Witchcraft Violence and the Law in South Africa

Witchcraft Violence and the Law in South Africa PDF Author: John Hund
Publisher: Spotlight Poets
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
Witchcraft accusations and violence are generating new forms of popular 'justice' that threaten to destabilize the state's administration of justice. What is to be done?

Witchcraft Violence and the Law in South Africa

Witchcraft Violence and the Law in South Africa PDF Author: John Hund
Publisher: Spotlight Poets
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
Witchcraft accusations and violence are generating new forms of popular 'justice' that threaten to destabilize the state's administration of justice. What is to be done?

Witchcraft, Violence, and Democracy in South Africa

Witchcraft, Violence, and Democracy in South Africa PDF Author: Adam Ashforth
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226029733
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
Large numbers of people in Soweto & other parts of South Africa live in fear of witchcraft, presenting complex & unique problems for the government. Adam Ashforth explores the challenge of occult violence & the spiritual insecurity that it engenders to democratic rule in South Africa.

Encounters with Witchcraft

Encounters with Witchcraft PDF Author: Norman N. Miller
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438443595
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
Encounters with Witchcraft is a personal story of a young man's fascination with African witchcraft discovered first in a trek across East Africa and the Congo. The story unfolds over four decades during the author's long residence in and many trips to Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. As a field researcher he learns from villagers what it is like to live with witches, and how witches are seen through African eyes. His teachers are healers, cult leaders, witch-hunters and self-proclaimed "witches" as well as policemen, politicians and judges. A key figure is Mohammadi Lupanda, a frail village woman whose only child has died years before. In her dreams, however, she believes the little girl is not dead, but only lost in the fields. Mohammadi is discovered wandering at night, wailing and calling out for the child. Her neighbors are terror-stricken and she is quickly brought to a village trial and banished as a witch. The author is able to watch and listen to the proceedings and later investigate the deeper story. He discovers mysteries about Mohammadi that are only solved when he returns to the village three decades later. Today, witch-hunting and witchcraft-related crimes are found in more than seventy developing countries. Epidemics of violence against alleged witches, mainly women, but including elders of both genders, and even children is on the increase in some parts of the world. Witchcraft beliefs may lie behind vigilante murders, political assassinations, revenge killings and commercial murders for human body parts. Through African voices the author addresses key questions. Do witchcraft powers exist? Why does witchcraft persist? What are its historic roots? Why is witchcraft-based violence so often found within families? Does witchcraft serve as a hidden legal and political system, a mafia-like under-government? The author holds up a mirror for us to think about religious beliefs in our own experience that rely heavily on myth and superstition.

The Review of the Witchcraft Suppression Act 3 of 1957

The Review of the Witchcraft Suppression Act 3 of 1957 PDF Author: South African Law Reform Commission
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780621442083
Category : Witchcraft
Languages : en
Pages : 95

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Book Description


Biomedical Hegemony and Democracy in South Africa

Biomedical Hegemony and Democracy in South Africa PDF Author: Ngambouk Vitalis Pemunta
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004436421
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
In Biomedical Hegemony and Democracy in South Africa Ngambouk Vitalis Pemunta and Tabi Chama-James Tabenyang unpack the contentious South African government’s post-apartheid policy framework of the ‘‘return to tradition policy’’. The conjuncture between deep sociopolitical crises, witchcraft, the ravaging HIV/AIDS pandemic and the government’s initial reluctance to adopt antiretroviral therapy turned away desperate HIV/AIDS patients to traditional healers. Drawing on historical sources, policy documents and ethnographic interviews, Pemunta and Tabenyang convincingly demonstrate that despite biomedical hegemony, patients and members of their therapy-seeking group often shuttle between modern and traditional medicine, thereby making both systems of healthcare complementary rather than alternatives. They draw the attention of policy-makers to the need to be aware of ‘‘subaltern health narratives’’ in designing health policy.

Witchcraft, Witches, and Violence in Ghana

Witchcraft, Witches, and Violence in Ghana PDF Author: Mensah Adinkrah
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1782385614
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
Witchcraft violence is a feature of many contemporary African societies. In Ghana, belief in witchcraft and the malignant activities of putative witches is prevalent. Purported witches are blamed for all manner of adversities including inexplicable illnesses and untimely deaths. As in other historical periods and other societies, in contemporary Ghana, alleged witches are typically female, elderly, poor, and marginalized. Childhood socialization in homes and schools, exposure to mass media, and other institutional mechanisms ensure that witchcraft beliefs are transmitted across generations and entrenched over time. This book provides a detailed account of Ghanaian witchcraft beliefs and practices and their role in fueling violent attacks on alleged witches by aggrieved individuals and vigilante groups.

Witchcraft, Power and Politics

Witchcraft, Power and Politics PDF Author: Isak Niehaus
Publisher: Pluto Press
ISBN: 9780745315584
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This is an extraordinary contemporary account of witchcraft and witch-hunting in the modern world. A powerful ethnographic study of witch-hunting in 1980s South Africa – a period of rapid social change – this book demonstrates the extent to which witchcraft must be seen, not as a residue of ‘traditional’ culture but as part of a complex social drama which is deeply embedded in contemporary political and economic processes. Isak Niehaus provides the context for this fascinating study of witchcraft practices. He shows how witchcraft was politicised against the backdrop of the apartheid state, the liberation struggle and the establishment of the first post-apartheid regime, which all affected conceptions of witchcraft. Niehaus demonstrates how the ANC and other political groups used witchcraft beliefs to further their own agenda. He explores the increasingly conservative role of the chiefs and the Christian church. In the process, he reveals the fraught nature of intergenerational and gender relations. The result is a truly insightful and theoretically engaged account of a much-studied but frequently misunderstood practice.

South Africa

South Africa PDF Author: Cath Senker
Publisher: Cherrytree Books
ISBN: 9781842342794
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
Letters by a young South African girl and supporting pictures and text introduce the geography, people, daily life and customs of South Africa. Suggested level: junior, primary.

Violence Against Women in South Africa

Violence Against Women in South Africa PDF Author: Binaifer Nowrojee
Publisher: Human Rights Watch
ISBN: 9781564321626
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
- The Cautionary Rule

The Trials of Mrs. K.

The Trials of Mrs. K. PDF Author: Adam Ashforth
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022632253X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
In March 2009, in a small town in Malawi, a nurse at the local hospital was accused of teaching witchcraft to children. Amid swirling rumors, “Mrs. K.” tried to defend her reputation, but the community nevertheless grew increasingly hostile. The legal, social, and psychological trials that she endured in the struggle to clear her name left her life in shambles, and she died a few years later. In The Trials of Mrs. K., Adam Ashforth studies this and similar stories of witchcraft that continue to circulate in Malawi. At the heart of the book is Ashforth’s desire to understand how claims to truth, the pursuit of justice, and demands for security work in contemporary Africa, where stories of witchcraft can be terrifying. Guiding us through the history of legal customs and their interactions with the court of public opinion, Ashforth asks challenging questions about responsibility, occult forces, and the imperfect but vital mechanisms of law. A beautifully written and provocative book, The Trials of Mrs. K. will be an essential text for understanding what justice means in a fragile and dangerous world.