Scholars largely agree that witchcraft beliefs in sub‐Saharan Africa remain virulent. The ‘modernity of witchcraft’ is said to thrive on friction between the local moral economy and new socio‐economic realities. This article focuses on the appeal of witchcraft beliefs in the artisanal mining sector of South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. It argues that the ‘do‐or‐die’, ‘zero‐sum’ and ‘caught‐in‐the‐middle’ context of artisanal mining provides fertile ground for witchcraft beliefs, and underlies the cross‐cultural similarities of such beliefs as documented in the handful of studies on witchcraft in the artisanal mining sector. Whereas previous studies provided a thick description of witchcraft beliefs and practices, this study relies on both qualitative and quantitative data from a sample of 469 artisanal miners in a mining town in South Kivu. The analysis confirms the ‘modernity of witchcraft’ thesis, but also nuances it, and provides further insight into the ‘rationale’ of witchcraft beliefs and accusations in the context of artisanal mining.

中文翻译：

---

刚果民主共和国南基伍省手工采矿部门的风险，嫉妒和魔力

学者们在很大程度上同意，撒哈拉以南非洲的巫术信仰仍然具有致命性。据说“巫术的现代性”在当地道德经济与新的社会经济现实之间的摩擦中friction壮成长。本文重点探讨巫术信仰在刚果民主共和国南基伍省手工采矿部门的吸引力。它认为手工采矿的“生死攸关”，“零和”，“中间夹住”背景为巫术信仰提供了沃土，并奠定了文献记载的这种信仰的跨文化相似性的基础。在手工采矿领域进行的少数巫术研究中。尽管先前的研究对巫术的信仰和习俗进行了详尽的描述，但本研究依赖于南基伍一个采矿镇的469名手工采矿者的定性和定量数据。