Terrible crimes: Witch Hunts in Africa

Eolas Pellor · #1 (**permalink**) 10th December 2007, 11:52 PM

Here is the link to the Guardian article

I wanted to quote this part:

Quote:

Almost everyone goes to church here. Driving through the town of Esit Eket, the rust-streaked signs, tarpaulins hung between trees and posters on boulders, advertise a church for every third or fourth house along the road. Such names as New Testament Assembly, Church of God Mission, Mount Zion Gospel, Glory of God, Brotherhood of the Cross, Redeemed, Apostalistic. Behind the smartly painted doors pastors make a living by 'deliverances' - exorcisms - for people beset by witchcraft, something seen to cause anything from divorce, disease, accidents or job losses. With so many churches it's a competitive market, but by local standards a lucrative one.
But an exploitative situation has now grown into something much more sinister as preachers are turning their attentions to children - naming them as witches. In a maddened state of terror, parents and whole villages turn on the child. They are burnt, poisoned, slashed, chained to trees, buried alive or simply beaten and chased off into the bush.

Some parents scrape together sums needed to pay for a deliverance - sometimes as much as three or four months' salary for the average working man - although the pastor will explain that the witch might return and a second deliverance will be needed. Even if the parent wants to keep the child, their neighbours may attack it in the street.

It's sad that this kind of abuse and perversion of religion is going on today anywhere in the World. I know that the "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" passage exists in Deuteronomy (or is it Leviticus), but I have always rather agreed with the early Church Father who wanted the whole Jewish Bible thrown out.... particularly since it is often the source of the above and similar abuses.

I'm sure that some will argue that "religion" must inevitably lead to such abuses, but I disagree. I do not think there is any such necessary connection between a belief in the gods, and the desire to torment and persecute the innocent. But I think there is certainly a connection between the desire to make a buck, and the desire to torment and persecute the innocent, and that that connection has been demonstrated over and over and over again.

"Be seeing you..."

aged hippy · #2 (**permalink**) 11th December 2007, 12:51 AM

Man, that is disturbing, deeply disturbing.

Peace, Love, & Light

Eolas Pellor · #3 (**permalink**) 11th December 2007, 01:28 AM

A few years ago they used to run late night commericals about there services, and how people could come and "be delivered from witchcraft". It catered to an obviously mostly African congregation. At the time it struck me as a little odd and dated, almost laughable.

I wonder if the pastor's schtick was similar??

"be seeing you...."

norwood1026 · #4 (**permalink**) 11th December 2007, 01:48 AM

English versions of the Bible have translated 'lasseirim' (daemons, half-human children of the fallen angels) as 'wizards' in Leviticus 17:7, and 'mekasefa' (sorcerer) as 'witch' in Exodus 22:18. Both translations are incorrect. The former is the kind of slander used to foment genocides by implying that the intended targets are not human. Wizards were not demons. However, they were sorcerers. This was not always true of witches. The Germanic word 'witch' (never used in the Levant) refers to a worshipper of the Mesopotamian Goddess Inanna, who condoned sorcery. But most witches did not practice sorcery, and many were just medical practitioners unlicensed by the wizardry of the north.

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