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Swaziland: Muti Found on Jan, ‘Bomber’ Robbery Suspects

Royal Swaziland Police (RSP) officers found muti on the suspects arrested for the robberies of parliamentarians Jan Sithole and Adam ‘Bomber’ Mthethwa. Sithole is the Member of Parliament for Manzini North, while Mthethwa is a Senator and also the Football Association (FA) President.

The officers from the Serious Crimes Unit (Lukhozi) and Criminal Investigations Department (CID) found the muti after they had arrested the four suspects on Friday and Saturday. Reliable sources confirmed that the muti was found tied in a cloth on the suspect’s waists and hands after they had allegedly consulted a traditional healer from around Manzini. Read more here

India: Bhayandar’s fake ‘Baba’ in cop net

The State Government had recently passed the stringent Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and Other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Bill, however this does not seem to deter the breed of glib-talking ‘babas’ who continue to trap the gullible, boasting of super natural powers.

The Anti-Human Trafficking Wing (AHTW) of the Thane (rural) police arrested a self-styled god man along with his three accomplices including a woman who operated from a plush office near the railway station in Bhayandar (East). Read more here

India: 45-year-old woman stabbed at Birkera-Tongritoli Village over witchcraft charges

A woman, whose children accused some people of calling her witch , has been killed by unknown persons in Gumla district, the police said on Monday.

The body, bearing stab signs, of forty five-year-old Bitni Devi, was recovered in the morning, the police said. Read more here

Swaziland: Mob Attacks Gogo on Witchcraft Allegations

An old woman was lucky to survive a mob attack after she was allegedly found loitering at a neighbour’s homestead at night.
This has left the Madlangempisi community rocked by witchcraft fears.

According to an informed source, Gogo *Mahambakancane was found at around 10pm wearing a huge coat and carrying something in her back pockets filled with an unknown substance. The source said the old woman was seen by three men who had been seated near the Magongo homestead on Sunday night. Read more here

India: Cops take preventive action against tantrik

The Indiranagar police took preventive action against Pandit Swaroopkumar Sheshnarayan Upadhyay (33), of Prabha Pushpa Apartment, Indiranagar, after he was granted bail by a local court in connection with a case under the Maharashtra Prevention of Eradication of Human Sacrifice and Other Inhuman Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Ordinance 2013.

According to a complaint lodged by Sarika Patil (35) of Rajiv Nagar, the accused had told her and her friend Shraddha Shah that they were facing problems in their lives as someone had performed black magic on them. Read more here

Ghana: Interfaith Lessons Learned from a Witch Camp

Kukuo, in northern Ghana, is home to a camp for alleged witches.  Women who have been accused of witchcraft come there looking for safety.  They come looking because if they stay home they are in danger of beatings, torture, and even death.  Often the women who arrive at Kukuo have already suffered at the hands of their neighbors, friends, and family. They come seeking safety and they find it.

The safety comes from the local belief in the special nature of the land.  Kukuo is built on land connected to small gods that makes Kukuo a peaceful place.  This was explained to us by the chief of the village during our first meeting in Kukuo.  It was elaborated on when we met with the fetish priest who facilitates cleansing rituals for the alleged witches that neutralize their power.  One alleged witch told us she came to Kukuo—as opposed to the another camp for alleged witches—because Kukuo is a peaceful place. Read more here

India: Girl branded witch, thrown out of school

The district administration on Sunday ordered an inquiry after a seven-year-old tribal girl of Telkoi Talasahi Primary School, was allegedly sent back home on the suspicion of being a witch the previous day.

Sources said she went to school after the Xmas holidays, but the teachers stopped her from entering the hostel and instead asked her to leave. Read more here

Ghana: Education on Dementia needed in Ghana

Mrs Esther Dey, Executive Director of Alzheimer’s and Related  Disorders Association of Ghana (ARDAG), says education on dementia, a medical condition, is most needed in the country.

She said this was mainly because symptoms of the condition easily make sufferers look like witches in the eyes of people, who are ignorant of the condition and superstitious as well. Read more here 

USA: Rival Claims De Blasio’s City Council Speaker Candidate Put Voodoo Curse On Her

Gwen Goodwin, 52, thinks that Melissa Mark-Viverito (Mayor de Blasio’s pick for City Council Speaker) purposefully targeted her East 100th Street building “as the canvas for a five-story image of a bodiless rooster atop wooden poles.” Mark-Viverito was the head of urban-art campaign Los Muros Hablan (“The Walls Speak”) last summer, which sought to paint murals on walls across the city to celebrate Latino culture.

But Goodwin writes in the lawsuit, “According to neighbors of Puerto Rican and other backgrounds, in the Caribbean culture, this constituted a curse and a death threat, as a swastika or a noose would symbolize typically to many Jews or African-Americans.” Read more here

Ghana: The Politics of Abolishing Witch Camps in Ghana

The government of Ghana has announced plans to close down the ‘witch’ camps in the northern part of the country.

This is not the first time the government of Ghana has proposed closing the witch camps as a measure to eradicate witchcraft-related abuse in the country. In 2011, the Deputy Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs Hajia Hawawu Boya Gariba announced plans to close down the camps and reintegrate the victims with their families. She described the existence and operation of a witch camp as ‘an indictment on the conscience of the society’. These declarations are not unconnected with pressures on state authorities.

The government of Ghana has recently been under local and international pressure from human rights groups and development agencies to take action against witch hunting.  Read more here