The ideas that a society creates about witches can be seen to support norms and values in that society and when analysed along with a structural model of the society, can also provide insights into the organization of the culture and society. According to Bourdillion and Phil (1976), witchcraft refers to any threat, involving an element of furtiveness, to personal security by the violation of the human person or of human life or by the violation of any deeply held value. Thus, an emotional person who too readily gives rent to feelings of jealousy, greed, hatred, frustration or any very unpopular person may be called a witch. An accusation is a statement saying that one thinks of a person is guilty of doing something wrong, especially of committing a crime. Many anthropologists, including Evan-Pritchard and S.F Nadel, looked at the range of witchcraft accusations among the Azande (Zande) of Sudan, Mandurucu of Brazil, Nupe of West Africa and among the Shona. Open accusations of witchcraft are almost always preceded by tension and conflict within the community and these accusations normally arise in a community that I s already divided, whether by quarrels over succession and leadership, disagreements over the distribution of family wealth or unpaid debts. For Whiting, cited in Cohen and Earnes (1982) witchcraft accusations is an effective mechanism for social control in simple and intermediate level political systems. Witchcraft beliefs and accusations are considered static elements, societies either do or do not have them, but for those with them hide behind witchcraft to cover the real nature of these social conflicts. However, the beliefs and accusations serve to maintain societal order.

Mitchell (1965) cited in Cohen and Earnes (1982) argues that witchcraft accusations are believed to increase as a result of the anonymity and disruption of urban life. A good