Jacqueline wrote
> This is exactly the situation we had in England after
> the repeal of the old Witchcraft Act in 1736 (which
> regarded magic as a real force), and its replacement
> by one which made it a petty crime to *claim* to be
> able to do magic, i.e. a form of fraud. The rural
> population in many places simply couldn't accept this,
> and when they found that the law would no longer
> prosecute the suspected witches, they turned to
> do-it-yourself violence
Thank you for this. Our Act does not legislate against anyone *claiming* to
do witchcraft, but makes it an offfence to accuse someone of witchcraft. I
will trace the Owen Davies books, to complement what I have already read on
the subject. SA was a British colonial state prior to the apartheid years,
and yes, this Act is actually a remaining piece of colonial legislation that
now survives into the ANC government, having ever had only one amendment,
and that way back in 1974. Witchcraft violence is a sad and ongoing
phenomenon in many parts of our country though, so much of my thesis is
looking at how the contemporary Pagans begin to articulate themselves in the
midst of such contestations from African religion and from our highly
Christianized population, who still aer fed a great deal of Satanic
clap-trap.
Owen Davies has written two
> books based on court records and local press reports
> of 18th and 19th century, full of this kind of thing.
> British colonial administrators brought with them the
> attitude that witchcraft is imaginary, and enshrined
> it in colonial law. Hence, presumably, the Witchcraft
> Act of S Africa.
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