Jane said> Sorry - I've lost track of who said this - which country are you
speaking
> from? Can you give more detail at all?
Jane, my name is Dale Wallace and I sent this in from South Africa. The Act
I referred to below is an archaic piece of legislation from our colonial
days. The Witchchraft Act survived through the apartheid decades, and has
not been repealed by the African National Congress, even after 12 years of
democracy. It's tone of denial of the reality of witchcraft has fueled
witchcraft violence in many communities, as people have no recourse to the
courts. There are enormous socio-political issues involved in the
phenomenon, and all of the political regimes, current and past, have been
inclined to use the Act to their own ends. There is one really fine local
book on this if anyone is interested.
>> Here we still have the
>> > Witchcraft Act in place that
>> > denies the reality of witchcraft, and rather than
>> > prohibiting its practice,
>> > makes it illegal to ACCUSE someone of practicing
>> > witchcraft. People
>> > therefore have no recourse to courts, and the law is
>> > taken into their own
>> > hands. There have been two witch burnings that I
>> > know of in the past few
>> > weeks - again in the similarity that most are women,
>> > many are elderly,
>> > infirm etc.
>
>
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