Published March 21st, 2009 by Future Atlas
Dyschronicity: Hunting Witches in Africa
Amnesty International reports that 1,000 women accused of being witches have been rounded up by Gambian security forces, who were accompanied by Guinean witch doctors.
The reason? “The witch-doctors were invited to The Gambia early in the year, soon after the death of President Jammeh’s aunt. The President reportedly believes that witchcraft was used in her death,” Amnesty reports.
This exemplifies dyschronicity — that two places may be greatly out of sync in time — as the developed world last engaged in mass witch persecutions centuries ago.
It also reveals, again, how flimsy governance in Africa is: many countries lack any authority that can be relied on to act with rationality and restraint.
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