It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, October 30, 2023
UK ‘This is a prison’: men tell of distressing conditions on Bibby Stockholm
Diane Taylor
THE GUARDIAN Sun, 29 October 2023 Photograph: Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images
Asylum seekers brought back to the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Dorset, have said they are being treated in such a way that “we despair and wish for death”.
The Guardian spoke to two men in their first interview since being returned to the barge on 19 October after the vessel lay empty for more than two months. The presence of deadly legionella bacteria was confirmed on board on 7 August, the same day the first group of asylum seekers arrived. The barge was evacuated four days later.
The new warning comes after it emerged that an asylum seeker attempted to kill himself and is in hospital after finding out he is due to be taken to the barge this Tuesday.
A man currently on the barge told the Guardian: “Government decisions are turning healthy and normal refugees into mental patients whom they then hand over to society. Here, many people were healthy and coping with OK spirits, but as a result of the dysfunctional strategies of the government, they have suffered – and continue to suffer – from various forms of serious mental distress. We are treated in such a way that we despair and wish for death.”
He said that although the asylum seekers were not detained on the barge and could leave visit the nearby town, in practice it was not so easy to do this.
He added: “In the barge, we have exactly the feeling of being in prison. It is true that they say that this is not a prison and you can go outside at any time, but you can only go to specific stops at certain times by bus, and this does not give me a good feeling.
“Even to use the fresh air, you have to go through the inspection every time and go to the small yard with high fences and go through the X-ray machine again. And this is not good for our health.
“In short, this is a prison whose prisoners are not criminals, they are people who have fled their country just to save their lives and have taken shelter here to live.”
The asylum seekers raised concerns about what conditions on the barge would be like if the Home Office did fill it with about 500 asylum seekers, as officials say is the plan. Those on board said it already felt quite full with about 70 people living there.
The second asylum seeker said: “The space inside the barge is very small, it feels crowded in the dining hall and the small entertainment room. It is absolutely clear to me that there will be chaos here soon.
“According to my estimate, as I look at the spaces around us, the capacity of this barge is maximum 120 people including personnel and crew. The strategy of transferring refugees from hotels to barges or ships or military installations is bound to fail.”
He added: “The situation here on the barge is getting worse. Does the government have a plan for shipwrecked residents? Everyone here is going mad with anxiety. It is not just the barge that floats on the water, but the plans of the government that are radically adrift.”
Maddie Harris of the NGO Humans For Rights Network, which supports asylum seekers in hotels, said: “Home Office policies directly contribute to the significant deterioration of the wellbeing and mental health of so many asylum seekers in their ‘care’, with a dehumanising environment, violent anti-migrant rhetoric and isolated accommodations away from community and lacking in support.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The Bibby Stockholm is part of the government’s pledge to reduce the use of expensive hotels and bring forward alternative accommodation options which provide a more cost effective, sustainable and manageable system for the UK taxpayer and local communities.
“The health and welfare of asylum seekers remains the utmost priority. We work continually to ensure the needs and vulnerabilities of those residing in asylum accommodation are identified and considered, including those related to mental health and trauma.”
BBC gives first look at new supernatural drama about ‘modern witches’ filmed and set in Manchester
The six-part series, titled Domino Day, will air in early 2024.
A new drama series all about modern witches is hitting screens early next year, and it’s both set and filmed in Manchester.
Right as spooky season draws to a close and just in time for Halloween tomorrow, the BBC has revealed exciting details about a brand-new supernatural TV series that’ll be airing in 2024, and has also released a few ‘first look’ images too to give viewers a glimpse into what to expect.
The new original series, titled Domino Day, has been created and written by BAFTA-nominated Lauren Sequeira, and is developed and produced by the team behind the two of the broadcaster‘s other previous critically-acclaimed dramas, The Responder and The Salisbury Poisoning.
Set to air on both BBC Three and BBC iPlayer on an as-yet-unconfirmed date shortly after 2024 begins, the new six-part series is both set and filmed right here in Manchester.
The show will follow the titular character, Domino Day, played by BAFTA-nominated actress Siena Kelly – who is best-known for her roles in shows such as Adult Material, and Hit & Run.
Domino is described as being a young woman who’s “on all the dating apps, but isn’t swiping to find her soulmate”, as instead, “she’s swiping to hunt”.
Giving viewers an insight into what the new drama is all about, a synopsis for the show on the BBC website reads: “A young witch with extraordinary powers, Domino is desperately seeking a community who can help her understand who she is.
BBC gives first look at new supernatural drama about ‘modern witches’ / Credit: BBC
“But she doesn’t need to look far, as a coven of witches is already tracking her every move, convinced they have to stop her before her powers destroy everyone and everything around her.
“When a dangerous figure from Domino’s past comes back to haunt her, will it be a fresh start for them all, or a final showdown?”
Babirye Bukilwa, Poppy Lee Friar, Alisha Bailey, Molly Harris, Sam Howard Sneyd, and Percelle Ascott also star in the show alongside Siena Kelly, while Lucy Cohu, Christopher Jeffers, and Jonah Rzeskiewicz form part of the talented cast of upcoming actors.
Domino Day is both set and filmed in Manchester / Credit: BBC
“I cannot wait for the world to meet this amazing cast, led by the sensational Siena Kelly,” creator Lauren Sequeira said ahead of the show airing next year.
“Don’t expect broomsticks, pointy hats and wands, as these are witches like you’ve never seen before – cool, provocative, and full of grit.
“They are all simply spellbinding onscreen, and Siena is the perfect Domino Day.”
Featured Image – BBC
The Inquisitor who wouldn’t burn witches
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. And nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition to show wise restraint in dealing with witchcraft–unless somebody has heard of Alonso de Salazar Frías.
Portrait of Alonso de Salazar, by Ricardo Sánchez (Wikipedia); right: A 17th-century rendering of "Witches' Sabbath on Brocken Mountain" by Michael Herr (Image: Wikipedia).
“… only ‘the wisdom and firmness of the Inquisition’ made the witch craze ‘comparatively harmless’ in Spain.” — William Monter, quoting Henry Charles Leai
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. And nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition to show wise restraint in dealing with witchcraft—unless somebody has heard of Alonso de Salazar Frías, ‘The Witches’ Advocate.” But before we meet this heroic Inquisitor who refused to let witches be burned, let us place him in his historical context.
Salazar’s employer, the Spanish Inquisition, founded at the request of “The Catholic Kings” Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, opened for business in 1480. Three years later, it formed one unified, government-controlled institution across both kingdoms. The initial purpose of the Spanish Inquisition was to ferret out converted Jews (conversos) who continued to practice Judaism in secret (Judaizers). It also came to prosecute unfaithful converts from Islam (Moriscos), Protestants, heretical mystics, heterodox Catholics, bigamists, blasphemers, the superstitious, and sexual sinners. The Inquisition also censored books that might foster such errors.
Contrary to the Black Legend, the Spanish Inquisition was notably less bloodthirsty than secular courts. Only about two per cent of its cases resulted in execution: possibly 3000 deaths inflicted in four centuries. Its judges were less likely to rely on evidence obtained by torture. But explanation is not absolution. The Inquisition was an expression of its own time, when differences in belief or behavior were judged worthy of death. The courts of the Inquisition did not operate by standards of justice governing Church or State today. For instance, its proceedings were so secret that prisoners were not told the charges against them nor allowed to confront their accusers. Instead, Inquisitors sought to probe the minds and souls of the accused to understand the intentions behind their supposed offenses. This quest for exactness, however, made trials excruciatingly slow, resulting in needlessly long imprisonment before cases were resolved. But even when the sentence was merely penance, public shame ruined convicted persons’ lives and tainted their families for generations.
Suppressing maleficent or diabolic witchcraft was a matter for secular courts in medieval Spain. The newly founded Spanish Inquisition initially was content with that arrangement, although it had five people burned in Saragossa at the very end of the fifteenth century. Twenty years later, it had added magic, sorcery, and witchcraft to its list of forbidden practices. But in 1526, a government-sponsored witch-hunt in Navarre prompted the Supreme Council of the Inquisition to order extreme caution when prosecuting witchcraft lest imaginary crimes be punished. An inquisitor who violated those instructions by burning seven women at Barcelona in 1549 was removed and his remaining victims freed. An investigator sent by headquarters called the cases “laughable.” Although secular authorities continued to try witches, the Inquisition demurred. It intervened from time to time, as when it saved 40 women’s lives during a panic at Navarre in 1575, but sporadically thereafter.
But in 1609, a witch-panic exploded in the Spanish Basque country. Hysteria—and terrified people—crossed the Pyrenees from France after King Henry IV sent a hyper-vigilant but credulous judge named Pierre de Lancre to hunt witches in the Basque region of Labourd. De Lancre was obsessed with the notion that a “sect” of diabolical witches—3000 strong—flourished among the backward Basques. He had at least eleven or perhaps as many as eighty witches executed but the court at Bordeaux released almost all his prisoners. Miffed by his colleagues’ skepticism, de Lancre wrote a treatise Description of the Inconstancy of Evil Angels and Demons (1612) defending the reality of devil-worship by witches. The book’s lurid illustration of a witches’ Sabbat may have had more impact than the text. (It may have even influenced Francesco Goya’s depictions of witches in his Caprichos two centuries later.)
So, what did de Lancre claim Basque witches (xorguimos and xorguinas) do beyond the usual evildoing and harming of man, beast, and crops attributed to their kind? He said that they really, physically travelled through the air to gather at secret assemblies (Akelarre) to worship Satan in the form of a He-goat (aker) in ceremonies parodying the Mass. The devilish court was strictly hierarchical and its subjects formed an “inverted Church.” Separated by grade, the witches feasted, danced, and fornicated. They enjoyed cannibal fare, brewed poisons, and initiated new members by marking them in the left eye with a shape like a frog’s foot. While the adults frolicked, the children herded toads—familiars or future potion ingredients—in a little pond off by themselves. (Stealing children to turn them into witches was a distinctive feature of Basque witchcraft and harm to children, including vampirism, was the most feared aspect.)
Anxiety about witches had filtered over the border a year before Pierre de Lancre had been sent to investigate in Labourd. A young Spanish Basque woman who had returned home after working on the French side mentioned that she had been a witch over there but had repented. She then identified several neighbors as witches. Although all of them reconciled with the Church, the spark had been lit for a new panic known as the Witches of Zugurramurdi.
The Inquisition became involved and went searching for more malefactors. After zealous special preachers fanned out into the mountain parishes to denounce the horrors of the “witch sect,” numerous children and youths suffered an epidemic of dreams about being taken to the Sabbat in their dreams. Accusations and confessions followed. Eventually, thirty-one people came under scrutiny. Twelve died in prison. Six who refused to confess were burnt at the stake in a spectacular auto de fe ceremony before a crowd of 30,000 people at the Inquisition’s regional base in Logroño in 1610.
The youngest of the three Inquisitors who judged these cases expressed misgivings about the outcome. This man was Alonso de Salazar Frías (1564-1536). Salazar, a lawyer’s son from a prosperous family of civil servants and merchants, had had a distinguished career as a canon lawyer serving two bishops before his appointment to the tribunal at Logroño. He was noted for his diplomatic skills, astute mind, tenacity, and formidable powers of concentration. In short: he never gave up.
But the Basque panic kept spreading despite the executions at Logroño. Almost 2,000 people—mostly children and young adolescents—had confessed or had attracted suspicion. Villagers had turned into vigilantes, torturing suspects on their own by methods crueler than the Inquisition ever used, trying to find the adults who had corrupted their children. There was even a fourteen-year-old French witch-finder in the mix who admitted later he had been bribed to make accusations.
Salazar was assigned investigate at the local level and offer amnesty to those who surrendered voluntarily. After eight months on the road, Salazar reported back to the Inquisitor General in Madrid: “I have not found a single proof, not even the slightest indication, from which to infer that an act of witchcraft has actually taken place.”ii The campaign against witches was the very thing that bred them.
Salazar attacked the question as no other witch-hunter ever did, before or after. By cross-checked individual confessions, he uncovered fatal contradictions. He had nine sets of witches taken individually to their alleged meeting places and questioned about details of their activities. Answers were inconsistent. Twenty-two jars of magic powders and ointments were examined by doctors and apothecaries as well as tested on animals. All were harmless. Through logic, Salazar thoroughly debunked testimony originating in dreams: if witnesses could not distinguish what they dreamt from what they did, how could judges? There was no objective test to assess their credibility nor external evidence to support charges against them. “It is not very helpful to keep asserting that the Devil is capable of doing this or that,” Salazar concluded. “The real question is: are we to believe that witchcraft occurred in a given situation simply because of what witches claim?”iii
Salazar distilled 11,200 pages of notes from his investigations into six reports for the Supreme Council of the Inquisition. Despite bitter and mendacious opposition from the other two Logroño inquisitors, the Council sided with Salazar. In 1614, it issued new instructions that henceforth forbad the execution of witches. Historian Charles Henry Lea described Salazar’s work as “the turning point in history of Spanish witchcraft.”iv
Salazar served as a tribunal judge three more times. His intervention prevented mass burnings by secular authorities at Vizcaya in 1618 by getting 289 witchcraft cases transferred to the Inquisition which suspended them all. He became prosecutor of the Supreme Council in 1628 and a full member three years later before dying in 1636.
Alas, the Inquisition’s decision not to burn witches did not mean that witches ceased to be killed. Governments executed; neighbors lynched; individuals murdered. For example, more than 300 witches were hanged in Catalonia between 1616 and 1619 before the Inquisition wrested control from the secular authorities. Deeply seated popular beliefs about witchcraft persisted, especially in northern Spain. The Inquisitors turned passive and stopped interfering in witch persecutions.
Salazar’s reports were forgotten, buried in the Inquisition’s archives until discovered by Lea almost three centuries later. Had they been published and circulated across Europe the way de Lancre’s demonology and similar books did, they would have been another voice for reason to argue against the blood-drenched madness of the Early Modern Witch-Hunt.
Nevertheless, the lifesaving wisdom and courage of Alonso de Salazar Frías are still worthy of honor. To paraphrase Sigrid Undset, “A good deed shall stand, though all the mountains crash in ruin.”
Endnotes:
iWilliam Monter, Frontiers of Heresy: The Spanish Inquisition from the Basque Lands to Sicily, p. 262 quoting Henry Charles Lea, A History of the Inquisition of Spain. 4 Vols. New York, 1906-1907. IV, p. 206. Lea, first and most comprehensive historian of the Spanish Inquisition, was not an admirer of the Catholic Church.
iiGustav Henningsen, Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: Western Tradition. IV, p. 994.
Sandra Miesel is an American medievalist and writer. She is the author of hundreds of articles on history and art, among other subjects, and has written several books, including The Da Vinci Hoax: Exposing the Errors in The Da Vinci Code, which she co-authored with Carl E. Olson, and is co-editor with Paul E. Kerry of Light Beyond All Shadow: Religious Experience in Tolkien's Work (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2011).
You've heard of Salem. But what about the Winnsboro Witch Trial?
One hundred years after the witch trial in Salem, a woman in South Carolina was accused of being a witch.
WINNSBORO, S.C. — Many of us have heard of the Salem witch trials in 1692. Not as many know that, 100 years later, another happened about 920 miles south of Massachusetts in Winnsboro, South Carolina. This is the so-called discovery and trial of the First Witch of Winnsboro.
Winnsboro was established as a town in Fairfield County in 1799. According to the Fairfield County Museum Director, Pelham Lyles, before becoming a town, it was a frontier settlement. Today, the area is known for a few things, but a witch is not at the top of the list.
Lyles said in the 1790s, being different could mean you were a witch.
“And during that period of time, if you happened to be a little bit different from the farmer down the road, you might be suspected of having caused his cow to die,” Lyles said.
According to the Fairfield County Museum Archives, one woman in 1792 was tried for this exact reason.
“A woman named Mary Ingelman was accused of causing people’s cows to die or natural disasters that they need to pin something on somebody,” Lyles said.
As a result of the accusations, Winnsboro residents decided to hold a mock trial. At the time, historians said there wasn’t concrete evidence submitted; instead, the court used what is now known as hearsay.
“Just cause so-and-so said, that was enough,” Lyles said of the evidence used against Ingelman.
But the elderly woman Mary Ingelman wasn’t the only one put on trial. She, along with others, were persecuted.
“They brought in two other individuals who also they wanted to accuse of being witches and decided they were witches and they pushed their feet to the fire of these people and burned the soles of their feet off,” Pelham Lyles said.
While the accusations were never proven, and the trial was determined to be illegal, historians said a trial like this marks a community.
“I think that marks a community in a way, well of course Salem Massachusetts with all of the money they make off of it of the Salem Witch Trials,” Gary Pender said.
CHLOE E. HUMMEL This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at U Conn chapter.
In 2023, the term “witch” evokes many associations: crystals, tarot cards, spell books, pointy black hats, and flying broomsticks. Or, you may think of Lana del Rey, Hermione Granger, Halloweentown, and the Sanderson sisters. With #WitchTok attracting billions of viewers on the internet, many women have reclaimed and embraced the historically loaded term as a spiritual expression of feminism, creativity, and empowerment.
From cottage witches to lunar witches, witchcraft is a long-standing tradition perhaps stemming from the worship of Hecate (the goddess of magic and the moon) in Greek mythology. Regardless of its origins, the evolution of witchcraft — and the way the public perceives it — is entangled with racism, patriarchal gender roles, classism, and religious extremism.
Three centuries ago, suspicious behavior resembling “witchcraft” was enough for a person to be convicted and sentenced to death. The Salem Witch Trials were the largest series of witchcraft trials to occur in North America and the last large-scale witch panic in the English colonies. Over the course of 1692, approximately 200 people were jailed for witchcraft. 14 women and five men were hanged, one man was tortured to death, and at least five people died in prison.
Witch hunts were present throughout European history, beginning in the 1300s and dying down in the 1600s. In fact, modern research estimates that 40,000 to 50,000 people were executed as witches in Europe during this time. But why were women in Salem accused of being witches when the European craze was dying down?
THE PURITANS
In 1630, a group of Puritan refugees received a charter for land in New England from the Massachusetts Bay Company. The Puritans sought religious freedom from the Church of England, and they settled north of the Plymouth Colony established ten years earlier. They called themselves the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Despite seeking religious freedom, the Puritans proved intolerant — determined to preserve their patriarchal, God-fearing belief system. They wanted their colony to be based upon the laws of God and believed God would protect them if they obeyed strict religious laws. In 1630, John Winthrop became the first governor and established a government run by men.
A two-minute overview of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
In 1689, England started a war with France in the American colonies for control over the North American continent. The conflict sent many refugees into Salem Village, placing a strain on resources — particularly for families relying on agriculture. Also in 1689, Samuel Parris became Salem Village’s first ordained minister. He gained a reputation for his “rigid ways and greedy nature.” The Puritans interpreted these events as the work of the Devil and pushed for everyone to obey strict religious laws.
Then, in January 1692, Samuel Parris’ daughter Elizabeth (age nine, nicknamed Betty) and niece Abigail Williams (age eleven) began exhibiting strange symptoms. The symptoms included “convulsing, barking, and speaking unintelligible words.” While modern knowledge points to other causes, including boredom, attention-seeking, epilepsy, or eating fungus-infected rye, the doctor examining the girls declared that they were bewitched by someone trying to punish the family.
THE SCAPEGOAT
After the doctor’s pronouncement, Tituba — the enslaved woman owned by Parris who traveled to Salem Village with the family — tried to help the girls. A church member told her to make a “witch cake” to reveal the identity of the person who was tormenting the girls. The recipe involved urine and rye meal. When she was finished, Betty and Abigail revealed that it was Tituba tormenting them — making her the first accused witch.
Not much about Tituba’s life is known to historians. Tituba, likely a Black woman with Indigenous Central American heritage, was bought by Parris in Barbados, where she had been enslaved since childhood. After the girls’ accusation, Parris beat Tituba in an attempt to get her to confess to witchcraft. Tituba denied being a witch and swore she would never harm Betty or Abigail. Parris may have suspected that the young girls were lying but wanted to protect his family’s reputation. Further, the girls were too young to be witnesses in a legal case.
A short video providing a great overview.
The next month, two women (Ann Putnam and Betty Hubbard) came forward and said that Tituba was using magic to hurt them, with the help of Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. On March 1, 1692, the first trial began. The accused witches were kept in chains, while the accusers kept “falling into fits and screaming accusations.” Both Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne denied practicing witchcraft, but Sarah Good said she thought Sarah Osborne might be a witch.
The scope of the witch trials changed, however, when the magistrates started questioning Tituba. She provided detailed testimony of serving the Devil, riding on sticks, and talking to animals. She said that Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne forced her to become a witch and hurt the girls. She also spoke of seeing the Devil’s book, complete with the signatures of nine witches in Salem looking to destroy the Puritans.
After Tituba’s confession, the community dissolved into hysteria, and the large-scale witch trials began. Neighbors turned against neighbors, with people accusing others of practicing witchcraft to save themselves. After all, a person who clung to their innocence was executed, while a person who confessed and implicated other witches was spared.
GENDER ROLES
It is impossible to talk about the Salem Witch Trials without analyzing gender and its intersection with other identifying factors. Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne both fell outside the standards of acceptable feminine behavior in Puritan society. Women were expected to be virtuous wives — modestly dressed, polite, obedient, and confined to the domestic realm. Gossip, an outlet for oppressed women, was a punishable offense.
By the time of the trials, Sarah Good was a pregnant, homeless beggar considered a nuisance by society. People were quick to testify against Good, citing her cursing and angry mutterings as evidence of witchcraft. Good’s four-year-old daughter was called to give forced testimony against her mother, and this “testimony” led to Good’s conviction. Good gave birth in jail and the infant died before she was hanged.
“I’m no more a witch than you are a wizard! If you take my life away, God will give you blood to drink!”Sarah Good, 1692
Sarah Osborne was also looked down upon by the community. Osborne was guilty of fornication and was reviled for taking over the estate of her deceased husband, which caused tension with her male children. Further, she had not appeared in church for some time, threatening the strict religious code of the time.
While the marginalization of Osborne and Good is coded with classism, religious intolerance, and gender roles, the scapegoating of Tituba involves power and race. Tituba has been simultaneously sensationalized and villainized for implicating other women to save herself. However, as an enslaved woman of color, Tituba lacked any legal rights or methods of exerting agency in society. Her only representation was Samuel Parris, a white man who beat her many times leading up to the trial. Tituba could not escape her bondage and was thus trapped with an impossible decision. Later on, Tituba actually recanted and told the magistrate that she created the story. While other accused witches were given back their property, along with forms of restitution, Tituba received nothing.
Witchcraft was hung, in History, But History and I Find all the Witchcraft that we need Around us, every Day
—Emily Dickinson
CONCLUSION
It may seem easy to dismiss the Salem Witch Trials as occurring centuries ago. However, it was only in July 2022 that Elizabeth Johnson Jr. (the last Salem “witch”) was officially pardoned. CNN reported that Carrie LaPierre, an eighth-grade civics teacher in Massachusetts, came across her story. With the help of her students, LaPierre researched the legal steps necessary to clear Johnson Jr.’s name and finally grant her absolution.
The Salem Witch Trials are a crucial part of women’s history that directly correlates with feminism, patriarchy, gender roles, and race. The intolerant, patriarchal society created by the Puritans allowed accusations of witchcraft to become weaponized as tools to get rid of marginalized women — the poor, the old, the strange. And this rhetoric has been repeated and recycled since then. While many women today have reclaimed the title of “witch,” the Salem Witch Trials serve as a chilling reminder of the ways society has not changed since 1692.
CHLOE E. HUMMEL U Conn '24 Chloe E. Hummel is the President and Editor-in-Chief of Her Campus UConn. Chloe enjoys writing articles that help advance the goals of intersectional feminism. She also edits and publishes a wide range of articles, including culture, wellness, style, life, and career. Chloe is also a writer for Nutmeg Publishing and the marketing associate for Unleash The Book, a series of immersive writing workshops. Chloe is interning for the marketing department of Globe Pequot Press this fall. In her spare time, Chloe enjoys yoga, pilates, and reading fantasy books. She is a passionate vegan, a 70s music enthusiast, and a poor piano player.
WITCHES, DEVILS SCARE YOU STRAIGHT IN INDIGENOUS NICARAGUA FESTIVAL
Sunday 29 October 2023 -
MASAYA - Thousands of people dressed as terrifying characters from fables and legends have taken to the streets in a Nicaraguan festival heavy on fright.
The Aguizotes festival, held in an indigenous neighborhood in the city of Masaya, is known for local artisans' spectacularly spooky masks.
Music for the event, in the town south of Managua, is cool in its own right -- a hypnotizing soundtrack of drums, cymbals, trumpets, trombones and tubas.
"Our grandfathers and grandmothers did this to instill fear in future generations -- so that they would do the right things," William Guerrero, decked out in a red devil's mask, told AFP.
AFP | Oswaldo RIVAS
The festival is held the last Friday of each October.
Characters include a black devil with enormous horns and a Witch of the Volcano. Another traditional character, the "nagua" or haunted cart, travels through town at night making a clamorous noise. Driving it -- dressed in a white tunic and carrying his signature scythe -- is the figure of "Death."
NIGERIA
Witch Persecution, Sharia Court And Legal Defence In Borno
Early this year, the office of the National Human Rights Commission in Borno drew the attention of the Advocacy for Alleged Witches to the case of Maryam (not the real name), who was accused of witchcraft.
Maryam is 65 years old and a single mother. Her in-laws accused her of magically causing the death of another family member. They attacked and beat her, and she sustained some injuries.
Borno is one of the sharia implementing states in Nigeria. And some Muslims take their cases to Sharia courts for adjudication. Maryam took the matter to the court because her accusers threatened to murder her. "We will kill you, and nothing will happen". They reportedly told her.
The Sharia court ruled that she should swear by the Quran that she was not responsible for the alleged harm. They agreed that if she performed the oath she could live freely in the community. But the Sharia court decision did not go down well with her accusers. Their lawyers rejected the ruling of the Sharia court and appealed the judgment. The National Human Rights coordinator is trying to engage a lawyer who could defend Maryam. She contacted the AfAW.
Maryam does not have a job and does not make a significant income. She is unable to hire a lawyer. In her message to AfAW, the human rights officer said, "According to them (Maryam and her supporters), they do not have some money to hire a lawyer, the person who was handling it abandoned the case because they could not afford to pay him".
The AfAW is exploring ways to support the NHRC office in Borno to ensure that Maryam hires a lawyer. Victims of witch persecution are usually poor people like Maryam who cannot afford to pay the police to intervene in their cases or to hire a lawyer to defend them.
Confronted with such situations many resign to their fate. They stay back in the community where they risk being attacked or murdered by their accusers. Or they flee their communities and take refuge in cities. But more often, they go to neighboring villages and communities.
In many cases, the stigma follows them to these places, and other family and community members also reject and refuse to accommodate them. So, some alleged witches die wandering or living on the streets.
The National Human Rights Commission should liaise with the Legal Aid Council, Ministries of Justice, Women's Affairs, and Social Welfare, and ensure that victims of witch persecution like Maryam get the support that they need. The persecution of witches continues because these institutions are moribund.
They have failed to fulfill their mission and mandate. These institutions should not allow accused persons to be doubly victimized by their accusers. To suffer witch persecution is enough tragedy. These agencies should not let the accused suffer further violation or abuse. These institutions should rise to the occasion, and help end impunity. They should synergize and rally against witch persecution in Bornu and other parts of Nigeria. Leo Igwe directs the Advocacy for Alleged Witches
"Witches' circles": hundreds of new places associated with mysterious phenomena discovered in the world (photos)
A team of researchers has discovered hundreds of new places in the world where "magic circles" or "witch circles" are found. These strange patterns, which look like bald spots on the bare ground, are evenly distributed across the arid savannah.
The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, IFL Science writes about it. It is noted that with the help of satellites and models, scientists have discovered patterns very similar to "fairy circles" in 263 locations in 15 countries located on three continents.
The circles have been found not only in Namibia and Western Australia, but also in Western Sahara, Madagascar, Southwest Asia, and Central Australia.
The researchers found that "fairy circles" always occur in similar conditions - in soil with low nitrogen content and in areas with an average of less than 200 mm of rainfall per year.
"Our study provides evidence that 'magic circles' are much more common than previously thought. It will help us to understand for the first time the factors that influence their spread," said study co-author Manuel Delgado-Bacerizo.
Even more intriguingly, the team of scientists found that plant growth in areas with "fairy circles" was more significant and stable than without them. According to ecologists, the results are the first evidence of the circles' increased productivity.
These findings can help us better understand these strange patterns and their role in the ecosystems of arid regions, the publication writes.
As a reminder, 5000-year-old penguin mummies have started to appear in Antarctica due to snow melting.
