{"id":2465,"date":"2011-06-07T08:50:09","date_gmt":"2011-06-07T08:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/?p=2465"},"modified":"2011-06-07T08:50:09","modified_gmt":"2011-06-07T08:50:09","slug":"accused-witches-challenge-century-old-sorcery-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/2011\/06\/07\/accused-witches-challenge-century-old-sorcery-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Accused Witches Challenge Century-Old Sorcery Law"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Accused witch, Kanthukako Supaunyolo<\/p><\/div>\n

In Malawi, South Africa, sorcery is afoot. At least, that\u2019s what the police are being told, and with over fifty accused witches serving sentences of up to 6 years for the practice of strange magicks, there\u2019s something odd going on. Critics are calling it ageism.<\/p>\n

The problems for 82 year old\u00a0Kanthukako Supaunyolo began when her grandson woke up one morning with a nosebleed. Fearing a hex was placed on the family, her own children sussed her out as a sorcerer and called the police, landing her in jail for violating a hundred year old law originally created to quell the spread of witchcraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow could I bewitch my own grandchild. For what?\u201d, Supaunyolo told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe suffered this injustice because we are poor and old. I blame the police who are overzealous in arresting innocent people and charging them with witchcraft, which cannot be proved in a court of law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Malawi, people hate old people,\u201d Liness\u00a0Nkhukuyalira, a previously jailed accused, told the AFP. \u201cThey think everybody who is old must be a witch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luckily, there is a human rights group looking out for the unfortunate few who are accused of practicing sorcery.\u00a0The ASH, or Association for Secular Humanism, headed by activist George Thindwa,\u00a0was founded last year to fight abuses against alleged witches.<\/p>\n

After the ASH paid her fine of 33 dollars, a fortune for many Malawians who live on less than two dollars a day,\u00a0Supaunyolo was released with her friends\u00a0Liness Nkhukuyalira, 72, and Nurse Nthala, 62, also accused of witchcraft under the antiquated law.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf late there have been increasing cases of people being arrested and convicted based on accusations that they are practicing witchcraft,\u201d Thinda told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to secure the release of those labelled as witches because they are 100 percent innocent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creating the problems in question, is a law created in 1911, a holdover from the British colonial period, that makes it illegal for anyone to practice witchcraft. Unfortunately, as has always been the case with regulations such as this, it is a law often enacted by angry neighbors, jealous lovers, or even those not fond of the elderly, in order to have victims arrested, and if they are unable to pay their fines, jailed.<\/p>\n

Last week, the ASH helped\u00a0Namakhalepo Kamphata, an 83 year old woman accused of sorcery by her nephew, with food and cash donations after serving a 3 year prison sentence, the longest anyone has spent behind bars for witchcraft in Malawi.<\/p>\n

The recent criticisms and abuse of the outdated law have led to an inquiry by the state-funded Law Commission, which has promised to review the law, saying it should \u201csafeguard the rights of victims, especially women and children who are often the victims of witchcraft allegations, regardless of whether witchcraft exists or not.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Malawi, South Africa, sorcery is afoot. At least, that\u2019s what the police are being told, and with over fifty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[357,708,258,439],"class_list":["post-2465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-witchcraft-2","tag-development","tag-laws","tag-malawi","tag-witchcraft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}