In Africa, as elsewhere, people are most likely to accuse each other of witchcraft in small, close-knit communities, where jealousies envy and tensions abound. The witch is hardly ever a stranger; he/she is, on the contrary, someone familiar, someone close to you, someone who knows you well and allegedly wishes you ill. .
Often, people accused of witchcraft are poor; they may be deformed; they may make others feel guilty and therefore angry at them. But the supposed witch can also be the opposite of a loser. He may be someone too beautiful, too clever, too successful."There is usually a great fear of displaying one's ability to build a remarkable house, dress smartly, or do well in school," one inhabitant explains in a witch-fearing village near Voi, Kenya. Research by students in the Lands Institute of Dar-es-Salaam showed that witchcraft beliefs were an obstacle to development in the northern district of Handeni in Tanzania. .
Traditionally, the punishment for witchcraft in many communities would be banishment or death. Today, there are reports of increases in witch-hunts and of lynchings of suspects in some African countries. In Kenya in 1992, over three hundred people accused of witchcraft were lynched, often by torching their houses. In Zambia, the government tried to stop a wave of witch-hunts by ordering witch-hunters and people suspected of witchcraft to pay high fees. South Africa reported an increase in ritual killings in 1992. .
July 14, 1995 - 250 documented cases of witch killings in the Northern Province in 1994, as reported by a commission of inquiry set up to investigate witchcraft-related crime. Weekly Mail and Guardian.
December 27, 1995 - More than 70 people were killed in witch hunts in Northern Transvaal since April 1994. Weekly Mail and Guardian.
June 5, 1996 - Six men sentenced for 30 years each for stoning to death 2 women suspected of witchcraft in Lydenburg.
June 18, 1996 - First witchcraft summit met in Pietersburg claims that 117 people had been killed in witch hunts since January '96.
Intro One morning in late February 1998, Carly Hudson, Erika Allison and Daniel Booher were contacted by Special Agent John Ciccone of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) of the Los Angeles division Group II. With us was Special Agent William Queen. Ciccone knew that Quee...