Books
The Once & Future Witch Hunt: A Descendant's Reckoning from Salem to the Present | Alice Markham-Carter | 2024
Unearthing a Legacy of Persecution: A Descendant's Fight for Justice
Alice Markham-Cantor's quest to understand her ancestor's execution during the Salem witch trials becomes a captivating exploration that exposes a chilling truth: witch hunts haven't vanished, they've morphed and continued worldwide.
This groundbreaking exploration transcends Salem's narrative. It transforms the witch trials into a powerful call to action, revealing the enduring threat of historical injustices and empowering readers to confront them in the present.
This multi-faceted book delves into witchcraft, feminism, anthropology, and history, offering a fresh perspective on how the past continues to shape our world.
The Killing of Adam: A Victim of Human Sacrifice | Mary Devey
This story is about Adam and about the many African children who fall prey to sacrifices and ritual abuse everyday. It is the story that tells you child ritual abuse flourishes right before our eyes and that authorities as far as Mozambique and Kenya, while desperate to contain its lethal effects, still lack the ability and know-how to contain its cancerous growth formations within the human populace. The trade is strong, the criminals are astute and the law has yet to pay heed to its extinction. For Adam, the story of his life was cut short brutally at a very young age, the very tender age when children are supposed to enjoy their childhood and when he should have been properly cared for by people he looked to for support and love. He is one of the few the media uses to tell the story, his story, and the reason why we should say no to child ritual abuse.
Encounters with Witchcraft: Field Notes from Africa | Norman Miller
Encounters with Witchcraft is a personal story of a young man's fascination with African witchcraft discovered first in a trek across East Africa and the Congo. The story unfolds over four decades during the author's long residence in and many trips to Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. As a field researcher he learns from villagers what it is like to live with witches, and how witches are seen through African eyes. His teachers are healers, cult leaders, witch-hunters and self-proclaimed "witches" as well as policemen, politicians and judges.
A key figure is Mohammadi Lupanda, a frail village woman whose only child has died years before. In her dreams, however, she believes the little girl is not dead, but only lost in the fields. Mohammadi is discovered wandering at night, wailing and calling out for the child. Her neighbors are terror-stricken and she is quickly brought to a village trial and banished as a witch. The author is able to watch and listen to the proceedings and later investigate the deeper story. He discovers mysteries about Mohammadi that are only solved when he returns to the village three decades later.
Today, witch-hunting and witchcraft-related crimes are found in more than seventy developing countries. Epidemics of violence against alleged witches, mainly women, but including elders of both genders, and even children is on the increase in some parts of the world. Witchcraft beliefs may lie behind vigilante murders, political assassinations, revenge killings and commercial murders for human body parts.
Through African voices the author addresses key questions. Do witchcraft powers exist? Why does witchcraft persist? What are its historic roots? Why is witchcraft-based violence so often found within families? Does witchcraft serve as a hidden legal and political system, a mafia-like under-government? The author holds up a mirror for us to think about religious beliefs in our own experience that rely heavily on myth and superstition.
The Devil’s Children: From Spirit Possession to Witchcraft:
New Allegations that Affect Children | Jean La Fontaine
A number of cases of serious child abuse have resulted from beliefs that children may be possessed by evil spirits and may then be given the power to bewitch others. Misfortune, failure, illness and even death may be blamed on them. The 'cure', nowadays called deliverance rather than exorcism, is to expel the spirits, sometimes by violent means. This book draws together contributions on aspects of possession and witchcraft from leading academics and expert practitioners in the field. It has been put together following conferences held by Inform, a charity that provides accurate information on new religions as a public service. There is no comparable information publicly available; this book is the first of its kind. Eileen Barker, founder of Inform, introduces the subject and Inform's Deputy Director goes on to detail the requests the charity has answered in recent years on the subject of children, possession and witchcraft. This book offers an invaluable resource for readers, whether academic or practitioner - particularly those in the fields of the safeguarding of children, and their education, health and general welfare.
Witchcraft Accusations and Persecutions as a Mechanism for the Marginalisation of Women | Samantha Spence
This books draws on feminist commentary from the disciplines of anthropology, history, law, politics and sociology in order to deal with the phenomenon of modern-day witchcraft. It focuses on the re-emergence of witchcraft beliefs in contemporary society, suggesting that witchcraft accusations and persecution are being used as a marginalisation mechanism of women. The re-emergence of witchcraft beliefs in contemporary society and the prevalence of the violence associated with such beliefs has received little attention within academic literature, yet witchcraft-related violence against women is, progressively, becoming one of the most pervasive forms of violence facing women today. This book addresses this gap in the literature, discussing the return of witchcraft beliefs to contemporary society, whilst assessing the effectiveness of international human rights law in protecting women from witchcraft accusations and persecution.
Child Witch Kinshasa | Mike Ormsby
"If you liked The Poisonwood Bible, then Child Witch Kinshasa is for you." Mail & Guardian, Johannesburg
What if our best effort turns into our worst nightmare?
When a hardworking French priest in the Congo tells an agnostic British journalist, “God is just the best that we can be”, he unleashes a chain of dramatic events that will resonate from Kinshasa to Kingston-upon-Thames.
Rising to the ethical challenge, journalist Frank befriends twelve-year-old Dudu - a homeless Congolese boy accused of sorcery - and promises to help him return to his family.
But streetwise Dudu is nobody’s fool. Their unlikely partnership disintegrates with profound consequences for them both - and for Frank’s wife and kids waiting in London.
In this colourful and humorous travelogue, what you see is not what you get, but a little faith goes a long way.
The story continues in Child Witch London.
The Killing of Adam: A Victim of Human Sacrifice | Mary Devey
This story is about Adam and about the many African children who fall prey to sacrifices and ritual abuse everyday. It is the story that tells you child ritual abuse flourishes right before our eyes and that authorities as far as Mozambique and Kenya, while desperate to contain its lethal effects, still lack the ability and know-how to contain its cancerous growth formations within the human populace. The trade is strong, the criminals are astute and the law has yet to pay heed to its extinction. For Adam, the story of his life was cut short brutally at a very young age, the very tender age when children are supposed to enjoy their childhood and when he should have been properly cared for by people he looked to for support and love. He is one of the few the media uses to tell the story, his story, and the reason why we should say no to child ritual abuse.
Encounters with Witchcraft: Field Notes from Africa | Norman Miller
Encounters with Witchcraft is a personal story of a young man's fascination with African witchcraft discovered first in a trek across East Africa and the Congo. The story unfolds over four decades during the author's long residence in and many trips to Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. As a field researcher he learns from villagers what it is like to live with witches, and how witches are seen through African eyes. His teachers are healers, cult leaders, witch-hunters and self-proclaimed "witches" as well as policemen, politicians and judges.
A key figure is Mohammadi Lupanda, a frail village woman whose only child has died years before. In her dreams, however, she believes the little girl is not dead, but only lost in the fields. Mohammadi is discovered wandering at night, wailing and calling out for the child. Her neighbors are terror-stricken and she is quickly brought to a village trial and banished as a witch. The author is able to watch and listen to the proceedings and later investigate the deeper story. He discovers mysteries about Mohammadi that are only solved when he returns to the village three decades later.
Today, witch-hunting and witchcraft-related crimes are found in more than seventy developing countries. Epidemics of violence against alleged witches, mainly women, but including elders of both genders, and even children is on the increase in some parts of the world. Witchcraft beliefs may lie behind vigilante murders, political assassinations, revenge killings and commercial murders for human body parts.
Through African voices the author addresses key questions. Do witchcraft powers exist? Why does witchcraft persist? What are its historic roots? Why is witchcraft-based violence so often found within families? Does witchcraft serve as a hidden legal and political system, a mafia-like under-government? The author holds up a mirror for us to think about religious beliefs in our own experience that rely heavily on myth and superstition.
The Devil’s Children: From Spirit Possession to Witchcraft:
New Allegations that Affect Children | Jean La Fontaine
A number of cases of serious child abuse have resulted from beliefs that children may be possessed by evil spirits and may then be given the power to bewitch others. Misfortune, failure, illness and even death may be blamed on them. The 'cure', nowadays called deliverance rather than exorcism, is to expel the spirits, sometimes by violent means. This book draws together contributions on aspects of possession and witchcraft from leading academics and expert practitioners in the field. It has been put together following conferences held by Inform, a charity that provides accurate information on new religions as a public service. There is no comparable information publicly available; this book is the first of its kind. Eileen Barker, founder of Inform, introduces the subject and Inform's Deputy Director goes on to detail the requests the charity has answered in recent years on the subject of children, possession and witchcraft. This book offers an invaluable resource for readers, whether academic or practitioner - particularly those in the fields of the safeguarding of children, and their education, health and general welfare.
Witchcraft Accusations and Persecutions as a Mechanism for the Marginalisation of Women | Samantha Spence
This books draws on feminist commentary from the disciplines of anthropology, history, law, politics and sociology in order to deal with the phenomenon of modern-day witchcraft. It focuses on the re-emergence of witchcraft beliefs in contemporary society, suggesting that witchcraft accusations and persecution are being used as a marginalisation mechanism of women. The re-emergence of witchcraft beliefs in contemporary society and the prevalence of the violence associated with such beliefs has received little attention within academic literature, yet witchcraft-related violence against women is, progressively, becoming one of the most pervasive forms of violence facing women today. This book addresses this gap in the literature, discussing the return of witchcraft beliefs to contemporary society, whilst assessing the effectiveness of international human rights law in protecting women from witchcraft accusations and persecution.