Musing on Muti Killings...

[Fantomas]

A bit of festive-break-free-time had me scan books and Internet as I meditated on the word "Juwes" again. Closest word I can find to it is in the language of the Yoruban people of Africa. Inverting the word in the wordplay common to Yoruban culture, "Sewuj" means duties but also mystical/ religious rites/ practices and relates too to the people who conduct such practices.
This may be a holiday-whisky fuelled leap but Yoruban culture also is connected with Muti-killings - the ritual murder of a person then removal of body parts for use in magical rites/medicine.
Yoruban culture was of a fairly high profile in Victorian London and I wonder if Muti practitioners were in London too at the time and could have been connected to many of the Whitechapel murders, not just C5. The torso murder looks particularly Muti-esque. Thought?

[Fantomas]

As this paper points out, the Yoruba culture has flourished in London since the mid 1800s. Might Muti have shadowed it?

http://www.palgraveconnect.com/pc/doifinder/view/10.1057/9780230601048

[Pcdunn]

Interesting view, Fantomas, definitely a different one. Yes, immigrant groups usually do bring along elements of their culture and religion to a new country.
But wouldn't magic rituals related to faith be done in great secrecy, as on American plantations?

[Fantomas]

Perhaps the rituals were secret and the cultivation of totemic organs slightly less so.

[Pcdunn]

Perhaps the rituals were secret and the cultivation of totemic organs slightly less so.

I'll admit to knowing little about Yoruban rituals, though I have researched voudou/voodoo to an extent, for a work of fiction.

Are the body parts used in a particular way? Are they eaten, dried for charms, etc.?

Do you have recommendations for source material about mutliation killings?
Thanks,

[Fantomas]

@pcdunn this is an interesting gobbet from South African news agency IOL on muti:

"One in five people in South Africa's rural areas has had first-hand experience of a human body part being trafficked after a muti killing.

And, of the body parts mentioned in their accounts, male genitals, breasts, hearts, fingers and tongues are the most commonly listed, according to research undertaken by the Human Rights League in Mozambique and supported by Childline in South Africa.

The study's findings are all the more shocking after the recent discovery of 10-year-old Masego Kgomo's mutilated body in dense bush in Soshanguve, Tshwane.

One of the five men arrested for her murder is a sangoma who allegedly uses body parts for muti. A 14-year-old boy was also arrested.

But Masego's case is one of many. Of the more than 413 individuals who attended workshops for the research report, 22 percent of those who were willing to be interviewed had seen a mutilated body with parts missing or a body part separated from a body.

There were 72 accounts relating to the trafficking of body parts mentioned in the report. Of these, 27 were from South Africa.

"This percentage is far greater than expected and is supported by the general feeling among those attending the workshops and focus groups," said the report.

Between the two countries, 19 different body parts were mentioned as missing from bodies. They included heads, female genital organs, breasts, tongues, ears, eyes, hands, legs, lungs, guts, skin, arms, jaws, lips and fingers.

One of the interview samples in the report was of a case in Bloemspruit where a woman who wanted to fall pregnant went to a sangoma and was advised to wear a belt with children's fingers and penises hanging from it.

"She was made to drink a concoction she believed contained human blood and fat and she was given a piece of flesh which she believed to be a human organ, perhaps a heart. She sliced small pieces from the flesh each night and fried them on a stove," said the report.

Speaking about body-part trafficking to the Saturday Star this week, Simon Fellows, the project manager at the league, said there was a demand in South Africa for body parts and a supply from Mozambique.

"We don't know if there is a demand in Mozambique too because the checks at the South African borders going to Mozambique are far more superior."

He said there was a prevalence of muti-killings in every single province, and in many cases, communities were saying the number of incidents was getting out of hand.

"Every person we came across had something to say. It is a prolific problem that affects every single community. The conclusion is that there is no evidence that adults are specifically asked for, but there is evidence that kids are mutilated."

Fellows related stories of fishermen in Mozambique who use children's belly buttons in their nets to improve their catch. It is also believed that children's body parts bring more luck and prosperity than those of adults.

Joan van Niekerk, from Childline, said it was difficult to establish the true prevalence of muti-killing because people were often too scared to talk about the things they had witnessed.

She said they had also had instances where staff had refused to work on the project because they had felt intimidated. The researchers had grown up in their communities and still adhered to a traditional value system.

"People who do witchcraft are seen as very powerful people by the community. It is a very secretive activity. Even in the community, people are not always sure who did it and where."

And, Van Niekerk said, while the practice was deeply rooted in the rural areas, there were incidents in urban areas too.

The study, Trafficking Body Parts in Mozambique and South Africa, was released last year.

It is a precursor to another study that will look at the prevalence of muti killings in SA. The second study will start in two weeks' time."

[Batman]

Hasn't this happened in the past twenty or so years a few times in the Thames? Reminds me of the Torso murders.

[Fantomas]

Yes, the "Boy Adam" case of a murdered immigrant African boy. His place of origin a key signifier that he had been murdered in the manner of African "muti".

[Batman]

Yes, the "Boy Adam" case of a murdered immigrant African boy. His place of origin a key signifier that he had been murdered in the manner of African "muti".

Thought so. Ever read The Thames Torso Murders? It's good and pertains to JtR too.

[Fantomas]

I have scant knowledge of the Thames torso murders but they too smack of body parts discarded from literal slaughter/cultivation. the Whitehall mystery, too, bears maybe more striking similarities to the death, mutilation and disposal of modern muti carnage.

Looking at descriptions of the type of blade contemporary and modern investigation deduce was used on the ripper victims, incidentally, are also reminiscent of the ida, the long, narrow yet round-headed blade used by Yoruban shamen.

The more I squint at accounts of the ripper murders and piece together what I can of homicidal rites in African culture - spurred by maybe red herring reversal of the word "Juwes" - the more it seems someone with a knowledge of this aspect of African culture was involved. Kipling pointed out of Indian Brahmin "... they knew the human body the way a surgeon might be acquainted with it... could point to the heart, bowels and kidney of a man wherein the hidden soul they thought did lurk..." so this is perhaps also true of African Shamen used to culling humans for organ cultivation.

If my hypothesis at the moment is that what took place was an African Shamanistic culling of easily accessible-won't-be-missed victims then why? In October 1888, in the culmination of pitched battles in the region throughout the year, seeking to extend Mahdist control over what is now southwestern Ethiopia, governor Khalil al-Khuzani was routed at the Battle of Guté Dili by an alliance of Shewan forces under Ras Gobana Dacche and Moroda Bekere, ruler of Leqa Naqamte. The prinicipal creed of the Mahdists of the area? Yoruban. Could a "spell" or ritual designed to win the Mahdist forces strength have been carried out. Or would the devoutly Muslim Mahdists not have entertained such blasphemous activity; were Yoruban sympathisers to Khuzani the ones, from a far flung shore at the centre of empire, creating muti spells to win him victory over enemies at home?

[Fantomas]

Consider the facial cuts left on some of the Whitechapel murder victims:

Encarta:
"Yoruba tribal marks

The Yoruba tribal marks are scarifications which are specific identification and beautification marks designed on the face or body of the Yoruba people. The tribal marks are part of the Yoruba culture and are usually inscribed on the body by burning or cutting of the skin during childhood.[1] The primary function of the tribal marks is for identification of a person's tribe, family or patrilineal heritage.[2][3] Other secondary functions of the marks are symbols of beauty, Yoruba creativity and keeping mischievous children alive (ila Abiku). This practice is popular amongst Yoruba people of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. During the trans-atlanctic slave trade, tribal identification and facial stripes became important.[4] Some repatriated slaves later reunited with their communities by looking at facial stripes.[citation needed]

However, the use of tribal marks is fading in Yorubaland"

[Fantomas]

Might this hold any water at all?