ISIS Paranormal Investigations Blog

In an article appearing in the February 13th edition of ABS-CBN News, a story reveals that a man in Malawi has been imprisoned after accusations of sorcery. After going to court, Chikumbeni Mwanatheu, age 35, was sentenced to 60 days in prison where he will have to do hard labor. The man admitted to practicing witchcraft after he was accused of putting a spell on his neighbor in order to prevent rain from falling on his neighbor’s field. Why would somebody admit to something like this? One has to wonder if he was tortured or forced to confess. Maybe he gave up after hour upon hour of questioning and interrogation.

According to the report, the Magistrate Lameck Mkwapatira ruled that Mwanatheu required a custodial sentence so that the community could enjoy peace in the suspect’s absence and so that Mwanatheu could not harm himself. Malawi is located in Southern Africa and the entire region has been suffering from drought since last year: yep, a very good chance that the man is actually innocent of any crime here.

The practicing of witchcraft holds a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison in Malawi. That’s if you are lucky enough to wind up in prison. Many people are simply killed off by enraged, filled with fear, superstitious mobs. I wonder what kinds of methods of interrogation the officials are using in the region to get people to ultimately confess to witchcraft, especially with the understanding of a harsh prison sentence and the possibility that you might be later killed by a vicious mob. I’m sure it can’t be a positive encounter.

Read the full source for this article.

In an article appearing on MediaGlobal on February 11th, it is reported that in January, United States Congressman, Gerald Connelly filed a statement requesting that President Barack Obama take some sort of action against the unwarranted and vicious killings of albinos in Burundi and Tanzania. The story reveals that in the past two years more than fifty albinos have been killed in Tanzania and over ten albinos have been murdered in Burundi.

The killings are supposedly occurring due to ancient tribal beliefs that albinos have some kind of supernatural power or that they practice witchcraft. The albinos are wrongfully feared because people believe that they can use witchcraft to cause harm to others, to destroy other people’s property, and to hurt members of the African communities. A massive rise in these types of murders can be noted today. Just this month, four men were sentenced to death for some of the albino killings occurring in Tanzania: this was done in an effort to try to put a stop to some of the murderous actions going on in the region.

A report which was compiled by the Commission of Inquiry into Witchcraft, Violence and Ritual Killings, an organization from the Northern Province of South Africa, reveals that since the mid 1990s thousands of people have been accused of practicing witchcraft rituals, and there are ten farms which have been established for refugees who have been forced from their homes due to such accusations. What’s more, due to a lack of education in the area, the peoples are blaming diseases like HIV/AIDs on demonic activity, and they sometimes hold the belief that demons can be removed by causing harm to an ailing person or to the ailing person’s family. What’s even more disturbing is that some people hold the belief that the limbs of an albino person can bring them riches. According to the zone communications manager from the eastern African division of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Andrei Engstrandneascu, the going price for an albino “body part kit” consisting of the genitals, the hair, the arms, the legs and the ears of an albino person can cost as much as $75,000.00. My question is, what the heck would you do with something as grotesque as this? Moreover, if you can afford to pay $75,000 for a “body part kit,” you don’t need to be doing any kind of twisted rituals for prosperity. The whole thing is quite sickening. One has to wonder how human beings can do these kinds of things to one another.

Read the full story about the rash of albino killings.

An article on www.iol.co.za it is revealed that this past Tuesday in a village located in central Burundi near Itaba, a man and his three children were killed due to allegations of witchcraft. Someone threw a grenade into the man’s home. The grenade landed in the kitchen killing Emmanuel Nyandwi, his children ages 7 to 15, but his wife escaped with minor injuries.

Officials believe the crime is somehow connected to a family feud involving witchcraft, and Nyandwi was recently accused of having caused the death of a relative through sorcery.

In central African, grenades can be purchased for as little as a dollar. They are commonly used by civilians to settle disputes over land, to settle family arguments, and they were responsible for over 130 deaths in the year 2008.

Do you see what ignorance, superstition, and access to weapons can do?

Read more on the witchcraft killing in central Africa.

Also in recent news, in an article appearing on RNW, human rights groups are now accusing Gambia of unfair treatment of prisoners; prisoners are being locked away in secure cells without any kind of trial. According to a report recently released by Amnesty International and Women Advocates Research and Documentation Center, detainees are jailed inside secret prisons within the capital of Banjul. These detainees are then forced to consume hallucinogenic medicines and to confess to practicing witchcraft. The report does not reveal who these prisoners are or why they are being detained, but there is evidence that some of the prisoners are Nigerians; this is because the activists groups are now encouraging the Nigerian government to demand that the detainees will suffer no further human rights violations. Activists are also hoping the Nigerian government will demand compensation for the torture of the Nigerian detainees.

Read more on the Nigerian prisoners and the violation of their human rights.

In January, three men wearing masks rushed into a villager’s home in Tapodana and killed a mother and a father for alleged witchcraft. A 14 year old girl and her younger brother are now left orphaned and remain in hiding because Pinki, 14 has also been accused of being a witch or a “dayan.”

Another villager, Sushila Devi, hides her injuries with a sari pallu as she talks about how she, along with four other women in the village, the majority of them widows, were paraded around naked in front of the other 10,000 villagers, beaten and forced to eat excreta last October. They too were accused of being Dayans. The villagers simply watched as these women were tortured.

These women got away with their lives when so many don’t. Hundreds of women are being killed in regions like West Bengal, Jharkhand, Assam, and Bihar every year. Between 2001 and 2008, a seven year period, more than 450 women were killed in Jharkhand alone. The region is poor and there is widespread illiteracy which further encourages the ongoing superstitions and violence against women. Usually, those accused of practicing witchcraft are targeted by those that are interested in taking their property or in settling some kind of score. If someone has a grudge against you, you can be accused of witchcraft and then all bets are off.

Read more on the witchcraft killings in Tapodana.