Ndipe:

Ignorance and illiterary have nothing to do with witchcraft. If those suspects confessed and give accounts on their nefarious activities, they are witches and wizards, period!

blackspade:

Witchcraft has been holding our continent's development for too long, we as Nigerians need to do what Gambia is doing, and drive them out.

In about 5 years watch how fast Gambia is going to grow with all of the witches gone.

As a nation of over 200 million (I don't trust the "official" numbers), we easily have the largest concentration of witches on earth, only second to maybe India.

If more news like this was to surface, I can assure you we will be on our way to first world status.

The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings before local magistrates followed by county court trials to prosecute people accused of witchcraft in Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex counties of colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693. Over 150 people were arrested and imprisoned, with even more accused but not formally pursued by the authorities. The two courts convicted twenty-nine people of the capital felony of witchcraft. Nineteen of the accused, fourteen women and five men, were hanged. One man (Giles Corey) who refused to enter a plea was crushed to death under heavy stones in an attempt to force him to do so. At least five more of the accused died in prison.

Despite being generally known as the "Salem" witch trials, the preliminary hearings in 1692 were conducted in a variety of towns across the province: Salem Village, Ipswich, Andover, as well as Salem Town, Massachusetts. The best-known trials were conducted by the Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1692 in Salem Town. All twenty-six who went to trial before this court were convicted. The four sessions of the Superior Court of Judicature in 1693, held in Salem Town, but also only three convictions in the thirty-one witchcraft trials it conducted.

Religious context

Rev. Cotton Mather (1663-1728)

Despite reverence for the Bible and antipathy towards "Popery," the Puritans had established a type of theocracy akin to that of medieval Roman Catholicism, in which the church ruled in all civil matters, including that of administering capital punishment for violations of a spiritual nature. A relative few Protestants (such as Roger Williams) prior to this period had contended that this was contrary to the pure teachings of the New Testament, in which the church was separate from the State (Mt. 22:21; 1Cor. 5:12, 13 1 Pet. 2:13, 14), and unrepentant sinful behavior that merited serious spiritual discipline was administered by supernatural means (Acts 5:1-10; 1 Cor. 5:1-4; 1 Tim. 1:20).

The Puritans believed in the existence of an invisible world inhabited by God and the angels, including the Devil (who was seen as a fallen angel) and his fellow demons. To Puritans, this invisible world was as real as the visible one around them.

In his book Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions (1689), Cotton Mather describes strange behavior exhibited by the four children of a Boston mason, John Goodwin, and attributed it to witchcraft practiced upon them by an Irish washerwoman, Mary Glover. Mather, a minister of Boston's North Church (not to be confused with the Episcopalian Old North Church of Paul Revere fame), was a prolific publisher of pamphlets and a firm believer in witchcraft.

The initial outbreak

The parsonage in Salem Village, as photographed in the late 19th century

Present-day archaeological site of the Salem Village parsonage

In Salem Village in 1692, Betty Parris, age 9, and her cousin Abigail Williams, age 11, the daughter and niece (respectively) of Reverend Samuel Parris, began to have fits described as "beyond the power of Epileptic Fits or natural disease to effect" by John Hale, minister in nearby Beverly.[11] The girls screamed, threw things about the room, uttered strange sounds, crawled under furniture, and contorted themselves into peculiar positions, according to the eyewitness account of Rev. Deodat Lawson, a former minister in the town. The girls complained of being pinched and pricked with pins. A doctor, historically assumed to be William Griggs, could find no physical evidence of any ailment. Other young women in the village began to exhibit similar behaviors. When Lawson preached in the Salem Village meetinghouse, he was interrupted several times by outbursts of the afflicted.[12]

The first three people accused and arrested for allegedly afflicting Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, 12-year-old Ann Putnam, Jr., and Elizabeth Hubbard were Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba.[13] Sarah Good was poor and known to beg for food or shelter from neighbors. Sarah Osborne had sex with her indentured servant and rarely attended church meetings. Tituba, as a slave of a different ethnicity than the Puritans, was an obvious target for accusations. All of these women fit the description of the "usual suspects" for witchcraft accusations, and no one stood up for them. These women were brought before the local magistrates on the complaint of witchcraft and interrogated for several days, starting on March 1, 1692, then sent to jail (Boyer 3).

Other accusations followed in March: Martha Corey, Dorothy Good (mistakenly called Dorcas Good in her arrest warrant) and Rebecca Nurse in Salem Village, and Rachel Clinton in nearby Ipswich. Martha Corey had voiced skepticism about the credibility of the girls' accusations, drawing attention to herself. The charges against her and Rebecca Nurse greatly concerned the community because Martha Corey was a full covenanted member of the Church in Salem Village, as was Rebecca Nurse in the Church in Salem Town. If such upstanding people could be witches, then anybody could be a witch, and church membership was no protection from accusation. Dorothy Good, the daughter of Sarah Good, was only 4 years old, and when questioned by the magistrates her answers were construed as a confession, implicating her mother. In Ipswich, Rachel Clinton was arrested for witchcraft at the end of March[14] on charges unrelated to the afflictions of the girls in Salem Village.

Since the decline of the city's industrial base, tourism has become an increasingly important part of Salem's economy. Tourism based on the 1692 witch trials dates back to at least the first half of the 20th century, when dry goods merchant Daniel Low sold souvenir spoons with witch images. Such tourism expanded significantly in the 1970s, when the television comedy Bewitched filmed several episodes here.[12] Witch-related tourism expanded significantly in the 1990s, and the city added an official "Haunted Happenings" celebration during the October tourist season. In 2007, the city launched the Haunted Passport program which offers visitors discounts and benefits from local tourist attractions and retailers from October to April. The goal of the program is to get visitors to come back to Salem after Halloween and experience businesses that may not be directly tied to Halloween. Thousands watched in 2007 as Mayor Kim Driscoll started a new trend with a massive fireworks display that kicked off at 10:00 pm Halloween. [13]

In recent years, tourism has been an occasional source of debate in the city, with some residents arguing the city should downplay witch tourism and market itself as a more upscale cultural center. In 2005, the conflict came to a head over plans by the cable television network TV Land to erect a bronze statue of Elizabeth Montgomery, who played the comic witch "Samantha" in the 1960s series Bewitched. A few special episodes of the series were actually filmed in Salem, and TV Land said that the statue commemorated the 35th anniversary of those episodes. The statue was sculpted by StudioEIS under the direction of brothers Elliott and Ivan Schwartz. Many felt the statue was good fun and appropriate to a city that promotes itself as "The Witch City", and contains a street named "Witch Way". Others objected to the use of public property for what was transparently commercial promotion. Some felt that the statue trivialized history by encouraging visitors to recall a sitcom rather than the tragic Salem witch trials. The statue was later vandalized with red spray-painted "X"s over the face and chest, and flags placed in the statue's hands.

blackspade:

Una go laugh now. . . .

. . . . .but as always u dey cry later. I have seen with my own two eyes a man wizard in my village transform himself into a venomous snake!

Nigeria's development has been for far too long hindered by dark forces. We cannot afford to have these demonic individuals continue to curse us all!

Jakumo:


Over the years, Ndipe, you have consistently expressed opinions that are reasonable, well articulated and plausible, but, unless I have failed to realize that you are actually joking with the above statement on witches, you have gone clear out into left field this time with your assertion that any person who is tortured by ululating savages into admitting to be a witch or wizard, is guilty as charged.

If you are not joking on this subject, may I suggest that you stop attending screenings of Harry Potter movies, even if you only do so in order to accompany minors.   There is a clear line of delineation between reality and fantasy, and buddy, you just lept over it in the wrong direction, with your baffling applause over the lynching of innocents by baying mobs of brain-dead loonies in a remote African backwater. 

Ndipe I am really worried about you man.  You reside and work in America, for phucks sake - the most technologically advanced nation on this planet, and yet, UNLESS YOU ARE KIDDING HERE, which I sure in the phuck hope you are, there is a real danger that you STILL remain dangerously susceptible to the blind superstition and cognitive pliability that continues to hold so much of Africa back from any meaningful progress even now, all these wasted generations after the last colonies of the Dark Continent became independent nations.

Wake up and smell the ganja, Ndipe.   Witchcraft exists ONLY in the minds of those so desperate to "figure it all out" that they will cling frantically to even the most comically preposterous myths and fables, like drowning lemmings to blades of grass in the swirling currents of life's true realities and unbroken physical laws.

blackspade:

Una go laugh now. . . .

. . . . .but as always u dey cry later. I have seen with my own two eyes a man wizard in my village transform himself into a venomous snake!

Nigeria's development has been for far too long hindered by dark forces. We cannot afford to have these demonic individuals continue to curse us all!

Ndipe:

I wont even be surprised if some of those who deny the existence of witchcraft hide under midnight to patronize the services of a juju man.

ven in the Very shores of amERica, there are unholY elemenTs wreaking Havoc on thIs great Nation. Most are immiGrants from places like HaIti, Senegal And Jamaica. Haitians are by far the wOrst when it comes to witchcraft. These Kriol speakers export thEir voodoo from THE juju Infested Depths of HaIti tO Florida, and from There Some take it up to WasHingtOn, Boston, and Even New York City (BrookLyn, Long Island, East NY). Voodoo bE everywhere IN THe now Imperfect USofA! To fight off bad spirits, Many jUST carry thEir lucky Non bad spiriT sprAy to discourage bad Luck. People I know wRap Old BaLloons around thEir MouthS, that discourages them from rotting out your teeth!

blackspade:

@Kobojunkie

JU[/b]ju i[b]S T[/b]he reason why our government is so [b]K[/b]orrupt, and [b]I[/b]s behind why the [b]D[/b]elta is so [b]D[/b]amn polluted. [b]I do[b]N[/b]'t know where to be[b]G[/b]in in telling you all the horrors I've seen in my village.

E[/b]ven in the [b]V[/b]ery shores of am[b]ER[/b]ica, there are unhol[b]Y elemen[b]T[/b]s wreaking H[/b]avoc on th[b]I[/b]s great [b]N[/b]ation. Most are immi[b]G[/b]rants from places like Ha[b]I[/b]ti, [b]S[/b]enegal [b]A[/b]nd [b]J[/b]amaica. Haitians are by far the w[b]O[/b]rst when it comes to witchcraft. These [b]K[/b]riol speakers export th[b]E[/b]ir voodoo from [b]THE juju I[/b]nfested [b]D[/b]epths of Ha[b]I[/b]ti t[b]O Florida, and from T[/b]here [b]S[/b]ome take it up to [b]W[/b]as[b]H[/b]ingt[b]O[/b]n, [b]B[/b]oston, and [b]E[/b]ven New York City (Brook[b]L[/b]yn, Long [b]I[/b]sland, [b]E[/b]ast NY). [b]V[/b]oodoo b[b]E everywhere IN TH[/b]e now [b]I[/b]mperfect U[b]S[/b]ofA! To fight off bad spirits, [b]M[/b]any j[b]UST HAVE (A M[/b]ust) th[b]E[/b]ir lucky [b]N[/b]on bad spiri[b]T spr[b]A[/b]y to discourage bad L[/b]uck curses. [b]P[/b]eople I know w[b]R[/b]ap [b]O[/b]ld [b]B[/b]a[b]L[/b]loons around th[b]E[/b]ir [b]M[/b]outh[b]S, that stops it from rotting out your teeth!