About 20 students, at a high school in the Ivory Coast, accused their principal of being a witch.

When the “Pledge of Allegiance” was sung, the students exhibited signs of being possessed and claimed it was the principal’s doings.

Because of the accusations, the high school was forced to shut down.

These accusations happened in 2000 and it is the story that Sasha Alexandra Newell will begin with in his lecture “Our Principal is a Witch.”

The lecture, which is at 11 a.m. and noon today in room 2103 of Blair Hall, focuses on modern witchcraft in Africa, modern usages in the Western world and the culture of terror.

“It is certainly something we talk about (in class),” said Don Holly, assistant professor of anthropology.

It is Holly’s introduction to anthropology class Newell will be speaking for but every semester Holly opens up the lecture to all students.

“I think one thing about anthropology is to show how multi-cultural ideas are,” Holly said.

Newell, a visiting assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, has been studying the connection between anthropology and witchcraft for a while.

Anthropology is the study of human behavior and how it shapes society, so understanding why people believe in witchcraft and how it affects society is important, Newell said.

In the Ivory Coast, some believers of witchcraft will kill members of their own family.

“People believe witches can only kill their own kin,” Newell said. “People believe in it and if they do they act as if it does exist.”

In the case of killing family, Newell said people think everyone has a devil inside of them in another world and witches will cut that person up and eat them.

Other beliefs in the Ivory Coast are that witches can become invisible and make you lose money and that no death is by natural causes, Newell said.

In the Ivory Coast, witchcraft has become more prevalent especially in state institutions like schools.

“It has been widespread there (Ivory Coast),” Newell said. “More witchcraft has emerged.”

Because witchcraft is reemerging, it needs to be looked at seriously, Newell said.

“There is no scientific proof witchcraft exists,” he said. “(But), belief in evil that lurks through our society shapes (people’s actions).”

Newell said although witchcraft is widespread in the Ivory Coast, witchcraft is prevalent in the United States.

“We have things that are very similar to witchcraft,” he said.

One example Newell gave was in the 1940s when the FBI flew helicopters looking for satanic fires.

It is interesting to see how exotic things like witchcraft can relate close to home, Holly said.

Newell links the evil of terrorism to that of witchcraft as well.

Terrorism is a way of thinking that affects those people’s actions, Newell said.

“In terms of evil, it’s important to know how that fits culturally,” he said. “It’s an interesting way to link it up.”

Whether or not people believe in witchcraft, Newell said it is the “right season for it.”