ESJ Humanities Peer-reviewed www.eujournal.org 1 Suspicions of Occult Medicine Murders in the Context of Democratic Elections in Contemporary Côte d’Ivoire Syna Ouattara University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg Research Institute, Sweden Institut des Sciences Anthropologiques de Développement, Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire Doi:10.19044/esj.2024.v20n2p1 Submitted: 18 December 2023 Accepted: 18 January 2024 Published: 31 January 2024 Copyright 2024 Author(s) Under Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 OPEN ACCESS Cite As: Ouattara S. (2024). Suspicions of Occult Medicine Murders in the Context of Democratic Elections in Contemporary Côte d’Ivoire. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 20 (2), 1. https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2024.v20n2p1 Abstract The article contributes to contemporary discourses on so-called occult medicine practices and the associated human murders within the context of democratic elections in Côte d’Ivoire. The study is grounded in anthropological fieldwork conducted in Abidjan from 2018 to 2020. Additionally, information on occult medicine murders from local and international media has been gathered to enrich the reflections further. The study reveals that in the prevalent public discourse, politicians are accused of employing occult medicine to enhance their power and ensure their success by collaborating with ritual specialists. The paper argues that, in everyday discourse, occult medicine murders can be perceived as being ontologically motivated. Keywords: Côte d’Ivoire, elections, occult medicine murders Introduction In recent years, so-called occult medicine practices – and human murder associated with them – have become a serious issue in Côte d’Ivoire (cf. Aboa 2015; Deveaux 2018; Duhem 2018; Fancello 2011; Koenig 2014; Newell 2021; Ouattara & Wedel 2020), as in several other African countries (cf. Kohnert 2003; Max-Wirth 2016; Myhre 2017; Oduro-Frimpong 2014; Owusu 2022; Rannditsheni et al. 2018; Schühle 2013; Tanner 2010). Occult