This book offers some comprehensive answers to difficult, complex and controversial questions on the topic of 'medicine murder'.

Since time immemorial, human beings the world over have sought answers to the vexing questions of their origins, sickness, death and after death; the meaning of natural phenomena such as earthquakes, eclipses of the sun and moon, birth of twins etc. and how to protect themselves from such mysterious events. They invented God and gods and the occult sciences (witch craft, divination and soothsaying) in order to seek the protection of supernatural powers while individuals used them to gain power to dominate others and to accumulate wealth. Human sacrifice was one way in which they sought to expiate the gods for what they believed were punishments for their transgressions. One example, the Ghana Asante Kingdom's very origins are associated with human sacrifice. On the eve of war against Denkyira, individuals volunteered themselves to be sacrificed in order to guarantee victory. Later, human sacrifice in Asante was mainly politically motivated as kings and religious leaders offered human sacrifice in remembrance of their ancestral spirits and to seek their protection against their enemies. The Asante Kingdom is one of several examples included in this study of human sacrifice and ritual killing on the African continent. Case studies include practices in Sierra Leone, Tanzania (Mainland), Zanzibar, Uganda and Swaziland. Advertisements relating to the occult was a common feature of Drum magazine, the popular South African magazine in Southern, Eastern and Central Africa in late years of colonial and early years of postcolonial periods, indicating a wide belief in these practices among the people in these countries? Each case examined is introduced by an expose of folklore that puts in perspective beliefs in the supernatural and how folklore continues to perpetuate them. Through careful study of these select cases, this book highlights general features of human sacrifice which recur with striking uniformity in all parts of sub Saharan Africa, and why they persist until today. He draws upon extensive written sources to expose these practices in other cultures including those in Western societies.

At a time when so-called fundamentalism has become the privileged analytical frame for understanding Muslim societies past and present, this study offers an alternative perspective on Islam. In an innovative combination of anthropology, history, and social theory, Benjamin Soares explores Islam and Muslim practice in an important Islamic religious centre in West Africa from the late nineteenth century to the present. Drawing on ethnography, archival research, and written sources, Soares provides a richly detailed discussion of Sufism, Islamic reform, and other contemporary ways of being Muslim in Mali and offers an original analytical perspective for understanding changes in the practice of Islam more generally.

The Bushbuckridge region of South Africa has one of the highest rates of HIV infection in the world. Having first arrived in the area in the early 1990s, the disease spread rapidly, and by 2008 life expectancies had fallen by 12 years for men and 14 years for women. Since 2005, public health facilities have increasingly offered free HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy) treatment, offering a degree of hope, but uptake and adherence to the therapy has been sporadic and uneven. Drawing on his extensive ethnographic research, carried out in Bushbuckridge over the course of 25 years, Isak Niehaus reveals how the AIDS pandemic has been experienced at the village-level. Most significantly, he shows how local cultural practices and values have shaped responses to the epidemic. For example, while local attitudes towards death and misfortune have contributed to the stigma around AIDS, kinship structures have also facilitated the adoption and care of AIDS orphans. Such practices challenge us to rethink the role played by culture in understanding and treating sickness, with Niehaus showing how an appreciation of local beliefs and customs is essential to any effective strategy of AIDS treatment. Overturning many of our assumptions on disease prevention, the book is essential reading for practitioners as well as researchers in global health, anthropology, sociology, epidemiology and scholars interested in public health and administration in sub-Saharan Africa.

Drawing on two decades of research this social and political history of North-Western Ghana traces the creation of new ethnic and territorial boundaries, categories and forms of self-understanding, and represents a major contribution to debates on ethnicity, colonialism and the 'production of history'. It explores the creation and redefinition of ethnic distinctions and commonalities by African and European actors, showing that ethnicity's power derives from a contradiction: while ethnic identities purport to be non-negotiable, creating permanent bonds, stability and security, the boundaries of the communities created and the associated traits and practices are malleable and adaptable to specific interests and contexts.

Historical Dictionary of Lesotho, Third Edition contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 500 cross-referenced entries on important personalities as well as aspects of the country's politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture.

This encyclopedia is an essential guide to the different ethno-linguistic groups in Africa and today's complicated Middle East region. Ethnic Groups of Africa and the Middle East contains encyclopedic entries arranged alphabetically within ethno-linguistic classifications. Each entry has four main sections: an introduction identifying the language group, where they are found, and their numbers; a brief discussion of their origins and early history; a section on cultural life that includes religion, literature, social organization, and art; and a final section on political organization and recent history. The contents are appropriate for high school and undergraduate students as well as for experts who need a refresher on groups in Africa and the Middle East. While certain ethnic groups have been combined into a single entry, some—such as the Tuareg, who are a Berber people—are described within their own entries because of their importance in history or cultural domination.

Lima, Peru, 2004: The body of a decapitated baby boy is found on a hilltop, surrounded by flowers, a liquor bottle and a container of blood, apparently the victim of a ritual sacrifice to appease a pre-Columbian earth god. New Jersey, USA, 2002: A Palo Mayombe sect temple basement is raided by police, who find human body parts and the remains of several animals seemingly sacrificed by worshippers. London, England, 2001: The dismembered torso of a five-year-old boy is found floating in the Thames, the victim of a Ju Ju ritual sacrifice... Around the world, humans are being trafficked, kidnapped, sold and enslaved, for the specific purpose of sacrifice. Mass-scale migration has seen these gruesome techniques exported from the land of the Aztecs -- and finding their way into Britain and the US. Voodoo priests in London have been linked with ritual murders. And a recent leaked police commissioned report found that witchcraft, voodoo-related abuse and murder, are rife in the UK. Jimmy Lee Shreeve takes us on a journey into the darkest corners of the world, following the initial investigations of Scotland Yard into the Thames murder, travelling to South Africa and then Nigeria, where the full horror of a wide 'export trade' in humans to Britain for sacrifice is unveiled. In the US, Palo Mayombe, a Cuban religious cult, is linked with a score of sacrifices and murders. In Mexico, a devotee of Palo Mayombe, Adolof de Jesus Constanzo, was responsible for torturing and boiling in a cauldron more than a dozen victims. Across South America, sacrifices are commonplace. Most are done on behalf of drug barons and millionaires, who want to atone for their sins by offering the Gods a 'gift'. And across Asia, similar stories are found. In Africa, and Britain, HIV-positive African males sacrifice young boys to 'cleanse' themselves of the disease. Along the way, Jimmy will bring his own brand of detective skills to the fore. Besides throwing up fresh research into the 'Adam' killing and providing startling conclusions to some of the world's most horrific murders, Jimmy will, variously, escape near arrest at Scotland Yard's HQ, perform a ritual ceremony with a Native American shaman on Hampstead Heath, and swap whiskey and guitar blues with a voodoo practioner. Written in Jimmy's unique, free-form, post-gonzo style, this is an investigative work with a trippy twist. By turns gruesome, disturbing and intriguing, BLOOD RITES reveals the true, untold story of a violent tradition taking place terrifyingly close to home.

This volume of essays examines the ways in which magical practices are found in different aspects of contemporary capitalist societies. From contract law to science, by way of finance, business, marketing, advertising, cultural production, and the political economy in general, each chapter argues that the kind of magic studied by anthropologists in less developed societies – shamanism, sorcery, enchantment, the occult – is not only alive and well, but flourishing in the midst of so-called ‘modernity’. Modern day magicians range from fashion designers and architects to Donald Trump and George Soros. Magical rites take place in the form of political summits, the transformation of products into brands through advertising campaigns, and the biannual fashion collections shown in New York, London, Milan and Paris. Magical language, in the form of magical spells, is used by everyone, from media to marketers and all others devoted to the art of ‘spin’. While magic may appear to be opposed to systems of rational economic thought, Moeran and Malefyt highlight the ways it may in fact be an accomplice to it.