Gawker has an article today about three women who were arrested in Zimbabwe for alleged sexual assault and were found to have 31 condoms – “some with semen” – stashed in a boyfriend’s car. The author appears entirely baffled as to the nature of the crime, but her description of the press coverage as “slightly witch-hunty” is more accurate than she may realize.
Ritualistic sexual assault is actually just one particularly disturbing aspect of the larger phenomenon of witchraft and ostensibly magical practices that are commonly referred to as “juju” and remain widespread even in relatively developed and educated nations such as Zimbabwe. According to a recent study, sperm (in addition to blood, hair, and worse things) is collected for ritual purposes, often by force:
In these cases the sperms are collected through coercing street boys to have sex with the women. However, in some cases, the culprits collect the sperms from their male partners or at times from men that they force themselves on.
Lest you think that this is mainly a problem in rural areas or among the lower classes, the research shows that behind these practices are extensive underground syndicates run by wealthy businesspeople hoping to use the rituals to increase their riches and power. In fact, in many regions belief in witchcraft and the occult remains strong among people of all socio-economic classes, as demonstrated by the infamous case of Mona Fandey, a former Malaysian pop singer who decapitated and dismembered a prominent politician during a ritual that she had promised would make him wealthy. She smiled throughout her trial, right up to the moment she was executed, her last words being “I will never die”.
Nor is the phenomenon limited to the developing world. Disturbingly, BBC reports that over the last four years, over 400 abducted African children have been smuggled into the UK for use in rituals by some of the traditional healers that are often prominent within Britain’s immigrant communities. They are subjected not only to physical torture through cutting and draining of blood, but are also psychologically abused to the point where they believe that speaking against their captors will bring magical retribution on them and their families.
This widespread belief in the power of juju is one of the things that makes it so difficult to combat, as many within the affected communities believe that even speaking about it will invite calamity. If ever there were an issue where education and raising awareness could make a significant difference, this is certainly one.
