Image: San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
Traditional African rituals can lead to the death of animals or children. For example, child sacrifice, including the use of human blood and body parts for rituals, has been reported in Uganda in the 21st century. These acts are often perpetrated by witch doctors and individuals seeking wealth or protection. Sacrifices are carried out to appease spirits and bring prosperity or health. Children are considered the best sacrifice because they are seen as pure. These incidents often involve the abduction and murder of children, whose blood and body parts are used in rituals.
So it is important to find substitutes for living things used in African rituals and festivals. Good news: “Conservationists in Zambia are using synthetic furs to reduce leopard poaching. An important festival of Zambia’s Lozi people involves dressing up in leopard skins. Rather than trying to end the practice, the cat conservation non-profit Panthera Corporation began distributing ultra-realistic synthetic pelts. According to a recently published study of the program, the fake furs were rapidly adopted by the Lozi and were followed by a drop in poaching incidents and a rise in leopard sightings by camera traps,” reports The Doomslayer.
In Uganda, children continue to be killed for human sacrifices, although the killings are down from a decade ago. In 2010, NBC News reported:
A 2-year-old boy had his penis cut off by a witch doctor in eastern Uganda and now urinates through a tube…..Caroline Aya was playing in front of her house in January when a neighbor put a cloth over her mouth and fled with her.A couple of days later, the 8-year-old’s body was found a short walk away — with her tongue cut out. Police believe she was offered up as a human sacrifice in a ritual killing, thought to bring wealth or health.“If it is a sickness you try to treat it, and if they die that is one thing,” said Caroline’s father, Balluonzima Christ. “But when you slaughter a person like a goat, that is not easy.”The practice of human sacrifice is on the rise in Uganda, as measured by ritual killings where body parts, often facial features or genitals, are cut off for use in ceremonies. The number of people killed in ritual murders last year rose to a new high of at least 15 children and 14 adults, up from just three cases in 2007, according to police. The informal count is much higher — 154 suspects were arrested last year and 50 taken to court over ritual killings.
Children are common victims, according to a 2010 U.S. State Department report. The U.S. spent $500,000 to train 2,000 Ugandan police in 2009 to investigate offences related to human trafficking, including ritual killings.
