Necromancy in Africa

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
Human sacrifice, animal slaughter, human trafficking and child pornography are some of the terrifying crimes that have been investigated in South Africa by a police unit that is tasked specifically to uncover the perpetrators of these heinous acts. However the work has become so dangerous that for the last few years amid rumors they were disbanded is the belief that they have gone underground.

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Sangomas or traditional healers are very common in the Dark Continent, especially in the area of South Africa. Sangomas or isangomas describe themselves as herbalists who prepare muti from herbs, roots and sacrificed animal parts. According to them there are other practitioners who have strayed off the path of healing, who practice very dark magic and are known as baloyi.

Muti or umuthi translates to medicine in Zulu.

Like all black magic, the baloyi not only sacrifice animals, but humans as well, the more innocent the better. Virgins, human babies and children top the list. There were so many crimes tied into muti that a special unit called the South African Police Force Occult-Related Crime Unit was created in 1981 by Dr. Kobus "Hound of God" Jonker.

He retired from the unit in 2001. Dr. Jonker described where in the 1990s he was investigating approximately 250 cases per year, and he believed there were thousands of satanists practicing in South Africa, and many crimes were never discovered.

Not surprisingly he would continuously receive death threats and even satanist police officers broke into his office to sabotage his efforts. The unit not only investigated the crimes themselves but cult leaders, who were very charismatic but very dangerous. They engineered grave desecrations and human sacrifices using their followers to commit atrocious acts.

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Dr. Jonker at his desk

Part of muti magic is the use of human body parts. For example a man's penis is used for good luck at horse racing. Dr. Jonker broke up several satanic rings, but not all were apprehended and he described where once the unit found the severed head of a Chinese woman in a cupboard.

Dr. Jonker while lecturing at Reading University in the U.K. described where satanists in South Africa commit murder and serious crimes against humans and animals, while American and European practitioners focus more on the religious practice of their beliefs, rarely committing crimes.

When asked why this has occurred in South Africa, he described a lack of family and social structure for the youth to model. Fathers have abandoned their families, mothers are absent since they are working to sustain the family and children come to empty homes when they leave school. Part of the problem is the belief in muti whether practiced by sangomas or baloyi, is so pervasive that parents willingly give up their children to be held by practitioners in exchange for good luck, or some other type of recompense.

In 2012, a leaked internal police memo revealed that the dissolved Occult Unit appeared to have been revived, albeit under a different name: the SAPS Harmful Religious Practices Unit. It is believed that Dr. Jonker has been training the new members of this unit.

​In an interview with Vice, Dr. Jonker described the following case involving a child possessed and cursed by this type of black magic:

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Oh yes, I was sent to the farm of a very wealthy family in Venda about eight years ago where the so-called Tokoloshe (a short demon from African lore) was raping a girl there every night.

I said: 'I don’t believe this nonsense,' but the commissioner sent me out saying they’ve got real problems there. All of the windows of the farmhouse were broken. Outside the farmhouse were the remains of burnt clothes everywhere because every time the girl tried to put clothes on they would start burning. Rocks fell from the air onto our police vehicles. The farmer had called in several sangomas to try and get rid of the evil spirit but it didn’t work.

What caught my attention was that there were no cattle, oxen, dogs or birds. There was nothing. It was like a graveyard. So I went in the house and asked the mother to remove all of the sangoma’s stuff and I said: 'I’m coming to you in the name of the Christian God, Jesus Christ,' because I saw that it was going to be a spiritual battle. The girl was sitting on the bed in a lotus position eating an orange and the sap was running down her breasts. I asked her if she wanted to break free of this evil. She said yes, so I started to pray.

After about twenty minutes the door slammed open next to me and a small man, like a dwarf, came running to me. He was an old black man and he was sweating profusely—it was actually a cold day, but he was sweating. I said: 'What are you doing here? Can I help you?' and he replied in a gruff voice: 'I want to help her.' I told him to leave because we were busy. He grunted and left. No-one on the farm knows who the short man was and no one has seen him since then.

I think he was the so-called Tokoloshe. He matched the way that people describe Tokoloshe—it was a physical guy, not a ghost or spirit. After he ran out of the room he disappeared and from that day on all of the attacks suddenly ended; no more rapes at night time. A week later one of the cops from that area phoned me and said: 'You won't believe it! There are cows, there are sheep, they’re all back, even the dogs are back. It was very strange.

Aslem, one of the popular lions at the predator park who was butchered in the vicious attack

Dr. Jonkers described where animals are not only sacrificed for muti, but acts of bestiality are committed against them as well. There is a belief that the magic is more powerful if the humans or animals die in agony.

In July 2018, Christa Saayman the owner of the Mystic Monkeys and Feathers Wildlife Park, located just north of Pretoria, South Africa's capital had six of her park lions butchered to be used in muti black magic rituals.

They hacked the heads and paws off four of the adult lions, and killed two cubs. Muti sacrifices are committed not only in South Africa, but places where its followers live in.

Such was the story of the torso of a little boy discovered in the River Thames in 2001. Examination of the remains show that he was about 5 years old, and had been poisoned. Then his throat was cut in order to drain it of blood. His arms, legs and head had been expertly cut off. Forensic tests showed he was from the Benin City area of Nigeria.

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Sangoma with his wares

Professor Henrik Scholtz, a South African expert in muti murders, was brought to the U.K. by the authorities.

A significant clue that the child was sacrificed was the discovery that the boy's first vertebra, located between the neck and the spine was removed. In Africa it's known as the Atlas bone, and in muti medicine it's highly prized and confers magical powers and strength on the person that ingests it. Considering how well the child appeared cared for, pointed to the strong possibility he had been "donated" for sacrifice by his own family. Professor Scholtz also concluded the child was likely beheaded while alive, stating "screams of the victim are believed to strengthen the power of the muti."

The boy was nicknamed Adam by the authorities in absence of knowing his true identity.

Muti sacrifices demand the flesh of children who are considered "purer" than adults, but human sacrifice of all ages is committed.

In 2004, in Cape Town, three adults were charged with killing a baby and frying her intestines as a meal. This was supposed to help them get a job. Many muti murders are never solved, and many more are never reported. Most murders though are done at the behest of a sangoma in order to help a client.

After the discovery of Adam, news reached London police that human flesh was being sold in the city. Authorities were aware of West African gangs who were importing large quantities of meat harvested from exotic animals, many on danger of extinction lists. 

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Muti market in Johannesburg, South Africa

​In 2001, British police launched Operation Swalcliffe to investigate Adam's death and the sale of human and bush meat on the black market.

A north London shop had two tons of unfit meat, "including a crocodile head, used in ritualistic dishes to increase sexual stamina in men. They also found rat feces, which had been removed from rats' intestines and prepared as a delicacy for possible use in a ritual."

Professor Hendrick Scholtz, who acted as an adviser on Operation Swalcliffe, said:  "As these communities grow, elements of African culture will be inevitably transported to Britain."

Police believed that Adam's arms, legs and skull were kept as magical trophies. DNA evidence confirmed he had spent most of his life living in the suburbs of Benin City, Yoruba.

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Illustration of Adam's torso wearing the bright orange shorts

​Via the ongoing investigation into Adam's murder they came across Joyce Osagiede who lived in Glasgow. She told authorities she had lived with her then estranged husband in Germany, but fled to London with her daughters because she was concerned for their safety. 

Police had found a connection where Adam had been in Germany, prior to his arrival in the U.K.

She said her husband named  Onojhighovie (aka Tony Onus) was the head of a cult named "The Black Coat Eyes of the Devil Guru Maharaj" who she said were involved in human sacrifice, and they were responsible in the death of 10 children, including their own firstborn.

They learned from her that the cult The Black Coat Eyes of the Devil Guru Majarj was based on a movement in India called Divine Light Mission (DLM), founded by Guru Hans Ji Maharji in the 1960s. The cult was started by Muhammed Saib, who was born in Ghana in the 1950s, but moved to Yorubaland in the 1970s. He entered the U.K. illegally in 1975, where he found the teachings of Maharji Ji. 

Saib returned to Nigeria in 1980 and made himself the Maharaj Ji. Their sacred color was bright orange, which was the color of the shorts Adam was wearing when he was fished out of the Thames.

Police would go on to find several forged documents among Joyce's belonging, including a video of her marriage in 1997 to Samuel Onojhighovie, where a live goat was sacrificed. It turned out this man was wanted in Germany for forgery and human trafficking. He jumped bail and had been missing for seven years. He went by the alias Ibrahim Kadade.

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A 10-year-old boy who was found in an unconscious state in the undergrowth near a rural village in Limpopo, South Africa. He had several injuries which included the removal of his private parts and severe head injuries.

In 2002, police tracked down a certain Kingsley Ojo whose name appeared on the lease document of the place where Joyce had stayed. It seemed the man had fled moments before they arrived. A video labeled "Ritual" was found. It contained the movie of a man being beheaded as a sacrificial offering to a Yoruban deity to help speed up the recovery of an elder from a serious illness.

​In mid-June 2003, based on leads, 9 addresses in London were raided. Over two dozen arrests were made, and most of the arrestees had tied to Benin City in Nigeria.

Kingsley Ojo was followed to an underage brothel in Brescia, Italy, which acted as a hub for children to be smuggled into Europe. Many stayed in the brothel in Italy as sex slaves.

In August, 2005 Adam was buried in a secret grave in Southwark Cemetery.

In 2013, during a BBC interview Joyce said Kingsley Ojo had trafficked Adam. She said the child's name was Patrick Erhabor, but after this date nothing else had happened with this investigation, and any attempt to verify what Joyce told the police stalled out.

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A sangoma (witch-doctor) in his medical practice in South Africa c.1998 (Source: Die Tageszeitung)

Colonel Kobus Jonker investigated a crime where a woman living in the suburb of Cape Town lured a 16-year-old girl who was well advanced in her pregnancy to her home. She handcuffed the young mother to a chair, cut the baby from her stomach, dumped it in a duffel bag and escaped. Luckily she was caught before killing the baby, but the demand for young children in  these dark rituals is constant.

Grave robbing is common where the human skulls are robbed. Cats are killed in order to use their brains to smear them across an enemies doorway as a form of a curse.

In 1999, Henrina "Rina" Radloff had her throat slit. Since she was stabbed three times in the back, the suicide theory was disregarded.

Suspicions fell on Rina's ex-husband Martin Radloff and his new wife Antoinette who was known to dabble in the occult. It turned out that Antoinette Radloff, 35, collected the hired killers who murdered Rina Radloff, and transported them to where Rina lived so they could commit the crime. She was arrested in 2000, and committed suicide by strangling herself with a shoelace.

Investigators found Martin Radloff had hired Mlungisis Mzimlea, 23, and a 17-year old. By 2002, Mzimlea was sentenced to life in prison, and the youth to 18 years. A third participant Sifiso Cele, 18, got immunity for testifying for the state. 

In 2003, Martin Radloff, 50 was found dead in a toilet at Johannesburg International Airport. Radloff had earned the moniker of the "Houdini of the crime world" after fleeing the Botswana police in the 1980s.

At the end of 2022, there was an average of 82 murders per day in South Africa. Put into greater context, a murder rate of 43.7 per 100,000 people makes South Africa one of the most violent places in the world.

There was an uptick of violent crimes, which were mostly rapes, many of them committed against children. There are reports of government corruption and the police committing many crimes instead of defending the populace.

No doubt anyone outside this country would think twice before seeking it as a tourist destination since South Africa has become one of the most violent places in the world. ​

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In March, 2024 a 30 year old man was attacked by six men who bound him hand and feet. They dragged him into nearby bushes, amputated both of his hands and other body parts leaving him to die. 

Security guards found him before he bled to death.

Authorities suspected the act was committed in connection to muti. If the work requires male parts, young and healthy males are targeted.

According to Harriet Ngubane, a South African anthropologist, "in a definable part of southern African medical practice … ethics permit a practitioner to recommend in certain special cases a ritual killing. Ritual homicide [carries] very high professional fees … The inyanga [expert] who prescribes a muti homicide … arrives at his advice … within the … worldview of African traditional medicine."

However since ritual killings are illegal now in South Africa, attacks stop short of murder but instead amputate limbs or other body parts.

The practice of muti is particularly prevalent in Mpumalanga. In 2021, three doctors and a nurse were suspended from Bernice Samuel Hospital when an infant, admitted for diarrhea had her hand amputated. A case of negligence was opened against all four, and it's believed the amputation was done to use the hand for ritualistic magic.

An academic investigation into ‘Violent Hand Amputation and Replantation in South Africa’ conducted by Wendy Young, Pragashnie Govender, and Deshini Naidoo, claims that in 2001, almost 2500 individuals were caught with body parts in their possession. This highlights just how ingrained the practice of ritual killing is in the nation. ​