In some places, “witch” is substituted by “secretly christian”, or “israeli spy” or “communist” or “adulterer”. The pattern’s the same though.

In the more humane places, they’re killed before being put on a funeral pyre. As the video from Kenya shows though, sometimes they’re repeatedly caught as they run out, are beaten and put back on until they give up trying to escape and just sit , rocking, while the flames slowly burn their clothes, their hair, and their skin off them. The fires are quite small. so this can take a long time before they finally lose consciousness.

The ones who do actually kill children are usually considered too powerful to touch. Besides, you never know when you might need their services – and they often have powerful friends.

Such a pattern is quite familiar – it happened all over Europe in the 1400s, and the last witch was hanged in Scotland in 1732.

Words, I have found, may not mean the same thing when I utter them, and when they are heard by someone in a different culture. Not even when we speak the same language, English. They mean something else. And, because in most of our mother tongues in Uganda, we speak in euphemisms most times, the concrete transliteration that the English language does have does not adequately translate what we may mean.

You talk about witch-hunts, and think of McCarthyism? When I talk of witchhunts, I am thinking of a mob coming to our house, dragging us out and beating us to death. I am thinking of us (me and my partner) being dragged to a local council meeting, being tried for being homosexual, convicted, and the sentence of death being carried out there and then by our neighbours and people in the village. By stoning, and beating. That is what I think about. That is the reality in Uganda. And, that is what will literally happen.

When we say we fear, we do fear. And, the fear is not misplaced. Especially in the atmosphere created at the moment, with a gay person being branded the worst of sinners in Church and mosque, with demonstrations, and the Minister of Ethics and Integrity urging people to report homosexuals and murderers to the police.

Take that statement. People who do child sacrifice, and other murderers have to be rescued from the police. Because that is the one thing to make a mob, as quickly as possible. Lump homosexuals and murderers together, and you are sending a subtle but very dangerous message.

When a person is accused of murder or child sacrifice, an alarm is sent out, and a mob gathers. They start beating up that person, beating and stonning them, until they die, and then the body is burnt. As soon as possible.

If one is lucky, the police will come and rescue that person, and literally take them into protective custody. Maybe charged. Murderers are not reported to the police. Summary mob justice is meted out. So, the statement should have been, ‘murderers have to be rescued by the police’

The belief in witchcraft is pervasive across the continent and is not restricted only to peasants and the uneducated. In fact, nearly all of the educated African elite believe in its efficacy. It is quite hard to believe that given all the advances in medicine and science in the last 500 years, most Africans today still attribute their misfortune and sickness to evil spirits and demons, courtesy of witchcraft.

In Uganda, where currently there is public outrage towards child sacrifice, there is a lot of discussion on what should be done to the perpetrators; but strangely, nowhere will you see any discussion of the root cause of the problem, which is the belief itself.

The reason people go to witchdoctors is because they believe it works. They believe that if certain spells are cast, then their troubles will disappear. Some of these beliefs are harmless – or so they seem. For example, a young man might think wearing a simple voodoo charm will increase his chances of getting employed. No harm in that, you might think. But picture this young man, 20 years later, now an established businessman. His businesses are failing.

In seeking solutions to the problems he consults a witchdoctor, who, this time, tells him that by sacrificing a child, his debts will disappear. Given his already ingrained belief that witchcraft works, is there any reason to think this man won’t go ahead with it, or at least consider it as an option? The answer is obvious. His formerly harmless superstition has now evolved into a dangerous belief system, which now is threatening to put the life of an innocent child in danger.

Therefore, the best way of ending this scourge is by eradicating the irrational belief itself – through education and sensitisation.

That’s why the authorities haven’t passed more stringent legislation against them. They’re afraid. They need a scapegoat to kill, to convince God not to destroy Uganda for their sins. A lot of the legislators believe in witchcraft too, it says in the Bible that they exist. They’re very religious. The Ugandan catholic church performs many, many exorcisms, with Bell, Book and Candle, as Evil and Unclean Spirits are everywhere.

It’s likely that instead of psychotherapy, a program of scourging, exorcism, ritual involving “traditional healing” methods and just plain torture will be used. This is not the USA.

Gays make the perfect scapegoat. The first Ugandan Saint was martyred by a gay pedophillic Ugandan ruler in the late 1800’s.

Please look at the story of the Lord’s Resistance Army. There was a commenter here who made the quite valid point that following the literal words of the Bible really did mean killing children who were disrespectful, forcing rape victims to marry their rapists, and killing gays. His concern was the same as the Germans implementing the Endlosung, how to kill enough cheaply, and how to dispose of the bodies hygenically.

Until you understand what Ugandans mean when they say something, what the cultural context is, you’re going to misunderstand completely.

Reparative Therapy for the Ugandan legislature means use of thumbscrews and the rack. As it used to in Medieval Europe, another place infested with Evil Spirits etc etc

From the BBC:

A BBC investigation into human sacrifice in Uganda has heard first-hand accounts which suggest ritual killings of children may be more common than authorities have acknowledged.

One witch-doctor led us to his secret shrine and said he had clients who regularly captured children and brought their blood and body parts to be consumed by spirits.

Meanwhile, a former witch-doctor who now campaigns to end child sacrifice confessed for the first time to having murdered about 70 people, including his own son.

The Ugandan government told us that human sacrifice is on the increase, and according to the head of the country’s Anti-Human Sacrifice Taskforce the crime is directly linked to rising levels of development and prosperity, and an increasing belief that witchcraft can help people get rich quickly.

…

Uganda’s Minister of Ethics and Integrity James Nsaba Buturo believes that “to punish retrospectively would cause a problem… if we can persuade Ugandans to change, that is much better than going back into the past.”

Child protection activists in organisations such as FAPAD (Facilitation for Peace and Development) and ANPPCAN (African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect) have highlighted recent cases of ritual killing and called for new legislation to regulate so-called “traditional healers”.

The place has a significant Human Sacrifice problem. Please revise your ideas in the light of that. More on that anon.

I have avoided the phrase “witch hunt” in relation to the issue. That’s because in Uganda, as in Kenya, they have literal witch hunts were old women are caught and burnt to death. (Please don’t follow that link without significant mental preparation beforehand)