A Pagan Witches TouchStone: Witch Hunts in South Africa
By Damon Leff

On 29 March 2008 South African Witches will be launching '30 days of Advocacy for religious tolerance and an end to Witch Hunts'.

The authors of 'A Pagan Witches TouchStone' would like to encourage South African Pagans to speak out against religious discrimination against Witchcraft and against Witchcraft-related violence in South Africa.

We hope that this work will enable rational dialogue on the subject of Witchcraft within a new South African context; one that recognizes the right of religious freedom and equality, self-identity and

self-determination of religious minorities.

The '30 days of Advocacy against Prejudice and Violence' will culminate on Freedom Day (April 27) with 'Pagan Freedom Day' celebrations in 5 cities around the country.

Below a foreward of 'A Pagan Witches TouchStone'.

Sincerely

Damon Leff

South African Pagan Rights Alliance

www.paganrightsalliance.org

Forward - By Dr. Dale Wallace

A Pagan Witches TouchStone is an important publication for a number of reasons. Certainly one of the most important is that for the first time, self-defining Pagan Witches bring into open debate their own perspectives and experiences that result from the negative consequences brought about by the dominant construction of the 'witch' as a practitioner of evil. These constructions mostly emerge in African religious traditions wherein witchcraft is understood as an explanatory cause behind personal and community misfortune, illness, and untimely death; and within many Christian traditions that have historically associated the practice of magic, occult traditions, and alternative conceptions of the divine, with a form of diabolic heresy. In this worldview, a person who engages in some, or all, of these practices, can be labeled 'a witch.'

These two worldviews have vastly different religious and cultural histories. Within each, there is likewise a plethora of different opinions, explanations and definitions associated with the witch and witchcraft. The authors of /TouchStone/ could open themselves to the criticism that they do not fully distinguish between the many differences that are inherent in, and between, African and Christian ideas of witchcraft, and also the ways in which their own history, contemporary beliefs and magical practices, participate in similarities and differences with both the aforementioned.

The value and relevance of this publication, however, outweighs any such criticism, and lies deeper than the examples cited in the publication. Every month in South Africa, citizens die as a result of being accused of practicing witchcraft, or are driven into ostracized communities where a mere modicum of basic needs are met. Such persons are deprived of their dignity, their human rights, and the opportunity to be full citizens in South African society. Of equal importance, religious prejudice has, throughout history, fuelled intolerance, compromised the human right to freedom of religious belief and practice, manifested in discrimination in the home, the workplace and in wider society. To this day, religious prejudice often leads to bloodshed and the loss of human life.

Under the new Constitution, and in the vision of the society we, as citizens of South Africa, hope to forge, there is indeed little place or the uninformed labeling of 'evil' that is often conferred on alternative religious beliefs and practices by those who claim the right to define what constitutes religion through a single, exclusive lens.

Equally, there is little place in a democracy governed by a Bill of Rights, for any form of legislation that discriminates on the grounds of belief or practice. There are essentially two types of anti-witchcraft legislation in place across post-colonial Africa; one renders the accusation of witchcraft an offence, while the other criminalizes the practice of witchcraft. The effects of both forms of legislation have been the object of many academic and legal studies, almost all of which cite the catastrophic failure such legislation has had in reducing, let alone eliminating, incidents of witchcraft-related violence. Rather, they have provided a legislative foundation for the grossest of human rights abuses.

The authors of /TouchStone/ raise these issues in an undoubtedly subjective and impassioned fashion. As Pagan Witches they, and others in their community, have been negatively stereotyped and are also subject to the criminalization of their beliefs and practices under any form of witchcraft legislation. They are vehemently committed to participating in dialogue and finding a role in attempts to seek a solution to the injustices incurred through witchcraft accusations and violence.

It is this commitment that inspires their proposed programme of '30 Days of Advocacy against Prejudice and Violence' that will culminate on Freedom Day 2008. Pagan Witches embrace reconciliation, and look to a future where the religious freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution and Bill Of Rights can be realized, and where discrimination and prejudice on religious grounds belong in our past. They ask this, not just for themselves, but for all South Africans. This is the real importance of /TouchStone/, and its authors should be commended for attempting to raise public awareness of these issues, and for opening the door to a wider and more inclusive debate on a subject that should touch us all.

Dr Dale Wallace

University of KwaZulu Natal