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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 14397
[Crime]
Date Posted:
11/28/2005
12:24:02 pm EST
Wvox Stats
Views: 5,937
RSS: 23,730
Comments: 4
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The Savage Business Of Witchcraft Hunts
Author: Oliver Duff, The Independent Source: New Zealand Herald
Title: THE SAVAGE BUSINESS OF WITCHCRAFT HUNTS
They came for Lemi Ndaki in the night. "I was sleeping when I heard a noise," explains the 70-year-old Tanzanian grandmother. "Someone grabbed me and chopped off my arm with a machete. I think he came to chop my neck but I raised my hand and he only took my arm."
A neighbor responded to her crying and took her to the hospital in Mwanza, the nearest city, a three-hour drive away near Lake Victoria.
"They couldn't put my arm back on and the scar still hurts," she says. That is not surprising: the bone still pokes out below her elbow, 19 years later.
Other elderly women in her village, Mwamagigisi, have not been so lucky. Ng'wana Budodi was shot in the head with an arrow. Kabula Lubambe and Helena Mabula were stabbed to death. Ng'wana Ng'ombe was murdered with a machete, and when they set fire to her hut they killed her husband, Sami.
This is the fate awaiting thousands of old people, mostly women, accused of witchcraft. The killings are escalating and the Government does nothing.
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Community Thoughts: There are 4 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Witch-Hunts | Nov 29th. at 10:25:17 am EST
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Mysteries Child (Garfield, West Virginia) - Email Me
A witch-hunt is something people do, historically, when they really think they have a dire need for someone to blame.
It seems to be a humanly favored escape hatch from looking at ruined crops and dying children and sobbing "Sh*t happens."
Can't say I blame people for wanting the perception of an escape hatch. I do, however, really wish it could be something more effective than what basically amounts to ritual abuse aimed at providing an unwilling human sacrifice.
People will probably always react this way to fear. I can hope otherwise, try to teach otherwise, but it seems to be pretty deeply embedded in the genetic makeup of the species.
And...
No, witch hunts are never OK. No matter who the hunter is after. It's never OK to be so eager for someone to blame that reason is totally superceded by fear.
Especially not on a societal level.
But it happens. All the time.
Just like it also happens that people-- usually ones who are hurt and angry in ways that most of us probably couldn't quite wrap our minds around-- sometimes pick up expectations in the form of inaccurate stereotypes and proceed to behave in accordance with the misperception.
I notice that these appear to be practitioners of tribal religions leveling accusations at other practitioners of tribal religions.
I've said it before, and it looks like I'm going to say it again. Any belief structure can be a vehicle for positive learning and personal growth (as well as directing and controlling the populace) . And any belief structure can be a tool for enacting and reinforcing horriffic destruction. It all depends on the understanding and application.
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| No Justification Here. | Nov 28th. at 10:28:32 pm EST
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bigcat (peoria, Illinois) - Email Me
And this what the Fundies would love to do to those of us in this country that don't follow their narrow minded creed. As long as ignorance and poverty exist in these places- as in ours, this is likely to be the end result for many. For the victims, may the powers grant them justice- they're not likelt to get any while they live.
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| Time Warp | Nov 28th. at 2:23:16 pm EST
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Lady GoldenRaven (New Castle, Pennsylvania) - Email Me
This simply cannot bew tolerated. But, in a country where ignorance and poverty reign, I am not surprised.
Remember, these countries still will kill a woman for having an "affair" whether real or imaginary. Remember the Nigerian woman who was raped? They kept her in prison til she had the baby and it was old enough to come off her breast. They were going to stone her to death. Luckily for her, many people became involved, including AI, so her sentence was commuted-if I remember right she was exiled, but I could be wrong.
Anyway, my point being, if they cannot change some of their basic laws, how on earth can they be expected to stop such utter nonsense as this?
They are in the mindset of our early American ancestors and our Burning Times, so maybe in another 400 years, these countries will have caught up to the "Modern Times".
They are forever caught in a time warp.
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