The Burning Times Continues
It is a tragic fact, and one largely unknown, both to fellow South African Pagan practitioners, as well as to the majority overseas, that the burning times as witnessed in Europe centuries ago is continuing in South Africa.

The savage attacks on anyone who is old, different, successful, poor, beautiful or any other notion that makes one a scapegoat, is almost a direct simulation of what happened in Europe over 500 years ago. In this case the oppressed and the oppressors are black. To a large extent there appears to be political motivation, but the end result is always the same: burying or burning the ‘witches’ alive, often with their whole family, including domestic animals and livestock.

The crisis in South Africa is so serious that 2 separate villages have been established for victims and their familiars in the Northern Province. Malnutrition is rife, orphans of murdered ‘witches’, existential dilemmas that there is no future for those who are forced to flee and settle here, and general pain and suffering abound.

The Witchcraft Suppression Act of 1957 cannot be withtracted because within it is enshrined the inherent right to protection of anyone accussed of being a witch.

In South Africa fear of witches amongst the black population is as rife as was the fear of witches in Europe when the Maleus Maleficerum was in its zenith. The ‘umtagathi’ or the ‘boloi’ (witch) is always evil. There is no such concept of a white witch. Read darkwolf's book “Dancing under an African Moon (Zebra 2002) for further details on the concepts behind these atrocities.

The challenge to those ‘witches’ and Wiccans in South Africa is how to be sensitive to a complex socio-political dynamic and true to themselves in their need to proclaim themselves as such. And always of course, what are YOU doing to change the situation. We challenge all those in Europe and America who have become complacent and take for granted their religious status, to either renew their walk with the old gods in a land of freedom, and/or to fight this tyranny in any way that the old ones decree.

Contributions in terms of media articles and events is very welcome.

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