That Not So Old Black Magic

In April 2022, António Chicopa a Mozambican trader in the Milange area in Zambézia province was approached by two men ...

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..... attempting to sell severed male human genitals, for 35 million kwachas ($42,000; £33,000). They were being sold as having powerful totem or Ju-ju for traditional healing (or black magic).

He reported the approach to the police who caught the two men in an ambush, and the two men waiting to be taken to court. The police statement confirmed the events, and that a person was murdered was murdered in the Milange area in the Zambézia province that borders Malawi, and his organs removed.

A few years ago, bald men became the targets of witchdoctors in Mozambique, where the body parts and heads of bald men are also traded across the borders to Malawi and Tanzania where they are of value in witchcraft. In 2020 a man was arrested by the police custody in Chimoio, central Mozambique, after admitting attempting to sever a bald taxi driver's genitals. The suspect told officers he posed as a customer to lure the taxi driver to a forest, where together with an accomplice, they assaulted the victim using blunt objects. 

He did not admit why they targeted the taxi driver, but bald men have been targeted by people seeking to use their body parts for magic ritual purposes. The local community apparently still thinks that bald men are 'rich,' and that their body parts can be used by healers in rituals to promote the fortunes of the witchdoctors' clients.

These beliefs are so widely held, that even amongst the African diaspora worldwide the practises of using body parts are continued, with ritual killings carried out as a way of garnering them. Perhaps the most infamous case of this going on is the so called 'Adam' killing in London, where an unidentified African male child torso was found in the river Thames.

DNA suggested that the child was from the Benin city area of Nigeria, and its believed that he was human trafficked in to the United Kingdom for a muti or juju ritual sacrifice. The unfortunate child (who was aged between 4 and 8), had been poisoned, his throat had been slit to drain the blood from his body, and his head and limbs had been expertly removed (possibly by someone with medical training - educated professionals also believe in Juju). No one has ever been arrested for the crime, and the perpetrators are likely still living in the UK. 

Albinos In Africa Face Numerous Threats

The most wanted human body parts are from albinos (who have white skin and yellow hair as a result of a genetic disorder), who are regularly killed or attacked in several African countries for their body parts for use in witchcraft. According to the UN more than a hundred attacks against albinos have been registered in Mozambique in the last few years.

So strong are the beliefs in traditional healing/magic, that when at least 80 inmates in a Mozambique prison in Montepuez died in 2000, that local reports said that they may have suffocated in magical smoke. This after investigator, Eugenio Zacarias, told state radio that after carrying out autopsies on more than 30 corpses "We have so far concluded that the deaths resulted from suffocation." with no signs of aggression.

However to pour oil on smoking waters, other inmates told reported that there had been troubles in the prison when a group of detainees - all traditional fighters believed to possess magical powers known as 'naparamas' - began fighting among themselves. One said several people were severely beaten, and that he later saw huge clouds of smoke and water in the cells.

Oddly, whilst male 'witchdoctors' are often considered as 'traditional healers (known as curandeiros in Mozambique),' and secretly or openly consulted by locals, they can also often be blamed for bad events and killed by locals as well. The elderly are often the targets of the local mobs. A BBC report from November 2011 confirmed that at least 20 elderly Mozambicans had been killed in that year alone for alleged witchcraft.

Apparently with high levels of unemployment, poverty, superstition and illiteracy, the youth of several countries where belief in witchcraft is strong (including South Africa, Cameroon, Mozambique, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia amongst many), often blame old people - including their own grandparents - of casting evil spells over them.

This can frequently lead to elderly women being kicked out of their families or killed. One charity operating in the region said that there was often a belief that if your child falls sick, the first thing you do is go to see the traditional healer. The answer they give is invariably to accuse someone in the family. Usually the parents mother, or father or grandparents ... whomever they think they can get away with accusing. They never say it is HIV/Aids, malaria or tuberculosis etc. But usually its an elder in the family or community.

So inherent is the belief in traditional healers in Africa (the WHO estimate that traditional herbal medicine accounts for 80% of healthcare in Africa), that in Mozambique they are supposed to be registered with an official organisation. However as they are often the only healers available in many regions, they do serve some good in the community (after all we usually recover from illnesses even without medication), and they can have a placebo effect on their clients, by acting on the psychological side, by giving the person the impression of fighting the disease.

So although undoubtedly some are basically conmen with malign intentions, many are well meaning and believe in the treatments they dish out, which are usually harmless.