Witchcraft is separate from the religion of Voodoo. Witch doctors use magic for their healing remedies.
Sangoma - A sangoma is a practitioner of ngoma, a philosophy based on a belief in ancestral spirits (siSwati: amadloti; Zulu: amadlozi; Sesotho: badimo; Xhosa: izinyanya) and the practice of traditional African medicine, which is often a mix of medicinal plants and various animal body fats or skin.
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Ritual Killings in Africa
In East Africa ritualistic murders are rife in Uganda. As mentioned below, according to the 2013 Child Sacrifice and Mutilations Report, one child is killed for rituals every week. A mind blowing statistic. Within Uganda the
Kayunga District has earned the dubious reputation of being one of the most notorious killing places. Police say most victims of human sacrifices are children because they are easier to abduct and seen as “pure” and of “higher ritual value.”
Ms Sylvia Namutebi, aka Maama Fiina, the national chairperson of Uganda Traditional Healer’s Association, dismisses claims that the acts are committed by people who practice her trade. “No genuine traditional healer can sacrifice a human being. These are masqueraders hiding in our job. It is our duty to ensure we [genuine healers] weed out such bad people,” Ms Namutebi said. She said with the help of genuine healers, they have arrested and prosecuted such ‘wrong elements’, noting that she is on a country-wide tour to sensitise traditional healers on professional ethics.
Mr Peter Mawerere, the Kayunga deputy Resident District Commissioner, blamed the vice on ignorance, greed, and poverty. He noted that many people sacrifice human beings because they think it will make them wealthier. “It is surprising that many people go to traditional healers when they fall sick, even when their ailments can be treated by qualified medical personnel,” he said. “We have tasked the leadership of traditional healers to fight the acts, which we highly believe are perpetuated by some of their members,” he added.
Rev Fr Maurice Kigoye, the parish priest of Kangulumira Parish in Kangulumira Sub-county, said: “It [human sacrifice] is really an inhuman act. How can you think that when you kill a person and drink their blood, you can get rich? As religious leaders, we have tried to lure them [culprits] to turn to God and get saved,” Fr Kigoye said.
Muti killings to be tackled
Congress of SA Students (Cosas) Soshanguve leader, Thabo Nsako, urged traditional healers at the seminar to "stop killing children for muti. "Your duty is to protect us, not to kill us. Ancestors can never [tell] you to kill people." He said Western countries saw the practice as witchcraft and wanted nothing to do with it because of practices such as muti-killings.
"It is your fault," he told the healers. Nduku defended traditional healers, saying they had nothing to do with killing humans or using their body parts for healing. "We condemned muti-murders as barbaric, inhumane and disgusting. Our practice has values. We don't require human body parts for our medicines, we use the wealth of our knowledge that is being transferred from generation to generation."
He said criminals pretending to be traditional healers were killing people. "It is sad that the majority of the victims are defenceless women and children." Nduku, a traditional healer since 1984, said there was no way an authentic traditional healer would kill for muti. "The association's constitution is clear. We strive for provision of health for our people."
Muti Killing of 4 Little Girls
Referencing several experts and academic papers, he said the reason for using human body parts is that they are considered to be more
powerful than the usual ingredients. According to the report, “traditionally, the victim must be alive when the body parts are removed as this increases the ‘power’ of the muthi because the body parts then retain the person’s life essence”.
While Ben Mbhele conducted the act alone, Labuschagne states that in muthi murders, there are at least three people involved in perpetuating the crime. These include the client, the traditional healer and the murderer. “The client who approaches the traditional healer is usually someone who wants to achieve a measure of personal gain. This may include financial gain for a business person, power for a politician, or protection for a criminal,” the report said. He said often, the victims in muthi killings may be known to the murderer, “perhaps a friend or relative”. The report said that targets can range from a new-born infant to an adult. “The elderly are perhaps the only age group that is not targeted in muthi murders, presumably because any muthi made from an older person is considered weak and ineffective.”
What are human body parts used for in muthi practices?
• Breasts — A source of “mother luck”. If you want to attract women for your business, you will use breasts. Breasts contain fat, which is considered very lucky.
• Genitals — “Luck” resides in the genitals of a man and woman. Often used for virility purposes.
• Throat — Blood is an important ingredient and may be collected by cutting the throat.
• Hands — used to attract business, hands symbolically beckon customers and take money.
• Limbs — May be stolen from a hospital after an amputation. A leg can be sold for more than R7 000 in Lesotho.
• Tongue — Used to smooth the path into a woman’s heart.
• Eyes — Supposed to give far-sightedness.
Witches and charlatans - The KwaZulu-Natal Traditional Healers’ Association, a body tasked with controlling and regulating the practice of traditional healing in the province, has labelled traditional healers who use human body parts for their practices as “witches”.
Muti killings is a way of life in rural areas
One in five people in South Africa's rural areas has had first-hand experience of a human body part being trafficked after a muti killing. And, of the body parts mentioned in their accounts, male genitals, breasts, hearts, fingers and tongues are the most commonly listed, according to research undertaken by the Human Rights League in Mozambique and supported by Childline in South Africa. The study's findings are all the more shocking after the recent discovery of 10-year-old Masego Kgomo's mutilated body in dense bush in Soshanguve, Tshwane.
One of the five men arrested for her murder is a sangoma who allegedly uses body parts for muti. A 14-year-old boy was also arrested. But Masego's case is one of many. Of the more than 413 individuals who attended workshops for the research report, 22 percent of those who were willing to be interviewed had seen a mutilated body with parts missing or a body part separated from a body. There were 72 accounts relating to the trafficking of body parts mentioned in the report. Of these, 27 were from South Africa. "This percentage is far greater than expected and is supported by the general feeling among those attending the workshops and focus groups," said the report.
Between the two countries, 19 different body parts were mentioned as missing from bodies. They included heads, female genital organs, breasts, tongues, ears, eyes, hands, legs, lungs, guts, skin, arms, jaws, lips and fingers.
One of the interview samples in the report was of a case in Bloemspruit where a woman who wanted to fall pregnant went to a sangoma and was advised to wear a belt with children's fingers and penises hanging from it. "She was made to drink a concoction she believed contained human blood and fat and she was given a piece of flesh which she believed to be a human organ, perhaps a heart. She sliced small pieces from the flesh each night and fried them on a stove," said the report.
Speaking about body-part trafficking to the Saturday Star this week, Simon Fellows, the project manager at the league, said there was a demand in South Africa for body parts and a supply from Mozambique. "We don't know if there is a demand in Mozambique too because the checks at the South African borders going to Mozambique are far more superior." He said there was a prevalence of muti-killings in every single province, and in many cases, communities were saying the number of incidents was getting out of hand.
"Every person we came across had something to say. It is a prolific problem that affects every single community. The conclusion is that there is no evidence that adults are specifically asked for, but there is evidence that kids are mutilated." Fellows related stories of fishermen in Mozambique who use children's belly buttons in their nets to improve their catch. It is also believed that children's body parts bring more luck and prosperity than those of adults.
Joan van Niekerk, from Childline, said it was difficult to establish the true prevalence of muti-killing because people were often too scared to talk about the things they had witnessed. She said they had also had instances where staff had refused to work on the project because they had felt intimidated. The researchers had grown up in their communities and still adhered to a traditional value system. "People who do witchcraft are seen as very powerful people by the community. It is a very secretive activity. Even in the community, people are not always sure who did it and where." And, Van Niekerk said, while the practice was deeply rooted in the rural areas, there were incidents in urban areas too.
Masego Kgomo Body parts ‘ripped out of her’
Little Masego Kgomo, 10, who was lured away while playing with friends in a street close to her home in Soshanguve on New Year’s Eve 2009, was still alive when body parts - including her bladder and womb - were removed from her body. A sangoma offered her alleged killer R3 000 if he obtained the parts of a girl under the age of 12.
The body parts, wrapped in plastic and placed in a cardboard box, were later handed to the sangoma, who paid Brian Mangwai, the man on trial in the Pretoria High Court for Masego’s murder, the cash. This shocking evidence emerged on Thursday when several policemen and two magistrates, to whom Mangwai made statements on the events of December 31, 2009, took the stand. Masego’s parents, Kate and Joseph Kgomo, sat in shocked silence as they listened to details of the gruesome manner in which their child’s life was ended.
Members of the community burst into tears and gasped as the tale unfolded.
A magistrate broke down in the witness box as he was about to testify about how Masego was forced to lie on the ground before body parts were ripped out of her. Mangwai, who sat emotionless in the dock, gave the police various versions during his pointings-out of the crime scene. He also told two different magistrates two different stories about what happened that night. In some versions he himself either ripped or cut out Masego’s body parts. In others he was present, but the sangoma ripped out the body parts.
In the versions in which he accused the sangoma of being the one who removed the organs, it appears that Masego was still alive when she was cut open, but that she was already dead by the time her womb was ripped out. In the version in which he did it himself, Mangwai said he and a friend held Masego down and that his friend first strangled her before he (the accused) removed her body parts. He told a Soshanguve magistrate that he sent Masego to the store to buy him a soft drink while she was playing with her friends, including his little sister, in the street. When she returned he told her to walk with him and he met up with several of his friends. They put the child in a Venture van and took her to a party.
Mangwai said he left her with his friends in a room while he went to buy ciders. When he returned he saw that his friends had raped the child. “I did not want to take her to the police station and I knew there was a woman (a sangoma) who wanted a child.” He and his friends took the crying child to bushes near a train station. “She did not want to go and said she wanted to go home. Nunu (his friend) held her arms and I held her legs. “He strangled her and I cut open her stomach. I first took out her womb and then cut off her left breast. I wrapped it in plastic and then placed it in a box.” In another version he said he also took out her bladder.
After spending a night searching for the “missing” child, along with her family and police, Mangwai handed the box with organs the next day to a sangoma for R3 000. Magistrate Johan Jantjes, who broke down as he testified about the version the accused gave him, said after she was abducted, the crying Masego was taken at about midnight to the home of a sangoma. They “dragged” the little girl into the house after they were each given a concoction to drink. “Masego cried softly as the traditional healer sprinkled her with a substance.”
Mangwai said they were ordered to take the child to a passage between houses.
“The sangoma ordered her to lie on her back. She refused and Nunu (one of the men present) and the sangoma forced her down.
“The sangoma cut her open with a knife with an 18cm blade. He put his hand in her body and pulled out something resembling a ball.”
Mangwai stated that after the body parts were removed, they folded her hands across her chest and wrapped her in plastic. They were given muti to drink to “make them brave” and he and the others then dumped her body in a veld.
In another version he said they took the crying child to the sangoma, who after sprinkling her with water, produced a knife and calabash. The sangoma plunged the knife into the crying and “weak” child and “cut a round piece of flesh out of her”. He placed this in the calabash before cutting off her left breast, which was also put in the calabash. By then the child was unconscious.
The State has closed its case. The accused is expected to testify on Friday. - Pretoria News
Focus: Muti - The Story of Adam
The boy's throat, he confirmed, had been cut and his blood drained from his body, probably for use in some ritual. Most significantly his first vertebra - the one between neck and spine - had been removed. This is known in Africa as the Atlas bone, for it is said to be the bone on which the mythical giant Atlas carried the world. In muti it is believed to be the centre of the body, where all nerve and blood vessels meet, and where all power is concentrated.
The contents of his stomach were eloquent too. Forensic examination showed that the boy had been fed a muti potion of mixed bone, clay and gold.
The sex trafficking trail from Nigeria to Europe
Like so many, Sandra feared the juju – traditional witchcraft – as much as she trusted her friend. Her trafficker took much more than just her passport. “My pants, my bra, the hair from my head, the armpit and my private parts,” she says. The items were for a juju oath, so powerful, a local priest said, that no one dares break it.
These children were confined to a voodoo convent.
“Those who practice Voodooism believe that illness is caused by evil spirits. If children fall sick, their parents seek treatment through Voodoo gods. The children allegedly possessed by spirits can be sent or even ‘sold’ to be healed in Voodoo convents,” notes Hadrien Bonnaud, a communication specialist for
UNICEF based in Benin.
According to the charity, children as young as two years old can be kept in these convents – where access to education and healthcare is minimal. These children have to give up their names, learn a new language (that of voodoo) and begin an entirely new life. In some instances, when the initiated are finally released (sometimes up to a decade after they arrived), they no longer have families to return to.
Further complicating matters is the fact that only those initiated into the voodoo religion are allowed entry to the convents, making it hard both to monitor conditions inside and provide those living in the convents with the medical attention they might need. “Very often convents are places kept in secret and the initiated who attend them have to keep those secrets,” says Bonnaud.
Voodoo Artists
Hector Hyppolite
Stevenson Magloire
Depiction of Rituals
Deities
Voodoo Costumes