Almost every day, somewhere in the African continent, people accidentally find a dead corpse whose owner, who is allegedly looking down at us from heaven, was killed for superstitious reasons like bringing good omen; good luck, warding off evil spirits, or conjuring up “good” ones.
In an investigation it conducted last summer, Jeune Afrique mentions assassinations incidents which are more likely to be associated with superstitious activities.
On May 14th, 2014, in the province of Simiuy, Northern Tanzania, the police arrested a couple who kidnapped an albino and took his legs after massacring him.
Later, on May 25th, 2014, in Yaouandé, Cameroon, the corpse a mutilated young woman was found for the 3rd time in two weeks.
In Benue, Southern Nigeria, two teenagers miraculously escaped their kidnappers on the 22nd of March. They described how they were kidnapped and taken to a place where tens of people were waiting to be decapitated.
On March 22nd, 2015, the Nigerian police raided the hideout of an armed gang in another Nigerian city. What they found were skeletons and human parts.
According to Jeune Afrrique, influential politicians, businessmen, and celebrities in African countries are superstitious when it is necessary for them to be. When their power, fame, or electoral chances are concerned, they never hesitate to use sorcery, and human parts are a main compenent of the practice. The recipe usually requires the body parts of the poor, the homeless, the needy, and the solitary.
Fetishism never left the world of politics. Political fetishism seems to set international agendas. From the Cabalistic to Voodoo practices, politicians always found an esoteric world in which they could ground their fancies.
But in Africa, the game is more down to earth. As Jeune Afrique notes, in Africa this game coexists with poverty, corruption, and disregard of meritocracy. This makes it seem more rational for ordinary people to accuse the political elite of committing this type of crimes.
Certainly, stories about African presidents needing to scapegoat young ladies are nothing more folk tales. The story of the Equatoguinean president Obiang Nguema eating human testicules is a mere myth. But seeing how Laurent Gbagbo needed to see thousands of his countrymen dead in the streets of Abidjan to realize he needed to go fosters these myths in people’s minds.
Ritual crimes exist and the system fosters and participates in them, not only on a superstitious supernatural level, but also on a political level. These rituals are being politically repeated and promoted every day through impunity, cowardice, and cloaking and shouldering nepotism at the expense of meritocracy.
