Countless Centuries of Human Sacrifice

As stated elsewhere on this site, human sacrifices are of all ages and all places. In principle, this site focuses on ritualistic activities including killings and murders on the African continent but without pretending that these cruel and superstitious acts are only happening or being committed by Africans in African countries.

The article presented below amply illustrates the foregoing. It goes without saying that a topic such as ‘human sacrifices in historical perspective’ covers a vast area and cannot be treated in one short and simple article. Nevertheless, I have thought it useful and informative to include the following article on this site.

Warning: some readers may find the following text shocking because of its graphic contents.
(webmaster FVDK).

Countless Centuries of Human Sacrifice

Live Science recently published a list of 25 cultures that employed human sacrifice “from prehistory to the 21st century.”

Published: December 25, 2022
By: James A. Haught – ‘The Good Men Project’

In the history of religion, uncountable centuries of human sacrifice present a gory stunner.

It’s astounding that parents around the world sent their children and unwed daughters to be stabbed, burned, skinned, strangled, beheaded, drowned, crushed, clubbed or otherwise killed to please absurd gods and goddesses now known to be imaginary. Men – especially prisoners of war – also were sacrificed.

Live Science recently published a list of 25 cultures that employed human sacrifice “from prehistory to the 21stcentury.” It included China, the city of Ur (in today’s Iraq), Mound 72 near St. Louis, the Incas of Peru, the Mayas of Mexico, the Philistines of the Mideast, Aztecs of Mexico, ancient Egypt, Stonehenge, medieval Japan, Hawaii, early Romans, ancient Greeks, the Moche tribe of Peru, the Dahomey of Africa, Celts of Europe, Nazca of Peru, Vikings, Carthage, Mongols, hunter-gatherers of early Europe, the Indus Valley, ancient Korea, India, Tanzania.

Encyclopedia Britannica says:

“Sacrifice is not a phenomenon that can be reduced to rational terms; it is fundamentally a religious act that has been of profound significance to individuals and social groups throughout history, a symbolic act that establishes a relationship between man and the sacred order. For many peoples of the world, throughout time, sacrifice has been the very heart of their religious life.”

Here’s a section from my book, Holy Horrors, reprinted with permission from Prometheus Books and Rowman & Littlefield:

Over the centuries, sacrifice had many varieties. In ancient Phoenicia, boys were burned to satisfy Adonis and other gods – and the fall of Carthage was blamed on the faithlessness of nobles who substituted children of slaves for their own on the altars. In ancient Gaul, the Druids allegedly put victims into large wicker figures of men and set them afire. In Tibet, Bon shamans performed ritual killing. In Africa, the Ashanti offered about 100 victims each September to assure a good yam harvest. In Borneo, builders of pile-houses drove the first pile through the body of a maiden to satisfy the earth goddess.

The golden age of sacrifice came with the highly organized theocracies of Central America. After the Mayans amalgamated with fierce neighbor tribes in the 11th century, ritual killings proliferated to appease the plumed serpent Kukulcan (later called Quetzacoatl by the Aztecs) and sundry other gods. Maidens were drowned in sacred wells, and other victims were beheaded, shot with arrows, or had their hearts cut out.

In Peru, pre-Inca tribes killed children in “houses of the moon.” Beginning in the 1200s, the Incas built a complex theocracy dominated by priests who read daily magical signs and offered sacrifices to many gods. At major ceremonies, up to 200 children were burned as offerings. Mothers brought their darlings dressed in finery and flowers to be put to death. Special “chosen women” – comely virgins without blemish – sometimes were removed from their temple duties and strangled. Local rulers sent choice daughters to the capital at Cuzco as chosen women. Later they were sent back to be buried alive.

The ultimate murder religion was that of the Aztecs, which demanded about 20,000 victims per year. The chief deity was the sun, which might disappear, priests warned, without daily sustenance of hearts and blood. Multitudes of victims, mostly prisoners of war, were held on stone altars by clergy who ripped out their hearts with obsidian knives. Flesh from their arms was eaten ritually, and their skulls were preserved on racks holding as many as 10,000 heads. Raids called “wars of the flowers” were conducted to seize plentiful sacrifice candidates.

Priests also killed many Aztecs. Weeping children were sacrificed so that their tears might induce the rain god to water the crops. To please the maize goddess, dancing virgins were seized, decapitated, and skinned – and their skins were worn by priests in continued dancing.

In 1487, when the great Aztec temple in Tenochtitlan was dedicated, eight teams of priests worked four days sacrificing 20,000 prisoners, the entire manpower of three captured tribes….

In the Far East, five different types of human sacrifice were halted by British rulers in the 1800s. One was the yearly meriah by the Khonds of Bengal, who cut a victim into small pieces and buried the fragments in many fields to assure a good harvest. Another was a weekly rite by certain followers of the bloodthirsty Hindu goddess Kali who sacrificed a male child every Friday evening at a shrine in Tanjore, India.

A third was the Hindu code of suttee, which required a widow to leap onto her dead husband’s funeral pyre, willingly or unwillingly. The British banned it in 1829, but it persisted. (When Brahmans of Sind protested that suttee was their holy custom, Governor Charles Napier replied: “My nation also has a custom When men burn women alive, we hang them. Let us all act according to national customs.”)

In Burma, the Buddhist king moved the capital to Mandalay in 1854 and sanctified the new city walls by burying scores of “spotless” men alive in vats under the gates and bastions. In 1861, two of the vats were discovered to be empty – whereupon royal astrologers declared that 500 men, women, boys and girls must be killed and buried at once, or the capital must be abandoned. About 100 actually were buried before British authorities stopped the ceremonies.

The worst holy slaughter halted by the British was the infamous Thuggee strangling in India. For generations, certain secretive followers of Kali, the goddess of destruction, had been ritually dispatching an estimated 20,000 victims a year. The toll since the 1500s was estimated as high as two million. Thug theology held that Brahma the Creator produced lives faster than Shiva the Destroyer could end them, so Shiva’s wife Kali commanded believers to hunt humans and garrote them with sashes.

Thugs usually preyed upon travelers in unpopulated places. Victims were seized, strangled, ceremonially gashed, and buried, then the Thugs ate a ritual meal over the burial spot. (They also plundered the victim’s possessions – another motive for their religious fervor.) British officers finally broke Thuggee by ferreting out 3,689 cultists and hanging or imprisoning them, or branding them with “Thug” as a public warning. At a trial in 1840, one Thug was accused of strangling 931 people.

Other sacrifices lingered. In the 1800s an Ashanti king in Africa, wishing to make his new palace impregnable, sacrificed 200 girls and mixed their blood in the mortar of the walls. In 1838 a Pawnee American Indian girl was cut to pieces to fertilize newly sown crops. During the late 1800s, bodies of sacrificed children occasionally were found at Kali shrines in India.

***

Among those thousands of priests, I wonder if any realized that their gods were purely imaginary. Whether they did or not, their careers consisted of senseless, pointless, horrifying murder.

Source: Countless Centuries of Human Sacrifice

Nigerian kills Nigerian girlfriend in Ghana for money ritual

Nigeria is Africa’s most populated country. With a population estimated at over 200 million people it is not surprising that Nigeria ranks high in the list of countries where people are murdered for ritualistic reasons or in a ritual way, including the performance of rituals believed to bring or enhance political power, economic or financial wealth, good health to the perpetrator(s) and/or conspirator(s). It is my estimation that Nigeria is Number One on the African continent when it comes to ritualistic murders, locally referred to as ‘money rituals’.

Not all ritual murders are discovered whereas not all murders which seem to be ritual murders are true ritual murders. Perpetrators may hide traces or create circumstances intended to mislead investigators. Hence we have to be always careful when reading about reported cases of ritual murders.

That being said, a case is being reported of a Nigerian residing in Ghana who killed his girlfriend for ‘money ritual’. Read the following report.

Warning: Some people may find the following story and/or the video disturbing because of the explicit contents (webmaster FVDK).

Nigerian kills Nigerian girlfriend in Ghana for money ritual

..Any Nigerian that commits a crime in any country, the law of the land should take its course, says NiDCOM

Published: November 30, 2022
By: Per Second News

In his desperate get-rich-quick bid, a Nigerian, whose identity is still unknown,  has killed his girlfriend, a Nigerian, in Accra, Ghana.

According to reports, the “lover boy” beheaded the girl at Spintex, Accra, the  Ghanian capital, to use her body parts for money ritual.

Just before dismembering her body, Police on a tip-off, swooped on the house and arrested the man, a report reaching Persecondnews said.

A video of his arrest which also showed the moment the corpse of the girl was recovered by the police, was shared on Facebook by a user identified as Smile Baba.

He had commented: “Very sad development this afternoon. I have just arrived from a crime scene here in Accra, Ghana, where a Nigerian young man beheaded his Nigerian girlfriend in Spintex, Accra, Ghana.

“My question is, who actually lies to these young boys and girls that money rituals truly exist?

“Ladies, you have to be careful of who you trust; it doesn’t matter how calm the man looks. Just be careful.”

Contacted for his comment, the spokesman for the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), Mr Abdur-Rahmam Balogun, said: “Our stand is that any Nigerian that commits a crime, let the law of the land take its course.

“The Nigerian government has no role to play in such instance. If you go to another man’s land and commit a crime, the law of the land will always take its course.

“So, we always advise Nigerians to be good ambassadors wherever they find themselves. I have not watched the video and we have not been petitioned.”

Source: Nigerian kills Nigerian girlfriend in Ghana for money ritual

Also:

Nigerian man allegedly beheads his girlfriend in Ghana  – YouTube

Death of Death Penalty in Ghana

Recommended reading for those interested in the pros and cons of the death penalty.
(webmaster FVDK)

Death of the death penalty in Ghana

Published: November 3, 2022
By: Prosper Andre Batinge – Graphic Online, Ghana

For some time now, Ghanaian penal advocates tracking liberal global criminal justice crusaders have been trying to kill the death penalty with only near successes.

The real chance at abolishing the death penalty in Ghana emerged in the case of Dexter Johnson v the Republic [2011] 1 SCGLR 601. But a majority decision of Ghana’s Supreme Court, against the spirited protestations of the minority, especially Justice Samuel Kofi Date-Bah (as he then was), declined and passed the buck to Parliament.

In throwing the ball from the Supreme Court to the chambers of Parliament, then Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah (now the Chief Justice of Ghana) wrote: “I am aware that the death penalty has been abolished in other jurisdictions, especially in the Commonwealth countries.

“I would, like my brother Dotse JSC, advocate statutory intervention like other jurisdictions where they have degrees of murder instead of judicial intervention by way of interpretation.” [Dexter Johnson at 703.]

Bills

Parliament now has a clear chance to abolish the death penalty. The Madina Constituency lawmaker, Mr Francis-Xavier Sosu, is a front advocate of the Death Penalty Bills: The Criminal and Other Offences (Amendment) Act 1960 (Act 29) and the Armed Forces (Amendment) Act 1962 (Act 105).

These Bills seek to amend sections 46, 49, 49a, 180, 194 and 317a of Act 29 and sections 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 40, 78, and 79 of Act 105. The Bills were gazzetted on Tuesday, June 28, 2022.

These Bills seek to abolish the death penalty for ordinary offences, still leaving in the purgatory of the death penalty those convicted of serious crimes like High Treason and Treason.

Cruel

Ghana has not executed anybody convicted and sentenced to the death penalty since 1993. In strict terms and in practice thus Ghana appears not a death penalty state.

But the nation’s trial courts continue to impose the death penalty on persons upon conviction. Some 165 convicted persons were on the death row at the end of 2021; the number is now more than 170.

The death penalty offends the right to life etched in crucial human rights conventions, covenants, and declarations.

The death penalty also offends African customary law. Ubuntu was influential in abolishing the death penalty in South Africa. The South African Constitutional Court in S v Makwanyane held that the death penalty violated the right to human dignity, underscoring that the right to dignity was an integral part of ubuntu.

The death penalty is too cruel and has proven parallel to the values of evolved human sensibilities. The death penalty appears a relic of backward societies of a backward era.

The psychological torture to people on death row is immense. They wait for the never-arriving day of their execution. Some have taken their own lives during this uncertain period of waiting.

As well, the psychological effect of the death penalty on executing officers is no less tormenting. The introduction of so-called mercy killing such as injecting convicts to die peacefully and painlessly has not lessen the cruelty of the practice on both the victim and the killer.

Innocent people – not infrequently – are accused, convicted, and executed for crimes, of which they are not culpable. Fairly recently, Mr Emmanuel Tetteh was released from prison after he was wrongfully sentenced to death for murder. He did 33 years behind bars. At his release, he was 75 years.

The case against abolishing the death sentence, therefore, often makes both theoretical and common sense. But on few occasions, the argument against the death penalty is difficult to advance with clear conscience in a society of persistence instances of ritual murders.

Some of our compatriots believe that they can sacrifice their fellow human beings for money, and they, according to allegations too numerous to ignore, kill others with the hope of attaining wealth.

Some of the victims of ritual murders are young citizens in their prime with full potential of their lives in front of them, promising lives cut painfully short by evil people. It is with pain that I still believe and argue that even a ritual murderer ought not to suffer the death penalty.

Parliament

Writing for the majority in the case of Dexter Johnson supra, Justice Jones Dotse (as he then was) opined that “the time has possibly come for the Parliament of Ghana to seriously consider whether to have a policy shift in the mandatory death penalty regime imposed on those convicted of murder.” {[2011] 1 SCGLR 601 at 702.}

More than a full decade after the Supreme Court’s indication, and after years of campaigns to end the death penalty, Parliament appears willing to kill the death penalty in the case of ordinary crimes.

As Parliament commences a new session of its lawmaking duties last Tuesday, October 25, 2022, it should ensure that the death penalty ends with the end of the Third Meeting of the Second Session of the Eighth Parliament of the Fourth Republic.

The writer is a lawyer/doctoral fellow at Fordham Law School, N.Y., USA: 
E-mail: pbatinge@fordham.edu

Source: Death of Death Penalty in Ghana

Ghana: Invoke death penalty as punishment for ritual killers — PNC

In many African countries the capital punishment has been abolished, yet in a number of countries people start pressurizing their governments to re-introduce the death penalty notably for convicted ritual murderers.

Consequently, in Malawi and other Southern African countries (Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe) as well as in East Africa (Uganda), in West Africa (Nigeria) and in Central Africa (Equatorial Guinea) the death penalty is no longer a taboo or has been already legalized.

In the aftermath of an increasing number of shocking ritual murders it is now Ghana’s turn. Recently, the People’s National Convention (PNC) called on the government to reintroduce the death penalty for convicted ritual murderers. (webmaster FVDK).

Invoke death penalty as punishment for ritual killers — PNC

Published: October 2, 2022
By: Modern Ghana

Source: Invoke death penalty as punishment for ritual killers — PNC

Ghana – Mankessim ritual murder: Awakrom chief calls for arrest of ‘missing’ fetish priest, Ebusuapanyin

For a better understanding of the article cited below it is highly recommended to read yesterday’s posting with useful background information on the cultural-historic background pertaining to this ritual murder case as well as background information on the three arrested suspects (webmaster FVDK).

Mankessim murder: Awakrom chief calls for arrest of ‘missing’ fetish priest, Ebusuapanyin

Two of the arrested suspects

Published: October 2, 2022
By: Ghana Web

Source: Mankessim murder: Awakrom chief calls for arrest of ‘missing’ fetish priest, Ebusuapanyin

Ghana – Mankessim ritual murder: Fetish priest, Ebusuapanyin ‘missing’

Before reading the article cited below it may be useful to read the following background.

Abusua is the name in Akan culture for a group of people that share common maternal ancestry governed by seven major ancient female abosom (deities). More historic information on the Akan people can be found here.

The traditional aspect of this cultural history should be kept in mind when reading and trying to understand the following. After all, nowadays’ ritualistic activities find their origin in ancient, traditional cultural practices albeit not necessarily in the same form. However, this should not be interpreted as condoning or justifying cruel, criminal and outdated rites nowadays, in the 21st century. This explains why Nana Akwa III, the Chief of Akwakrom, called for the arrest of the missing two key persons, the fetish priest of the community who was close to one of the suspects, presently in custody, Christopher Ekow Quansah (Nana Clarke), the Tufohen, and one Mr. Kwesi Gyan, the Abiradze Ebusuapanyin, also a relation of Nana Clarke.

Nana Clarke and a self-styled pastor, Pastor Michael Darko Amponsah (Soft Kofi), have been arrested suspected of ritually murdering a young lady, Georgina Asor Botchwey on September 9. Also a third person has been arrested, one Abbey (aka ‘Kobbie’). Abbey is suspected to have dug the pit in which Georgina Botchwey was buried at Nana Clarke’s residence in Mankessim.
(webmaster FVDK)

Mankessim murder: Fetish priest, Ebusuapanyin ‘missing’ since incident – Report

The murder suspects are currently in police custody

Published: October 1, 2022
By: Ghana Web

“More so, prior to the arrest of the Tufohen, his Ebusuapanyin was billed to meet the Chief and elders on some teething community issues, but he cannot be found. And why is he not answering our calls,” the Chief revealed.

Source: Mankessim murder: Fetish priest, Ebusuapanyin ‘missing’ since incident – Report

Ghana – Police: Mankessim ritual murder suspects made more victims

Shocking new information emerges about more deadly ritualistic activities reportedly carried out by the two arrested suspects. The two men were arrested and accused of ritually murdering Georgina Botchway, a student nurse and young lady on September 9 . Allegedly, the two accused persons have confessed to killing more people. Following the policy investigations a third suspect was arrested.

On September 29, the late Georgina Asor Botchway was laid to rest. Hundreds of people at Yeji in the Bono East Region went to her family home to mourn. Please see the original articles (below follows the link) to watch all photographs of this impressive ceremony. For technical reasons I have only included a few photos.
(webmaster FVDK)

The victim, Georgina Asor Botchwey, a student nurse who was brutally murdered for ritualistic purposes

Mankessim murder: Accused persons allegedly confess to killing 2 more people

The ritual murder suspects Christopher Ekow Quansah, the Tufuhen of Mankessim, and self-styled pastor Michael Darko, who allegedly murdered Ms. Georgina Asor Botchwey.

Published: September 30, 2022
By: GNA

Hundreds of people on Thursday gathered in front of the house of Christopher Ekow Quansah, the Tufuhen of Mankessim, to catch a glimpse of him and self-styled pastor Michael Darko, who allegedly murdered one Ms. Georgina Asor Botchwey.

A police team had led the two accused persons, who allegedly confessed to the killing of two more people, to the house of the Tufohen, located just after the Pacific Fuel Station, near the Mankessim Lorry Station for further investigations.

The crowd hooted at them amid name calling and casting of aspersions as drivers in traffic temporarily stopped over to watch the two, who have notoriously become famous.

A source told the GNA that the two accused persons had confessed to killing three other people, a male and two females and led the police team on Thursday afternoon, to the various locations.

The witness said the accused persons first took the team to the house of the Tufohen at Mankessim and Akwakrom near Mankessim, where they carried out their criminal activities.

The police thoroughly searched the rooms and took vital documents and information for further investigation.

Again, in Mankessim, the two took the police team to a location where a male teacher was allegedly invited by them and was shot and killed instantly and his toes cut.

The police were also taken to a location in the Ekumfi District where they allegedly shot and killed a female trader and buried her under a bridge in the Ekumfi District.

The team also visited a location at Batanya in the Abura-Asebu-Kwamakese District, where they allegedly killed a young lady from Kumasi.

Apparently, the two pretended to be travel agents and prepared a traveling document for her to travel to Holland.

The two allegedly told the police that they met the lady at Batanyaa on the Cape Coast-Assin Fosu Highway and killed her.

The family of the deceased, who were at the mortuary in Cape Coast on Thursday afternoon, identified the body of their relative.

Meanwhile, a crack team of police personnel from the Central Regional Command were also led by the accused persons to arrest a 26-year-old mason in Mankessim, in connection with the alleged murder.

Sources, who did not want to be identified, told the Ghana News Agency that they saw the third suspect being whisked away and identified him as one Abbey, the in-law of Quansah.

According to the sources, Quansah, confessed to having hired the husband of one Esi Akyere to dig the pit in his houses at Mankessim.

Following the revelation, the police swiftly moved to the community and with the backing of the chiefs arrested Abbey, who initially denied the act but later admitted to digging the pit for GHs50.

According to Abbey, who is also one of the leaders of the Youth Volunteer Group in the community, the Tufohen paid him the agreed amount in installments of GHs20 and GHs30 respectively after the work.

Baffled by the revelation of the suspect, the sources said, the chiefs assembled all the members of the Youth Volunteer Group and impressed on them to confess if they were complicit in the murder case, but they all denied any knowledge of it.

The sources also said police personnel had been stationed at the deserted family house of the Tufohen where two dugout holes were found in two obscure and dirty separate rooms while it had also intensified patrols.

Earlier, Nana Alma Ill, the Chief of Akwakrom, at a press conference, called for the arrest and inquiry into the activities of a fetish priest in the community and one Mr. Kwesi Gyan, the Abiradze Ebusuapayin of the Tufohen who could not be tracked since the news broke out.

“We are appealing to the police to interrogate his fetish priest in the community who the Tufohen liked so much and took cover prior to his arrest,” Nana Akwa pleaded.

Nana Akwa, who is also a legal practitioner, wondered how the Tufohen dug the craters containing numerous bottles and dead materials without the knowledge of the Ebusuapanyin.

“Since the arrest of the Tufohen, all attempts to reach his Ebusuapanyin, who was always in the community, has not been successful. There is no way anyone can dig out two pits in two separate rooms in a family house without the knowledge of the Ebusuapanyin. This is incomprehensible.

“More so, prior to the arrest of the Tufohen, his Ebusuapanyin was billed to meet the Chief and elders on some teething community issues, but he cannot be found. And why is he not answering our calls,” the Chief revealed.

Source: Mankessim murder: Accused persons allegedly confess to killing 2 more people

More:

Mankessim murder suspects are involved in ritual murders – Police

Published: September 30, 2022
By: Modern Ghana

Source: Mankessim murder suspects are involved in ritual murders – Police

More:

Mankessim murder suspects killed a trader, too; they’re ritual murderers – Police

Published: September 30, 2022
By: Ghana Web

Source: Mankessim murder suspects killed a trader, too; they’re ritual murderers – Police

More:

Mankessim ritual murder: Third suspect arrested for digging victim’s ‘grave’

Published: September 30, 2022
By: Ghana Web

Source: Mankessim ritual murder: Third suspect arrested for digging victim’s ‘grave’

More:

In pictures: Tears flow as murdered nurse applicant’s body arrives in her hometown

To listen to listen to this article, please click here
‘Georgina Botchway returns home….’

Published: September 30, 2022
By: MyJoy Online

Hundreds of people at Yeji in the Bono East Region have thronged the family home of Georgina Botchwey, the aspiring nurse trainee who was murdered in Mankessim.

Screenshot – To watch the video on YouTube, please click here

The victim is alleged to have kidnapped, sexually assaulted, killed and buried in an uncompleted storey building for ritual purposes.

A self-styled pastor, Michael Darko, and the Tufuhene of Ekumfi Akwaakrom, Christopher Ekow Clark Quansah were subsequently arrested in connection to the crime and remanded into police custody.

Per customs, the police have released Miss Botchwey’s body to her family and it was transported back to Yeji in the Bono Region for burial.

Upon her return, mourners have taken to the home of the deceased to mourn her death.

Background

According to police reports, Miss Botchwey arrived in Cape Coast on Thursday, September 8, to seek admission to the Ankaful Psychiatric Nursing School.

She called the pastor and informed him about his presence in the Central region and her mission.

The self-styled pastor who was the boyfriend of the sister of the deceased, informed her he will pick her up after the interview.

Unbeknownst to the deceased, the pastor had connived with the chief who is the Tufuhen of Ekumfi Akwakrom to kidnap and sexually assault her.

The two suspects then killed her and buried her in the kitchen of one of the chief’s apartments.

The news was widespread in the Central Region town that the deceased has gone missing for three weeks.

The notice circulating read, “Georgina Botchwey went for an interview at Cape Coast on Wednesday and up till now she cannot be found; her phone is off. Please, anybody with information about her should call 0208503126 or 0247048711.”

Following this notice, a friend of the deceased raised an alarm about Georgina meeting with her sister’s boyfriend.

The pastor was arrested in Cape Coast and admitted to the crime.

He subsequently led the police to the residence where Georgina had been buried and her body was exhumed.

Meanwhile, the chief who fled after reports of the arrest of his accomplice has been arrested.

Georgina Asor Botchweay returns home…

Source: In pictures: Tears flow as murdered nurse applicant’s body arrives in her hometown

More:

Tears flow as family holds burial ceremony for victim of Mankessim ritual murder

Georgina Asor Botchwey was laid to rest on September 29

Published: September 30, 2022
By: Ghana Web

RIP Georgina Asor Botchwey, who was mùrdèred by Chief and Pastor finally Buried, Mother almost Collapsed
Screenshot – To watch the video please click here

Source: Tears flow as family holds burial ceremony for victim of Mankessim ritual murder

More:

Yeji mourns Mankessim murder victim as body arrives

Published: September 30, 2022
By: Modern Ghana

Screenshot – To listen to the article, please click here

Source: Yeji mourns Mankessim murder victim as body arrives

Mankessim is a town in the Central region of Ghana, approximately 75 km west of the capital Accra.

Ghana: suspects confess to ritual killing in Mankessim Murder

Warning: the following article’s graphic content may upset some readers.

Yesterday I reported on four recent ritual murder cases in Ghana, one of them being the killing for ritualistic purposes of a young lady, Georgina Asor Botchwey, a student nurse, at Mankessim, in the Central Region.

The murder took place on September 9 of this year. Two suspects have been arrested. The suspects are a self-styled pastor Michael Darko, 48; and the Tufuhene of Ekumfi Akwakrom Christopher Ekow Quansah, 65, who reportedly kidnapped, killed, and secretly buried the victim.

Screenshot – click here to watch the YouTube video

The Ghanaian police is to be commended for its swift action. We will follow closely subsequent events. (webmaster FVDK)

Suspects Confess To Ritual Killing In Mankessim Murder

Published: September 23, 2022
By: Gloria Kafu Ahiable – The Ghana Report

Two suspects involved in the murder of a student nurse at Mankessim in the Central Region have admitted to killing the victim for ritual purposes.

The suspects, a self-styled pastor Michael Darko, 48; and the Tufuhene of Ekumfi Akwakrom Christopher Ekow Quansah, 65, reportedly kidnapped, killed, and secretly buried the victim.

The police said the two confessed to “murdering the victim for money rituals.”

“During police interrogation, suspect Michael Darko, who is the alleged boyfriend of the senior sister of the deceased victim and was last seen with her, led police to the location where they had buried her after the murder.”

The body has since been exhumed and deposited at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital morgue for preservation and autopsy.

Meanwhile, the two accused persons were hauled before the District Court II in Cape Coast to respond to their crime on 22 September 2022.

They were remanded in police custody by the Cape Coast Court to reappear on 4 October 2022.

Both have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder and murder, contrary to section 46 of the Criminal Offenses Act 1960, Act 29.

What happened to the student nurse

The student nurse, Georgina Asor Botchwey, was allegedly kidnapped, killed and secretly buried by the chief and the pastor in the chief’s house at Mankessim.

The victim, 25, is said to have gone for an interview at the Ankaful Nursing Training College when the pastor, who happens to be her sister’s boyfriend, invited her for a meeting.

After the interview, the victim set off to meet her soon‐to‐be brother‐in‐law. Little did she know a trap had been set before she arrived in Cape Coast on 8 September 2022.

The self-styled pastor had conspired with the chief, who is the Tufuhene of Ekumfi Akwakrom, to kidnap and sexually assault her.

On 9 September 2022, the accused persons picked the victim up in a Taxi at the Ankaful Hospital Pedu junction in Cape Coast.

They then took her to an uncompleted building belonging to the chief, where they had dug a hole in preparation for the ritual.

The chief is said to have hit the deceased with a club, and when she fell, her sister’s boyfriend dragged her by the feet while the chief held her neck till she died.

Meanwhile, news that the deceased had been missing for three weeks began to spread in the Mankessim after she failed to return home after the interview.

A notice in circulation read:

“Georgina Botchwey went for an interview at Cape Coast on Wednesday, and up till now, she cannot be found; her phone is off. Please, anybody with information about her should call 0208503126 or 0247048711.”

Following this notice, a friend of the deceased raised an alarm about Georgina meeting with her sister’s boyfriend.

Shortly after the tip-off, the pastor was arrested in Cape Coast and admitted to the crime.

He subsequently led the police to the residence where Georgina had been buried, and her body was exhumed.

The family of the murdered student nurse later disclosed that the suspects initially demanded a ransom from them.

According to Georgina Asor Botchwey’s relatives, the pastor and his accomplice had demanded that they pay GH¢15,000 for her release.

Unfortunately, the family could not raise the said amount.

Source: Suspects Confess To Ritual Killing In Mankessim Murder

Ghana: four recent ritual murder cases: Abesim, Kasoa, Mankessim, Wa

Ghana’s reputation abroad is one of a stable democracy, with a relative healthy economy, albeit plagued by problems which are characteristic for a developing economy: low incomes, lack of jobs, shortage of capital, to name but a few.

However, there is another Ghana, a traditional Ghana, where people believe in the power of ‘juju’, in superstition, and where criminal people do not hesitate to attack their fellow countrymen for the purposes of ritualistic activities, even if this means that the victims die in the hands of their torturers and murderers.

The four cases cited below illustrate this. The ritualistic murders took place in various parts of the country.

In the past I have given ample attention to the Kasoa case which occurred to the west of the country’s capital Accra (Greater Accra region). All murder cases are tragic but the Kasoa case even more because of the background of the young murderers. The Abesim murder which made two victims, two boys of 12 and 15 years old, took place in the Brong Ahafo Region. The Mankassim murder case is situated in Ghana’s Central Region (Ashanti Region), between Cape Coast and Winneba. I will report more on this case in the next few days. Finally, the gruesome ritualistic murder in Wa, in the Upper West Region.

Tthe reader is warned that the graphic details of the murder(s) may be shocking.
(webmaster FVDK)

Four recent ritual murder cases: Abesim, Kasoa, Mankessim, Wa

Published: September 26, 2022
By: Ghana Web

was conducted at his home.

Source: Four recent ‘ritual’ murder cases: Kasoa, Abesim, Mankessim, Wa

Over 16 ritual murders occur in Ghana each year, a recent study shows

Highly recommended reading!

The article below pays attention to the first study of its kind (at least, as far as I know) that gives us reliable and in-depth information on the scale of ritual murders in a West African country as well as details pertaining to the ‘how and why’ of ritual killings in this country, Ghana. The author, Emmanuel Sarpong Owusu, is a law and criminology researcher at Aberystwyth University and a lecturer at Arden University (all in the United Kingdom). He recognizes that the reported ritual murder cases which were analyzed, and which were all reported in three local Ghanaian media outlets in the 2013-2020 period, may be only the tip of the iceberg due to a number of factors which he explains in the study.

The author studied and analyzed 96 ritual murder cases (reported in the 2013-2020 period) involving approximately 116 victims including 62 children. This means an average of 16 ritual murders including 9 child victims each year – in Ghana only, a country with a population of about 30 million. Significantly, the study shows that ritual murders form approximately 1.6% of all the murders chronicled in the country annually.

The study is entitled ‘The Superstition that Dismembers the African Child: An Exploration of the Scale and Features of Juju-Driven Paedicide in Ghana’.  The 42-page study, in volume 60 issue 1 of the ‘International Annals of Criminology’ by Cambridge University Press, has been published in open access for which the publishers are to be commended. It is available in both HTML and PDF formats at: https://doi.org/10.1017/cri.2022.2 or click here.
(webmaster FVDK)

Over 16 ritual murders occur in Ghana each year, a recent study shows

Published: August 23, 2022
By: Vincent Tutu Bawuah – Modern Ghana

Juju-driven homicide or ritual murder has been the subject of many media reports in contemporary Ghana. However, very little is known about the prevalence/magnitude and features of this crime in the country, as national data sets on the ritual murder phenomenon are presently non-existent. 

To help address the problem relating to the paucity of information on ritual murder, Emmanuel Sarpong Owusu (also known as Black Power), a law and criminology researcher at Aberystwyth University and a lecturer at Arden University (all in the United Kingdom), has conducted a dynamic study on juju and ritual paedicides/pedicides (i.e. killing children for ritual or occult purposes) in Ghana, the first of its kind in a West African setting. 

The study sought to establish the scale and identify the primary features, motivations, and socio-cultural, religious and economic contexts of ‘ritual paedicide’ (a phrase coined by the researcher himself) in contemporary Ghana. It also examines the criminal justice system’s responses to such murders. 

To realize the defined aim, an in-depth analysis of ritual homicide cases/reports publicized in three local Ghanaian media outlets (the Daily GraphicGhanaian Times, and Daily Guide) between September 2013 and August 2020 was carried out. Semi-structured interviews involving 20 participants were then conducted to gain additional insights into key aspects of the results of the media content analysis. 

The following are some of the key findings of the study: 

A total of 96 reports/articles on ritual murder were extracted from the websites of the three media outlets perused, and this involved approximately 116 victims. Out of the 116 victims, 62 were children. This means that at least 16.5 ritual murders involving approximately 9 child victims occur in Ghana each year. The study also indicates that ritual paedicide forms approximately 1.6% of all the murders chronicled in the country annually. The researcher however admits that the number of ritual paedicide cases identified in the selected media outlets may be only the tip of the iceberg due to a number of limitations highlighted in the study. 

Most ritual paedicide victims (over 79%) are children of low socio-economic backgrounds in rural and semi-rural communities. There is no significant difference in the number of boys and girls murdered. Blood, the head, the limbs, and the private parts are the most sought-after body parts. Several reasons have been suggested for this trend. Ritual paedicide cases were more prevalent in the western part of Ghana than in other areas of the country. A reason for this development has been suggested in the study. 

Poor parental supervision is a significant risk factor for ritual paedicide. Over 70% of the victims were kidnapped while playing outside their homes unsupervised, going to school or fetching water from a stream unaccompanied, or running errands for their parents or other family members. Though letting children under 10 years roam about unsupervised appears to be a normal practice in most African communities, the study cautions against it. 

Most ritual murders involve multiple perpetrators, and a number of factors have been offered to explain this trend. Most perpetrators and prime suspects are males, aged between 20 and 39 years, mostly unemployed or financially handicapped. However, the study does not rule out the involvement of rich and educated people who are highly likely to hire others (ideally, poor or unemployed youth) to commit the barbaric crime rather than doing it themselves. 

Unlike other forms of homicide, perpetrators of ritual paedicide are strangers nearly as often as being family members and acquaintances. Fathers, stepfathers, and uncles are the dominant culprits in cases where victims and perpetrators are related. 

The most dominant motivation for ritual murder in Ghana is pecuniary gain. Among the key factors that account for the prevalence and persistence of ritual murders in the country are widespread unemployment and concomitant economic privations, obsession with juju, the increasing popularity of ‘cyber-criminality’ and the so-called Sakawa Boys, exposure of Ghanaian youth to African movies that portray juju and juju rituals as an efficient wealth-guaranteeing religious practice, illiteracy, and the emergence of a new ‘consumerist ethos’ that has engrossed the Ghanaian society and which is marked by the unrestrained quest for material success and the flamboyant display of luxury. 

The majority of perpetrators are not apprehended or even identified by law enforcement agencies. There is evidence of police laxity in investigating and prosecuting cases of ritual pedicide in Ghana. 

The study, entitled ‘The Superstition that Dismembers the African Child: An Exploration of the Scale and Features of Juju-Driven Paedicide in Ghana’, makes a significant contribution to the body of knowledge. It is highly significant as it breaks new ground and provides a foundation for further informed engagement with the ritual paedicide phenomenon in Africa. 

The full study (a 42-page article) has been published (open access) in volume 60 issue 1 of the ‘International Annals of Criminology’ by Cambridge University Press. It could be accessed in both HTML and PDF formats at: https://doi.org/10.1017/cri.2022.2

Source: Over 16 ritual murders occur in Ghana each year, a recent study shows