches are typically seen as particularly active after dusk, when law-abiding mortals are asleep.

According to traditional Navajo belief, when a witch travels at night, he wears the skin of a dead animal in order to effect a transformation into that animal. These “skinwalkers” hold nighttime meetings at which they wear nothing except a mask, sit among baskets of corpses, and have intercourse with dead women.

That could be changing drastically, no thanks to the social media. The practices of witchcraft has been given a new lease of life. Perhaps in a time of uncertainty, of loss and economic turmoil, young people around the world are alarmingly turning to astrology and witchcraft for answers for the unknown.

“Modern technology has made it possible for people around the world to gain access to the learning about mediumship, ( jas or juju as it is known in Africa) and many people now even practice it virtually,” Megan Alisa, an evidential psychic medium have more than 234,000 followers on TikTok.

As of October 2022, #WitchTok had amassed over 33.2 billion views globally on TikTok. “Having the ability to teach worldwide and connect with someone anywhere in the world for a reading has been very helpful for people who would have never had access to this before,” Alisa said.

Evidential psychic mediums on the social media share evidence that they are communicating with the dead, claiming to reveal information that could not otherwise be known by the medium.

“I use my social media platform to teach about mediumship, the spirit world and to help people tap into their own intuition,” Alisa said. “I also use technology to do all of my private readings via Zoom, and do free readings via TikTok live and Instagram Live to help show people that mediumship is legitimate.”

Why this may be getting global attention, it is worthy of note that back In Nigeria however, any person who by his statements or actions represents himself to be a witch or to have the power of witchcraft; is guilty of an offence and is punishable with the imprisonment for 2 years under sections 216 & 210 Criminal and Penal Codes Act respectively.

Joey Xoto, a digital entrepreneur with more than 184,000 TikTok followers, uses the platform to create paranormal experiences for his viewers.

In one video, that has been viewed 1.7 million times, Xoto attempts to connect his viewers to a spirit called Le-ah.

In the video, Xoto describes how Le-ah will enter the viewer’s arm and cause it to rotate. His post has received thousands of comments, with many claiming to have witnessed something other-worldly.

But what do Nigerian audiences feel about this subject? According to Columnist Patience Turtoe-Sanders ” it is a myth to think that witches have wings and can fly and perch on trees or house tops and that they operate only at night, or that witches are black or white. Witches don’t have wings, and they operate anytime of the day, morning, noon, evening and at night, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and year-in and year-out.”

Sanders believes that Witches have mystical powers that enable them to turn into whatever they want, wherever and whenever, in order to cause harm to their victims, and then return to a human form.

So why would anyone want to openly profess witchcraft with all the punishment it can attract?