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‪Asylum policies have undergone a profound change in recent years, caused by alterations in the characteristics of the migratory processes, but above all by the greater difficulty of entering Europe other than as an “asylum seeker.” This article examines the growing suspicions regarding asylum seekers’ narratives and experiences, especially when, as in the case of those from sub-Saharan Africa, their accounts speak—often in a dream-like language—of spiritual threats, mysterious deaths and acts of witchcraft, or they display ritual scars as “proof.” Against a background of narrative tactics that are fed by pre-fabricated stories that are better able to adhere to the criteria of credibility that it is supposed they should respect, the analysis suggests that the presence of these themes can be interpreted as expressing an authentic epistemological duel, or rather, a return of “culture” and “subjugated knowledge” on the human rights scene where this duel or return is unhinging the certainties of the modern state.‪