Brutal sorcery slayings are a test for modern PNG

JOHN FOWKE

WHILE THE PUBLIC IMMOLATION of a young woman as an act of revenge is an unusually spectacular modus operandi, it is no less disgusting and reprehensible than the revenge murders which are carried out at least weekly in Papua New Guinea.

One case near Goroka 10 years ago occurred when an unfortunate person judged to be the sanguma agency in the death of a woman had his hands and feet chopped off, then his heart cut out whilst he writhed on the ground.

The heart was cut into small pieces and eaten by every clan-member including children so that they would all possess a part of the sanguma’s evil power and thus be protected against its future malevolence in their midst.

I know of several similar cases, in one instance the elderly lady killed was the mother of an old friend of mine.

The outrage described above occurred in a village next door to a very large protestant mission station. So far as I know, no investigation or legal action was carried out.

This is just one killing the details of which I am privy to.

For PNG to show itself to the rest of the world as a self-confident and fair and humane modern society is a far bigger job than most Australian commentators, or PNG intellectuals, or its political leaders seem able to contemplate or articulate with any profundity.

Neither has there been any ability shown thus far to articulate and execute simple and logically-attainable solutions within realistic timeframes.

One has to ask the question - is PNG up to the task, or is it doomed to become little more than an undercover colony for money-hungry entrepreneurs?

Footnote: Police in Mt Hagen say they have arrested 50 people in connection to the burning murder of 20-year old mother of one, Kepari Leniata, suspected by villagers of responsibility for the sanguma death of a young boy

Comments

[Peter Kranz]

Yuambari - Except for King Saul and the witch of Endor (I Samuel 28).

[Yuambari Haihuie]

Thou shall not suffer a witch to live (Exodus 22:18).

We are a Christian country after all, aren't we?

[Peter Kranz]

Joe - I think you have a good point. Drive-by shootings and murders seem to happen every day in the main cities of Australia. A man was decapitated in western Sydney this morning after being bashed with a brick.

It seems a hint of 'sorcery' and a mention of the location of PNG sets the western media off into a frenzy, whilst everyday murders at home are far less reported.

Australia's 'sanguma killings' are gang warfare driven by drugs and revenge and power struggles. They even idolise this in such TV series' as Underbelly. And look at the epidemic of mass shootings in the US where they can't even legislate against the legality of military assault weapons and seem to think it is everyone's right and duty to have weapons capable of killing 100 people in a few seconds.

Horrific although all such incidents are, aren't the western media being a bit hypocritical?

[Joe Wasia]

Not all Papua New Guineans practice sanguma and black magic but many articles, especially by whites, paint all PNGians like that.

And that is unfair. Only a few people practice sanguma and black magic.

Torturing and burning live of suspects tells the nation and the world that people want no more sangumas and black magic. They want a pure population.

If sorcery practices were common in PNG cultures there wouldn't be any countereaction like you see, hear and read. People are against the practice.

Its about time the PNG government reviewed the laws governing these practices.

[Don Tapio]

The police are incapable of protecting suspected witches, who have to endure 'trials' not unsimilar to the witchcraft trials of Europe in the middle ages, only more brutal.

Even the educated and so called elites believe strongly in black magic and sanguma so the hapless suspect is isolated even abandoned by her own relatives who fear her 'evil powers'.

What would it take if even a former PM has been quite openly referred to as the head of the sangumas.