Juju now a threat to national security

When communities are obsessed with witchcraft beliefs, all sorts of freaks should be expected. Social experts warn that killings linked to witchcraft are gradually becoming the new form of threat to the right to life. PHOTO | FILE

 Dar es Salaam. Witchcraft is the new threat to national security, say commentators and religious leaders as a recent count reveals at least 200 people have been murdered in superstition-related killings over the past nine months.
Experts are worried that current strategies to rein in the problem are failing. They are calling for rapid interve tion and want the government to come up with a workable plan to protect wananchi’s right to life. This anxiety comes in the wake of reports from all over the country that say more people are being brutally attacked and murdered on allegations of sorcery. For many communities these recurrent             
incidents pose a very real threat to peace, particularly in rural areas.  Over 1,400 people suspected of engaging in witchcraft have been killed between January 2010 and September this year according to the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC).
Most of them – 600 – were murdered between January and November last year. During the same period a year earlier 579 citizens lost their life in gross nationwide violations of due-process simply because they were thought to be sorcerers.
People with albinism have been targeted out for particularly gruesome treatment. To cater for a booming albeit macabre trade in their body parts which are falsely believed to possess “magical properties,” 64 albinos have been brutally murdered and their parts hacked off across the country between 2007 and September 2012.
Observers say these numbers would easily have doubled if cases of witchcraft-related attacks had not been reported. They blame widespread ignorance, poverty, life difficulties and a growing sense of disillusionment for this tragic phenomenon.
Entire communities have been wrecked by these unjustified killings, according to experts. They say this pervasive belief in the supernatural is standing in the way of progress.
“What you see today is an expression of ignorance and poverty in our communities,” former University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) don Dr Simeon Mesaki told The Citizen on Sunday in a recent interview. Ignorance perpetuates a false belief in the supernatural according to the anthropologist.
The witchcraft trade becomes even more acceptable when it is as commercialised as it is in Tanzania, where individuals are willing to pay a king’s ransom to fortune tellers or traditional healers who can “detect an evil person,” said Dr Mesaki. 
He feels the nation is fast approaching a tipping point as witch hunters become even more brazen. More needs to be done to reverse this alarming trend according to him.
One strategy would be to make “improving lives” and “law enforcement” top priorities in the national agenda. “We need to improve health delivery, nutrition, education and to address population growth and climate change if we want to uproot these beliefs (in witchcraft),” said Dr Mesaki.  The justice system has failed to eradicate witchcraft-related violence because it is too inefficient according to him. “The killings go on and on because cases are never heard. The judicial process moves too slowly to actually have an impact,” he said.
Laws on witchcraft also need to be adapted to current circumstances. “We have to have reforms if we want to blot out institutionalised beliefs in witchcraft and sorcery,” said Dr Mesaki.
For LHRC executive director Ms Helen Kijo-Bisimba superstition is simply a function of economic inequality. “Citizens are desperate and as you know, a desperate person would do almost anything,” she told The Citizen on Sunday. “It’s all about the economy,” she said. “Our country is so wealthy (so really) there is no rationale for anyone to engage in witchcraft. If one is busy and they make enough money to live on our superstitious beliefs will automatically melt away,” said the human rights activist.
Witchcraft-related murders are particularly chilling because they point to a freewheeling nation that allows anarchy to destroy entire communities, says the LHRC director. “It is going to be very difficult to govern this country if the trend continues,” she said. According to her neither government nor civil society take the witchcraft issue seriously. “We have organisations fighting the death penalty and for the rights of women and children but we do not have one that works to end witchcraft killings,” she told this reporter.
Independent global studies have revealed that on average Tanzanians believe in juju more than most other nationals in Sub-Saharan Africa. A 2008 survey by the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project of the United States shows that although many Tanzanians are religious, a lot of people still believe in witchcraft and evil spirits. The very same people that go to mosques on Fridays and to churches on Sundays are making offerings to ancestors and visiting witch doctors according to the Pew-Templeton study. Many more believe in reincarnation and in other elements that are the cornerstone of traditional African faith systems.
In the five-member East African Community (EAC) Tanzanians were said to be the most superstitious and ranked third across the board after Senegal and Mali. The study, titled Tolerance and Tension: Islam and Christianity in sub-Saharan Africa, was conducted in 19 countries across the continent.
Nine out of every 10 respondents from Tanzania told Pew-Templeton researchers that religion is important in their lives, yet an overwhelming 60 per cent said they consulted traditional healers when they or someone close to them got sick. They also admitted to keeping amulets and other ‘magical’ tidbits in their homes and to taking part in ceremonies to honour their forefathers.
The survey involved some 1,504 Tanzanians of whom 907 were Christian and 539 Muslim. It established that although many Tanzanians are deeply committed to Islam or to Christianity they continue to cherish traditional beliefs and practices.
For some like UDSM sociologist Dr Datius Rweyemamu faith and witchcraft killings have very little to do with each other. He argues that the rise in superstition-related murders is a consequence of failure in delivering essential social services.
“If we had proper health services and a working education system we would not have seen this much violence,” he said in an exclusive interview with The Citizen on Sunday. “Organs that are supposed to provide basic social services are in shambles forcing citizens to find alternative solutions to their problems,” added the UDSM don.
Tanzanians are overwhelmed by economic problems and poverty so they look to witchcraft to solve their problems according to him. He is worried that these beliefs are so pervasive that they are getting in the way of law enforcement officers doing their jobs.
“These things are becoming a way of life. We’ll soon start seeing magistrates perverting justice because they are afraid they’ll be bewitched – remember these people are a product of a society that has embraced witchcraft,” said Dr Rweyemamu. 
The Auxiliary Bishop for the Catholic Diocese of Bukoba Methodius Kilaini takes Dr Rweyemamu’s argument a step further: He argues that witchcraft killings are a consequence of a get-rich-quick mentality among Tanzanians today. Citizens are rushing to juju men in droves in their quest for a sure-fire shortcut to wealth.
“When one is obsessed with wealth, religion plays second fiddle,” he said. He suggests that government institutes statutes that restrict the activities of traditional healers whom he blames for fuelling the killings of innocent citizens.