Title: Entrepreneurship and witchcraft in Namibian indigenous communities

Authors: Wilfred Isak April

Addresses: Commerce Division, Lincoln University, P.O. Box 84, Canterbury 7647, New Zealand

Abstract: This article explains the relationship between witchcraft and entrepreneurship from the viewpoint of the extended family and the entrepreneur in Namibia. When one addresses the issue of witchcraft in the Namibian context, it is clear that it is due to the unequal distribution of resources within the country, whereby the top 30% elite receives more than 90% of the resources and the majority of the population only receives 10% of the resources. As this is a national problem within the country, it has also an impact on how the communities work together in their daily activities. Communities have a tendency to be jealous of each other, although none of them are better than the other. This forces some communities to practice witchcraft, which is called traditional medicine (bieljas) in the Namibian context.

Keywords: Namibia; Africa; witchcraft; bieljas; indigenous communities; Amberbo; extended families; unequal resource distribution; inequality; elites; communities; jealousy; daily activities; traditional medicine; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; entrepreneurship; entrepreneurs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2010.034955

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2010 Vol.11 No.2, pp.135 - 144

Published online: 31 Aug 2010 *

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