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Witch Hunt Research Paper

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“200 angry villagers-mostly youths carrying axes, machetes and knives-grabbed Jane Faidha Bakari, 58, in Tabora, hacked her with sharp weapons and burned her alive while her helpless husband watched” (Tonny Onyulo). Actual witch hunts have not been practiced for centuries all over the world, but in recent years Africa as begun to experience various forms of witch hunts in its society. In order to explain people’s deaths, illness, bad luck, and hardships, witches have become the escape goat. Many women are being beaten, hung, and burned alive just for being accused of witchcraft whether it is proven or not. Moreover, witch hunts have more than a single motive: both personal and economic. Many Africans feel that they are doing the right …show more content…
“The victims are almost invariably old women, and they live alone. These women are frightening anomalies here: they have a flicker of financial independence denied to all other females” (Sophie Grove). Often these women are being targeted because someone is envious of them and want what they have. When a woman in the community is seen as more financial stable or independent than the usual woman is then people usually cry witchcraft on them. This shows how Africa has not yet developed the thought that women can be as secure by themselves as a man can. The accusers often believe those accused are acquiring their wealth from the use of witchcraft. Furthermore, this mindset is causing harm to Africa’s families; causing many women to go into hiding to save their lives. “They claimed my wife was practicing witchcraft and killing albinos” (Tonny Onyulo). The people of Africa have been raised to be very superstitious. If someone gets really sick, injured, or dies it is easy to blame a woman related to, seen with, or heard talking about the inflicted person, so that they have an explanation for their misfortune. Moreover, it is unfair, unjust, and sexist that these women are being killed with no evidence that they had committed a crime. These acts are showing the world how women are still being treated unjustly and that this treatment needs to end. These …show more content…
The women of Africa feel that their government is not doing much to help protect their lives. So many are being accused and the numbers are not dropping, sadly it is to say that witchcraft has become “one of the top crimes in the Central African Republic, where around 40 percent of prosecutions involve witchcraft charges” (The Atlantic). There are also children who are prosecuted and end up going to strange healing centers and often times abuse is reported. “Asida accused the government-which banned witchcraft in January-of relying too much on the courts to prove whether women were practicing witches. ‘They pretend as if they don’t know witchcraft exists,’ he said” (Tonny Onyulo). It is important to realize that the government is relying solely on their court system that is mainly accusing people of witchcraft because they feel they are all knowing of it and like the power it gives them. This shows how the government are not too concerned with the people who are killing these women but only showing how they believe these women are committing the crime of witchcraft and. Trying to find a way to control this kind of situation can be very difficult though. “Tanzanian police admit witchcraft-related killings are common in the country’s northwest but catching the culprits is difficult. The lynching does tend to occur after someone dies

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