This series of photographs by Jane Hahn highlights the living conditions of women who have been ostracized by their original communities, and forced to create their own community, safe for ‘witches’ to live in.
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The witch-hunting menace, which has seen many innocent women being persecuted, tortured and even killed in Jharkhand, has also hit their family members who are ostracised by villagers.
The practice of witchcraft prevails in several districts of Jharkhand, particularly Gumla, as casualties are reported from there every so often.
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Public unrest in Limpopo has been put down to “pure criminality”, with communities drawing the “conclusion” that there is a spate of muti killings plaguing some areas in the province.
“There isn’t a spate of muti-related killings in Limpopo. The recent incidents are isolated,” said Limpopo safety, security and liaison department spokesperson Molebatsi Masedi. Masedi was reacting to the turbulent past week, where community protests against killings in the Motupa, Moleketla and Kubjana villages surrounding Tzaneen turned violent.
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The three year old boy found dead in the boot of a car in Kubjana village near Relela died of suffocation, Limpopo police said on Friday.
“A post mortem which was conducted on Thursday has showed that Tsephi Makgopa Mulaudzi, whose lifeless body was found in a vehicle of the businessman at Kubjana, died of suffocation,” Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said.
“The body was intact and no body parts were missing.”
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The public does not need to be “educated” against the use of muti gained through muti murders, as it simply will not work, an expert in the study of witchcraft said.
“Be sceptical about claims that better education will reduce “belief” in witchcraft, muti, and other supernatural claims,” Afroamerican and African Studies Professor Adam Ashforth said. “After all, some educated people still believe in God.” Murder is murder, whatever the motive, he said.
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A Mponda villager, Sekule Mpupo (85), was beaten to death by a mob in Sumbawanga Municipality after being accused of practicing witchcraft.
A group of unknown people mobbed Mpupo’s house and broke a windowpane before jumping in to attack him.
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The ongoing violence that broke out in Relela village outside Tzaneen after police gunned down three protesters has spilt over to neighbouring villages.
A local businessman (whose name The Star is holding back for his safety) spent a day in hiding after locals torched his house, his shop and three vehicles in Kubjana village on Wednesday night. The crowd burnt down the man’s property after a three-year-old boy was found dead in one of the cars parked at his home on Wednesday afternoon.
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In Akwa Ibom State, almost every misfortune is attributed to ifot (witchcraft). Here, a migraine or a student’s poor academic performance or even poor record of sales in a business shop would most likely be traceable to ifot. Here, everyone does live in fear, and everyone is a potential suspect.
Akwa Ibom is generally believed to be among the top states in Nigeria that remained plagued by witchcraft killings. The oil-rich state assumed international spotlights few years ago with the showing of a documentary titled ‘Dispatches: Saving Africa’s Witch Children’ which was aired in a TV station in the United Kingdom.
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The young girl that died was 16 and was a niece of the lady she was staying with. She was sick for several days and complaining of severe neck and head pain.
Because of her age and the way she died, it was immediately suspected that she was killed with sanguma (sorcery used for the purpose of killing). Most of the deaths in the Sepik region except for the very old seem to be attributed to sanguma. At the very least the possibility is seriously discussed. People are deathly afraid of sanguma.
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In the chapter “The Torso in The Thames: Imagining Darkest Africa in The United Kingdom,” Todd Sanders described the 2001 investigation surrounding the discovery of a torso belonging to “a young black boy found floating in the River Thames” (2005:126).
Sanders began the chapter by describing the case’s development over the following two years. Through his summary, Sanders considers the consequences of the police-media engagement surrounding the investigation. More specifically, he draws the reader’s attention to four sequential consequences–the homogenization of an African image, the supposed moral bankruptcy of this artificially unified culture, their perceived Western infiltration, and finally the role anthropologists play in the public sphere.
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