Posted on 09/23/2005 6:58:23 PM PDT by aculeus
If the preachers who spread their message on the banks of the Congo are to be believed, the face of evil is found in the despairing gaze of an abandoned child.
With their pinched faces and thin limbs, the ragged street children found throughout Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo's fetid capital, are the bearers of wickedness and sin.
Most have been cast out of their homes for being "witches" and, supposedly, bringing every kind of misfortune on their families.
A visceral fear of "possessed" children is sweeping Congo's cities, causing tens of thousands of boys and girls to be abandoned and abused.
Many are beaten, starved and tortured during exorcism ceremonies carried out by evangelical pastors in slum churches. These unscrupulous preachers exploit deeply ingrained beliefs in a world of evil spirits.
Across Africa, Christian congregations are expanding at a pace not seen since the earliest days of the Church. About 1,400 new denominations emerge every month, according to one estimate, and Africa's churches now hold 390 million worshippers - more than three times the total of 35 years ago.
But these churches are often tumbledown shacks, presided over by pastors who know more about greed and sadism than theology.
In Congo and neighbouring Angola, children are denounced as witches on a huge scale. In Kinshasa alone, 70 per cent of the city's street children have been abandoned for this reason.
Both countries endured years of civil war in which child soldiers were responsible for atrocities. Aid workers believe this might help to explain a deep fear of the young found among many Congolese and Angolans.
One child "sorcerer" is 12-year-old Jean, who wears a torn vest, red shorts and scuffed bedroom slippers. They are his only possessions. The squalor of Matonge slum has been his home ever since he was cast out. His alleged crime was to have placed a fatal curse on his grandmother. Even before her death, Jean's uncle and aunt were already waging a vendetta against him, accusing him of witchcraft or kindoki.
"They were beating me," he said. "My sisters and my brother were going to school but they stopped me from going because they said I was kindoki. They stopped paying my school fees. If someone was sick, they would say 'this is because of your kindoki'."
His grandmother's death made Jean's life unbearable. "There was a day when she was feeling ill after she ate some food. Later that night, she died," he said. "My uncle and my aunt said I had cursed the food and killed her. I was not even there when she was eating, I was playing football with my friends, but they still accused me."
Jean added: "My uncle started beating me with a stick with nails in it. I hid under the chair. He pulled me out and carried on beating me. I thought he was going to kill me. I managed to get away from him and run away from the house."
That final beating occurred when Jean was 10. His mother, Christine, was away when the vendetta drove him on to the streets. Otherwise, Jean believes she would have rescued him.
This fear of child witches has reached a section of Britain's African community.
In July, Sebastian Pinto, Sita Kasanga and another woman, whose name was withheld, were jailed at the Old Bailey for between four and 10 years for torturing an eight-year-old girl.
She was beaten and had chilli peppers rubbed into her eyes after she was denounced as a "witch". The guilty adults, including the girl's aunt, came from Cabinda, a tiny Angolan enclave in Congolese territory, less than 200 miles west of Kinshasa.
Congo's capital is filled with pastors who claim they can expel the devil from "possessed" children.
Mama Louise Mujinga, 55, shares a filthy compound with 15 child "witches". Her methods of exorcism are relatively mild. She does not use beatings or torture. Instead, she starves the children for nine days, restricting them to one slice of bread and one cup of water at sunset. "They have to suffer to give themselves to God and be delivered from the devil," she said. Her charges often change into animals by night, she believes.
"You, what have you transformed into?" she asked an awe-struck boy. "A rat," he replied. "And you?" asked Mama Mujinga, singling out another. "A cat," he said.
Another boy said he regularly became a pig, while one claimed to become a goat.
"They are very dangerous," said Mama Mujinga. "Look at this boy. His mother had an 11-month pregnancy. Only when I cast out the devil from him could his mother deliver.
"And this one. He paralysed his father. The man could not move. So I had to throw out the evil spirit. I am lucky I have my prayers to protect me."
Save the Children is trying to rescue child victims from unscrupulous pastors. Stephen Blight, the charity's programme director in Kinshasa, said: "I have seen kids chained up in crowded, insanitary conditions for days in preparation for 'deliverance'.
"They are often starved and these are young kids of five, six or seven. They are often forbidden from drinking water and subjected to such things as anal purges, beatings and having hot oil poured over them."
About 2,000 children, cast on to the streets or held by pastors, have been rescued by Save the Children and reunited with their families in the past two years.
All that Jean wants is to see his mother and attend school. "When I see other children going to school, I think, 'If my mother was with me, I could also be going to school'," he said.
david.blair@telegraph.co.uk
Have they tried dunking the witches in water? Supposedly, if they survive, they are witches and should be burned at the stake.
I'm glad religion has had such a good effect on these people.
/s
This is not religion. It is primitive superstition at its worse.
None of this has anything whatever to do with Christianity.
It is the very opposite of Christianity, comparable to the heathen witch trials of the middle ages in Europe. There too, terrible acts of horror were conducted in the name of Christianity.
Christians the world over need to speak out against these ignorant, self proclaimed witch doctors and their unGodly acts of terror upon innocent children.
And you will NEVER see a hit piece like this about Islam
A quick review of kindoki by any search engine reveals that it is old traditional Congo religion, black magic, that is being practiced.
Obviously the BBC would love to lay these horrors at the feet of Christianity. Such is their abyssmal ignorance.
I used to work with people who would hear something like this and say, "See what believing in the Bible will do to you." They wouldn't get it that thiw was not real Christianity. Some of Jesus' harshest words were for people who offended these little ones. It's good to know that there are REAL Christians out there to save these kids. Where are all the liberal "save the children" folk when something like this happens?
Personally, I'd like to punch him in his face a couple of times.
Nam Vet
Can we say "Salem Witch Trials"?????
Indeed. This is not Christianity. (Matthew 7, etc.) Thank you for pinging me to this...
Wonder if this phenomenon is somehow linked to the disapperance and killing of immigrant West and Central African children in London in recent years? Just a guess...
Yes!
SALEM WITCH TRIALS. Another perfect example of the abuse of religion by psychopaths.
"Heart of Darkness" Ping
How does returning these poor kids to their families help? Aren't they the whack jobs who did this to them? By the way, I don't remember being taught kindoki in Sunday School....
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