Human sacrifice

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Human sacrifice

The suspected ritual killing of a little boy whose torso was found in the River Thames cast a harsh spotlight on the issue of black magic worldwide. Columnist Christine Aziz reports

It was a grisly find. In September last year, the torso of a five or six-year-old boy was found floating in the River Thames. Wearing orange shorts, the child - of Afro-Caribbean origin and named Adam by detectives - has never been identified, nor has anyone reported him missing.

Police are investigating the possibility of a ritual murder after seven half-burned candles wrapped in a white sheet were found near the body - an apparent link to human sacrifice.

A first post-mortem concluded that the boy died from a 'violent trauma to the neck' and his head and limbs were removed after death. Witchcraft expert and South African pathologist Dr Hendrik Scholtz, who performed a second post-mortem, concluded that the torso had all the hallmarks of a ritualistic killing.

If proved, it would be the first known case of a ritual or 'muti' murder in the UK. Such killings are associated with African witch doctors who use the body parts for black magic potions. According to Dr Scholtz, a human sacrifice takes place when a small group of people need to obtain supernatural powers to be successful in areas such as business or politics.

The possibility that a child could be killed for his or her body parts, which are then used in spells to increase the powers of others, is shocking. But throughout Africa, women and children are the main victims of an ancient black magic practice, which has very little to do with Africa's popular religion, voodoo, but everything to do with fear, greed and power.

Voodoo, with its numerous deities and tradition of animal sacrifice, is rooted in 6,000 years of African history. Today over 60 million people practise voodoo worldwide and it is particularly prevalent amongst the ancestors of African slaves, for example in Brazil, Haiti, Cuba and America. Even in Europe, where members of these countries have settled, voodoo is discreetly practised.

Over the page: more on voodoo
Voodoo priests and priestesses are healers, diviners and deflectors of evil spirits. They disassociate themselves from the Hollywood version of voodoo with its pinned dolls and black magic and say that ritual killings have as little to do with voodoo as Satanism does with Christianity.

Muti murders
Last year three-year-old Thabile Mhlanzi, from the South African village of Dambaze, was found with her tongue, ears and parts of her genitals cut off. She had been left to bleed to death and was believed to be a victim of a witchcraft killing, which police say is on the increase.

When the child's alleged killers appeared at Pietermaritzburg magistrate's court, members of several local women's groups demonstrated noisily outside. Muti killings, they argued, had nothing to do with South African culture and religion but were being used as an excuse by men to abuse and control women and children.

Killing for power
Such killings are a problem throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Anyone travelling or living on the continent will encounter numerous stories and rumours, such as the fact that human heads fetch a high price for ritual use in Nigeria and that politicians and members of the military in West Africa are kept in power by the use of body parts in magic rituals. Worryingly, there is always an increase in ritual killings during elections and wars.

Several years ago, I was reporting in Togo in West Africa. The country's president, Eyadema, ruled via dictatorship but was toppled after bodies of pregnant women and babies were discovered in a lagoon in Lome, the capital. For the Togolese, the findings were enough to confirm rumours that Eyadema relied on ritual slaughter to keep him in power. Riots followed and Eyadema fled the country, only to return later and be voted back as president.

In Ghana, police, with the help of the FBI, are still looking for a serial killer who murdered over 35 women in Accra. When the murders began three years ago they were dubbed the 'vampire killings' by the media because of puncture marks found on the bodies' necks and evidence that blood had been sucked from their fingers. All had been strangled and, in some cases, breasts and genitals were rumoured to have been removed.

Over the page: sexist and fearful
The killings increased during the presidential election in 2000, sparking suspicions that they were linked to muti murders and deathly conspiracy by those seeking power. The theory also cast aspersions on a police force that has seemed either incapable or unwilling to stop the killer.

Sexist and fearful
Elizabeth Akapalu, executive director of Advocates for Gender Equality, believes the police attitude to the vampire killings and their apparent reluctance to find the person or persons responsible not only hints at a fear of those behind the killings, but a rampant sexism.

'This is a reflection of the way women are seen as inferior beings in Africa. There is a murder nearly every month, and no one is doing anything about it. We are invisible and the excuse they give for not investigating properly is to say that the women killed were prostitutes. They were not; most of them were businesswomen and traders. Even if they were prostitutes, that is no excuse. They were mothers, sisters, wives and daughters.'

The ritualistic nature of the killings has made women in Accra more fearful. `There is no smoke without fire,' as market trader Fiona Pepara says, reflecting the suspicions of most Ghanaian women. 'When our soldiers go to fight for the United Nations, some of the top-ranking officers pay for protection rituals. When people get into power they are so afraid of losing it, they will do anything to hang on to it, even seek out the blood of women and bits of their bodies. There's no harm in going to the voodoo priest when you are in trouble, but what these people are doing is evil.'

Back in Britain

Now that Professor Scholtz has linked the child's murder to black magic rituals, the dark side of a religion that spiritually sustains millions with its ancient gods - and which has been officially recognised by Pope John Paul II - will continue to be sensationalised by the media.

Yet for many women, it is another tragedy in a long list of brutal abuse already meted out to women and children around the world that goes unpunished. For them ritual killings have little to do with gods, but everything to do with men.