Modern Day Witch Hunt in South Africa

The words burn into my eyes like greusome headlines: 2 Women Killed By a Mob in Ghana. 1 burned alive at Verkhnesadovye. And, finally, a 55 year old woman doused with gasoline and set afire at Hammanskraael, South Africa. These people, condemned as witches, were not persecuted in the 16th or 17th century. The "unknown" 55 year old woman was murdered on 19 July, 1996.

The 20th century death toll is as ridiculous as it is long. In November, 1925 a person was shot in Germany as a suspected werewolf. One was killed for sorcery in France, 1977. And between the years 1986 and 1996, over 300 people suspected of witchcraft were killed in South Africa. Not chilled to the bone yet? Listen closely to the last entry on the Witch Killings database: Tikambai Sahu, killed by a mob, Nagpur India, 27 June, 2000.

Issuing these names is a database called "The Burning Times". I was interested by the fact that "The Burning Times" is not a Wiccan site. Running this site are people devoted to recording acts of inhumanity- in every religion. About their list, these people stated, "Some were guilty. Most were probably innocent and Christian. A few were "satanists", most were not. Some were just senile. Or too ugly. Or too pretty. Or just in the wrong place at the wrong time. At least one was subsequently made a Saint... We present this list as historical data... and as an object lesson in the ultimate results of intolerance, superstition, and hate-mongering." Apologies were made that, due to lack of space, the lists I have are not complete. The hundreds of people who were humiliated, beaten, imprisoned, flogged, deported, run out of town and who generally had their lives destroyed but lived are not in my lists.