24th October: A man killed his 13-year-old son in Assam in what is being termed a case of human sacrifice. Police said Thursday the man attempted to kill his wife and daughter also but they escaped with injuries. Read more here.
23d October: A witch doctor peddling what he claims are holistic rocks and crystals in Union Square was convicted Wednesday for selling the items without a permit. Angel Silva, 51, failed to convince the judge that his goods are works of art, which would exempt them from street vendor requirements. Read more here.
22nd October: A cleaning crew hired by a local real estate agent uncovered numerous items while clearing out the shed including a machete, a skeleton mask, a wig of brown hair, candles, bottles, an iron pot, a scepter made from an antler and bulls horn and various animals bones. Read more here.
21st October: A Mamelodi father was convicted on Monday of killing his wife and two young daughters, despite claiming that his wife had been a witch-turned-snake who attacked them. Read more here.
20th October: Dabholkar, a campaigner against superstition and witchcraft and a medical doctor, social worker and journalist, was shot at close range and killed while on a morning walk near his residence close to the Omkareshwar temple in Pune, around 7.30 am on August 20. The murder created a nationwide furore. Read more here.
21st October: In an act of brutality, a police sergeant allegedly brutalised his eight year-old daughter and left her for dead due to the fact that she refused to confess to charges of witchcraft leveled against her by a Pentecostal church her father and his second wife frequented. This officer of the law, Mr. Ita Ayamba from Ibiaku community, Mkpat Enin Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, is responsible for the maltreatment of his own flesh and blood. Read more here.
19th October: Some educated residents of Majuli and members of a voluntary organisation saved at least 35 people from extreme brutality in the Sikarigaon area of the river island on Friday after they were “suspected to be practising witchcraft.” A woman and a youth had accused the families comprising these 35 people in the first week of October of practising sorcery and asked the villagers to punish them to preventdiseases in the area. Read more here.
October the 20th: The Assam State Commission for Women (ASCW) under the project titled ‘Targeted Intervention and Prevention of Witch Hunting in Affected areas of Assam’ has launched a survey and various awareness drives, besides sensitization programmes to fight this social evil. Read more here.
19th October: Thirty-sevenyear old Hudson Ssemwanga had just received news that the head of his seven-year-old son, Allan Ssembatya, had been severed in Kayunga district. The day was October 21, 2009. As strangers passed by, a neighbour, whom Ssemwanga only knew as Joshua, approached. “He asked what the problem was, but I was tongue-tied. He noticed my phone was ringing and he picked it up. The caller reiterated: “Tell Ssemwanga that his son’s head has been cut off,” recalls Ssemwanga. Joshua helped him up and found a car to take them to Kayunga. Half way through, Ssemwanga’s phone rang again. “This time the caller said Ssembatya was still alive and was admitted to Kayunga Hospital.” The duo got to the hospital at 1:00am. When he saw his son, Ssemwanga thought he would not survive. He looked lifeless. He had a drip on and the doctors said he needed more blood. Unfortunately, there were only two bottles of blood group O left, yet he needed four. Read more here.
17th of October: Three men who battered to death two women they suspected of practising witchcraft were each jailed for 20 years by the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Thursday. Judge Rishi Seegobin said that in modern South Africa a person’s subjective belief that another practised witchcraft did not justify that person’s murder. The sentences should reflect society’s indignation at the murders, he said. Read more here.
