Belief in witchcraft is growing in Pacific say experts
06 June 2013
AFP
BELIEF IN SORCERY AND WITCHCRAFT is on the rise in the Pacific, experts warned yesterday.
Lawrence Foana’ota, formerly the director of the Solomon Islands National Museum, said people were increasingly turning to witchcraft in his country.
“The reason why it’s growing is because there is some kind of economic benefits people are receiving from these practices,” he said before speaking at a conference to tackle the issue.
Unless the problem was addressed quickly, especially amongst the young, “it might end up in the same situation as in PNG where they are actually physically killing people”, he said.
Reverend Jack Urame, from the Melanesian Institute, said Christian organisations could do more to stamp out the widespread belief in sorcery in PNG, where many people do not accept natural causes as an explanation for misfortune and death.
“There is an alarming comeback of the belief, and I believe there are several factors why the belief is coming back again,” Urame told the ABC.
“Because there is a generation gap, the Christian values is not being passed on to the next generation and so I think people are resorting back to the traditional belief as an answer to explain sickness and death.”
Australian National University academic Miranda Forsyth, co-convenor of the conference in Canberra, said the belief in sorcery and witchcraft was widespread in countries such as PNG, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
“These beliefs and practices impede economic development, because people are often afraid to be too successful because they are then accused of sorcery,” she said.
“They also impact on understandings of health as people are not inclined to seek medical assistance because they attribute illness to sorcery.
“They also lead to increased crime, because women or men who are accused of sorcery are attacked by the population who think that this is the only way to stop a misfortune that has fallen upon their community.”
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