Editing Witch hunt (section)

===Sub-Saharan Africa===
{{Further|Witchcraft accusations against children in Africa}}

In many societies of [[Sub-Saharan Africa]], the fear of witches drives periodic witch-hunts during which specialist witch-finders identify suspects, with death by [[lynching]] often the result.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Diwan|first=Mohammed|date=2004-07-01|title=Conflict between State Legal Norms and Norms Underlying Popular Beliefs: Witchcraft in Africa as a Case Study|url=https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/djcil/vol14/iss2/5|journal=Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law|volume=14|issue=2|pages=351–388|issn=1053-6736}}</ref> Countries particularly affected by this phenomenon include [[South Africa]],<ref>{{cite thesis | degree = Doctorate of Psychology |last=Ally |first=Yaseen| title= Witchcraft accusations in South Africa: A feminist psychological exploration | date= 2014| publisher= University of South Africa 
|url=https://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/13863  
 }}</ref> [[Cameroon]], the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]], the [[Gambia]], [[Ghana]], [[Kenya]], [[Sierra Leone]], [[Tanzania]], and [[Zambia]].<ref>{{cite news|last=de Waal|first=Mandy|title=Witch-hunts: The darkness that won't go away|url=http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-05-30-witch-hunts-the-darkness-that-wont-go-away/#.UqWZe9IW2yg|access-date=9 December 2013|newspaper=Daily Maverick|date=30 May 2012}}</ref>

Witch-hunts against children were reported by the BBC in 1999 in the Congo<ref>{{cite news |title=Congo witch-hunt's child victims |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/575178.stm |date=22 December 1999 |access-date=16 April 2007 |work=BBC News}}</ref> and in Tanzania, where the government responded to attacks on women accused of being witches for having red eyes.<ref name="tanzania-arrests-witch-killers">{{cite news |title=Tanzania arrests 'witch killers' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3209047.stm |date=23 October 2003 |access-date=16 April 2007 |work=BBC News |quote=It is believed that any aged, old woman with red eyes is a witch}}</ref> A lawsuit was launched in 2001 in Ghana, where witch-hunts are also common, by a woman accused of being a witch.<ref name="tanzania-arrests-witch-killers"/> Witch-hunts in Africa are often led by relatives seeking the property of the accused victim.

[[Audrey I. Richards]], in the journal ''Africa'', relates in 1935 an instance when a new wave of witchfinders, the ''Bamucapi'', appeared in the villages of the [[Bemba people]] of Zambia.<ref>''A Modern Movement of Witch Finders'' Audrey I Richards (Africa: Journal of the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, Ed. Diedrich Westermann.) Vol VIII, 1935, published by Oxford University Press, London.</ref> They dressed in European clothing, and would summon the headman to prepare a ritual meal for the village. When the villagers arrived they would view them all in a [[mirror]], and claimed they could identify witches with this method. These witches would then have to "yield up his horns"; i.e. give over the [[horn (anatomy)|horn]] containers for [[curse]]s and evil [[potion]]s to the witch-finders. The bamucapi then made all drink a potion called ''kucapa'' which would cause a witch to die and swell up if he ever tried such things again.

The villagers related that the witch-finders were always right because the witches they found were always the people whom the village had feared all along. The bamucapi utilised a mixture of Christian and native religious traditions to account for their powers and said that God (not specifying which God) helped them to prepare their medicine. In addition, all witches who did not attend the meal to be identified would be called to account later on by their master, who had risen from the dead, and who would force the witches by means of drums to go to the graveyard, where they would die. Richards noted that the bamucapi created the sense of danger in the villages by rounding up ''all'' the horns in the village, whether they were used for anti-witchcraft charms, potions, snuff or were indeed receptacles of black magic.

The Bemba people believed misfortunes such as [[wart]]ings, [[haunting]]s and [[famine]]s to be just actions sanctioned by the High-God Lesa. The only agency which caused unjust harm was a witch, who had enormous powers and was hard to detect. After white rule of Africa, beliefs in sorcery and witchcraft grew, possibly because of the social strain caused by new ideas, customs and laws, and also because the courts no longer allowed witches to be tried.{{Citation needed|date=December 2008}}

Amongst the [[Bantu peoples|Bantu]] tribes of Southern Africa, the [[witch smeller]]s were responsible for detecting witches. In parts of Southern Africa, several hundred people have been killed in witch-hunts since 1990.<ref>{{cite periodical |url=http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/WITCH1.HTM| title=Christian responses to witchcraft and sorcery| author= Stephen Hayes
|url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060703031213/http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/WITCH1.HTM |archive-date=3 July 2006 | date= November 1995 | magazine=Missionalia | volume= 23| number= 3 | pages= 339–354}}</ref>

[[Cameroon]] has re-established witchcraft-accusations in courts after its independence in 1967.{{efn|{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dxzIIldBB1gC&pg=PA401 |title=401–422 Section 251 of the Cameroonian penal code |date=26 August 2004|isbn=9780815336709 |last1=Levack |first1=Brian P. |publisher=Routledge }} (introduced 1967).<ref>{{cite book |first=Cyprian F. |last=Fisiy |article=Containing occult practices: Witchcraft trials in Cameroon |title=New Perspectives on Witchcraft, Magic, and Demonology: Witchcraft in the modern world |volume=6 |editor=Levack, Brian P. |year=2001}}</ref> Two other provisions of the penal code [translation] "state that witchcraft may be an aggravating factor for dishonest acts" (Afrik.com 26 August 2004). A person convicted of witchcraft may face a prison term of 2 to 10&nbsp;years and a fine.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/publisher,IRBC,,CMR,440ed6e819,0.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120914094636/http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/publisher,IRBC,,CMR,440ed6e819,0.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2012-09-14 |title=Cameroon: Witchcraft in Cameroon; tribes or geographical areas in which witchcraft is practised; the government's attitude |publisher=[[United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees]] |year=2004 }}</ref>
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Whereas witchcraft cases in the colonial era, especially in former British Central Africa, were based on the official dogma that witchcraft is an illusion (so that people invoking witchcraft would be punished as either impostors or slanderers), in contemporary legal practice in Africa witchcraft appears as a reality and as an actionable offence in its own right.<ref>{{cite web |first=Wim |last=van Binsbergen |url=http://www.shikanda.net/african_religion/witchtxt.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030511000417/http://www.shikanda.net/african_religion/witchtxt.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=2003-05-11 |publisher=Shikanda.net |title=Witchcraft in Modern Africa |year=2002 }}</ref>}}

It was reported on 21&nbsp;May 2008 that in Kenya a mob had [[burnt to death]] at least 11&nbsp;people accused of witchcraft.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL21301127 |title=Mob burns to death 11 Kenyan "witches" |newspaper=Reuters |date=2008-05-21 |df=dmy-all}}</ref>

In March 2009, Amnesty International reported that up to 1,000&nbsp;people in the Gambia had been abducted by government-sponsored "witch doctors" on charges of witchcraft, and taken to detention centers where they were forced to drink poisonous concoctions.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/gambia-hundreds-accused-%E2%80%9Cwitchcraft%E2%80%9D-and-poisoned-government-campaign-20 |title=The Gambia: Hundreds accused of "witchcraft" and poisoned in government campaign |date=18 March 2009|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141223175800/http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/gambia-hundreds-accused-%E2%80%9Cwitchcraft%E2%80%9D-and-poisoned-government-campaign-20 |archive-date=23 December 2014}}</ref> On 21&nbsp;May 2009, ''[[The New York Times]]'' reported that the alleged witch-hunting campaign had been sparked by the Gambian President, [[Yahya Jammeh]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/world/africa/21gambia.html?ref=africa |title=Witch Hunts and Foul Potions Heighten Fear of Leader in Gambia |first=Adam |last=Nossiter |newspaper=The New York Times |date=2009-05-20 |df=dmy-all}}</ref>

In Sierra Leone, the witch-hunt is an occasion for a sermon by the ''kɛmamɔi'' (native [[Mende people|Mende]] witch-finder) on social ethics : "Witchcraft ... takes hold in people's lives when people are less than fully open-hearted. All wickedness is ultimately because people hate each other or are jealous or suspicious or afraid. These emotions and motivations cause people to act antisocially".<ref>''Studia Instituti Anthropos'', Vol. 41. Anthony J. Gittins : ''Mende Religion''. Steyler Verlag, Nettetal, 1987. p. 197.</ref> The response by the populace to the ''kɛmamɔi'' is that "they valued his work and would learn the lessons he came to teach them, about social responsibility and cooperation."<ref>''Studia Instituti Anthropos'', Vol. 41. Anthony J. Gittins : ''Mende Religion''. Steyler Verlag, Nettetal, 1987. p. 201.</ref>

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