A video of a “witch doctor” performing chants and “incantations” at the annual World Economic Forum summit in Davos, Switzerland garnered widespread criticism online, as thousands condemned the performance, calling it “pagan” and questioning its presence at the global leaders’ conference.
A session at the conference titled Climate and Nature: A Systemic Response Is Needed on Wednesday featured Chieftess Putanny Yawanawá of the Amazonian Yawanawá tribe, which is located in northwest Brazil, performed a “shamanic rite.”
Yawanawá began the ritual by rubbing her hands together while chanting invocations before blowing firmly into her hands, and then blowing on the heads of the participants on stage with her.
Participants in the ritual included the president of the World Bank, Ajay Banga, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, the CEO of IKEA, Jesper Brodin, and the billionaire André Hoffmann.
Video of the ritual quickly garnered national attention and criticism. SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk sarcastically posted on his social media platform X, “Wow I didn’t know Elizabeth Warren was at Davos.” Others observed that the WEF attendees are likely not as fearful of COVID-19 as they have been in years past, given the nature of the ritual. “These are the people that told us to social distance,” one X user wrote. “[Now they’re] coughing on each other.”
On the left, however, the ritual was heralded as a “striking blend of tradition and modernity,” and a “symbolic intersection of the old and the new” which “underscores the inclusive and diverse nature of dialogues at the WEF.”
Today being the final day of the conference, the WEF shared four “key takeaways“ from the event which emphasized the need for leaders to “pull together” to advance “global cooperation,” a “new model of [economic] growth that balances productivity with equity and sustainability,” apart from free market capitalism, and tackling the supposed “existential climate crisis.”
