Nigerian witch-hunt: by Bruce Cerew

History of witch-hunts and child infanticide:

Between 1479 and 1700, an estimated 30,000 to 100,000 people were executed in North America and Europe for being “witches.”Many Westerners would be shocked to know that , in this present day, more and more of their contemporaries are embracing witchcraft as a viable expression of their” own spirituality . However marginal or far out it may have seemed in the past, it is clear that witchcraft is becoming progressively more mainstream throughout the world. But why are witchcraft and other ancient practices becoming big issues again in these modern days?

Some scholars argue that a fear of witchcraft started among intellectuals who believed in maleficium: that is, harm committed by magic. What had previously been a belief that some people possessed supernatural abilities (which were sometimes used to protect the people) now became a sign of a pact between the people with supernatural abilities and the devil. Infanticide often occurs among peoples whose food supply is insecure (e.g., the Chinese, the Eskimo and the Amazon). Female infanticide was common in some traditional patriarchal societies. In certain societies children who are deformed or are believed tainted by evil (e.g., twins) may be slain at birth. In Greece and ancient Rome a child was practically its father's chattel-e.g., in Roman law, the Patria Potestas granted the father the right to dispose of his offspring as he saw fit. In Sparta the decision was made by a public official. Child sacrifice occurs in many traditional societies for religious reasons, but human sacrificial victims were generally appreciated members of society, unlike victims of infanticide, who were devalued.

In many African societies the fear of witches drives periodic witch-hunts during which specialist witch-finders identify suspects, even today, with death by mob often the result, especially in the rural areas. In 2010, a heartbreaking documentary of witch-children in Nigeria was broadcast all over the world forcing many world leaders and human right watch to speak out against these barbaric acts of inhumanity. Christianity, like Islam and Judaism, condemns witchcraft and infanticide as murder, and in all countries the act is a crime. If infanticide served as a means of limiting family size, as many anthropologists believe, then the introduction of contraceptives, abortion, and other methods of population control may have rendered it obsolete.

While Christianity, Judaism and Islam alike with its proxy secular institutions deemed witchcraft as being associated to wild Satanic ritual parties in which there was much naked dancing, orgy sex, and cannibalistic infanticide, it was also seen as heresy for going against the first of the Ten Commandments (Thou shall not have no other gods before me).

The term witchcraft evokes diverse images for different people. However, in the Western nations, the practice of witchcraft involves knowledge and skill in appropriating the rituals that are believed to harness and focus these energies. But, another staggering fact is that many Western politicians, sports men and women etc, had in some ways acknowledged the powers of these practices and had applied them in their daily appraisals!

Africa and witch-hunt:

In 1999 Congo and Tanzania responded to attacks on women accused of being witches for having red eyes. A lawsuit was launched in 2001 in Ghana, where witch-hunts are also common. But, in my own personal experience as one of the abandoned children of Nigeria, I believe whole-heartedly that some of these practices are often led by poverty, social exclusions by the visionless regimes and could also be attributed to relatives seeking revenge or the property of the accused.

Other facts on witch-hunt around the globe:

India

In India, labeling a woman as a witch is a common ploy to grab land, settle scores or even to punish her for turning down sexual advances. In a majority of the cases, it is difficult for the accused woman to reach out for help and she is forced to either abandon her home and family or driven to commit suicide. Read Jharkhand case!

Saudi Arabia

On February 16, 2008 a Saudi woman, Fawza Falih, was arrested and convicted of witchcraft and now faces imminent beheading for sorcery unless the King issues a rare pardon. And on November 9, 2009, the Lebanese TV presenter Ali Sibat (who was arrested in Medina in 2008) was sentenced to death on charges of witchcraft. According to Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, "Saudi courts are sanctioning a literal witch hunt by the religious police." Also according to Human Rights Watch, two other people have been arrested on similar charges in November 2009 alone.

United States of America

The McMartin preschool trial of 1984 to 1990 is the longest trial currently recognized in American history. The defendants were accused of child abuse and consequently of satanic ritual abuse in underground tunnels, involving flying witches, blood drinking, mutilated corpses, and human sacrifice. More than 350 people were involved in the fabrication of the allegations, which were taken seriously by the media, the public, the courts, and the prosecution. The jury did not believe the allegations, however, and the defendants were freed.

But, what do the holy books say about these practices?. The Hebrew Bible,in the book of Deuteronomy 18:10-12 states "No one shall be found among you who makes a son or daughter pass through fire, who practices divination, or is a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer, or one that casts spells, or who consults ghosts or spirits, or who seeks oracles from the dead. For whoever does these things is abhorrent to the Lord;" and Exodus 22:18 prescribes "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live”; stories like that of 1 Samuel 28, reporting how Saul "hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land".

Could this be where many of the fake and self acclaimed religious leaders got their citations?

Finally:

Witchcraft exists, it is universal, but could kids be witches or they are just being prosecuted for other reasons?

About the author:

Author BRUCE CEREW-is one of the few African writers in the Netherlands whose exceptional contributions to affirming life's spiritual dimension, selfless love for humanity is providing a precedent for more tolerance for asylum seekers in Europe and social-justice for African street children. Cerew's powerful story LONG ROAD begins in the witchhunt region of Nigeria, and is told through the eyes of Ray, his fictionalized alter ego. He is forced to leave home at the age of 12 years old!

Order your E-version of LONG ROAD for $7:50, Now!

www.therayoflightfoundation.org Email: info@therayoflightfoundation.org







"Kindness is the ability to love people more than they really deserve, and love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise".