Can't resist this one.
Came up on AP Breaking News, no kidding.

No matter how weird things seem to get hereabouts, somewhere else it is even Officially Stranger.

Hey, being Anne Rice readers, we're not Witch Bashers ;^)
But this is just so transparent and primitive, and appears to be, uh, at least somewhat bought into by the local police.

As hospice caregivers, we can relate to the last line:
" ... the reputed witches are often old women with relatives who want to eliminate them to get their property."

In America the same ANTICIPATED GREED SinDrone is alive and well, and is dealth with by, oh, uh, we won't spill industry secrets here :-P

Let's just say we come down on the side of God, Eternity, Justice, Righteousness, Sanatan Dharma, and are advocates for the patient's right to life and the dignity of their soul.

------------------------------
[ Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only ]

Feb 9, 2000 - 11:19 AM

90-Year-Old Woman Arrested for Abducting Boy for Witchcraft

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (AP) - Police in southern Tanzania have arrested a 90-year-old woman on suspicion she abducted an 11-year-old boy to turn him into a zombie-like slave through witchcraft, the regional police chief said Wednesday.

The incident is the latest in a series of bizarre episodes related to witchcraft in the Mbeya region, 420 miles southwest of Dar es Salaam. Police chief Elias Saanya said the boy, Matthew Brown, was heading home from picking mangoes last week when he was attacked by an unidentified man.

The boy lost consciousness and was taken to a graveyard, where he was kept for three days before being brought to the home of the suspect, Jane Nalwimba, the police chief said.

At the woman's home, "he was washed with some mystical substance and stashed under the bed," Saanya said.

He said Nalwimba planned to cut off the boy's tongue Tuesday, the day she was arrested, as part of the process of turning the youngster into a zombie-like slave.

Her arrest was facilitated by a local sorcerer who divined the whereabouts of the missing boy, the officer said, but did not elaborate.

Many people in the rich agricultural region believe that such zombies can be made to perform menial farming chores late at night.

"We are planning to charge her with practicing witchcraft under the witchcraft ordinance," Saanya said.

Under the rarely enforced law, anyone caught in the act of practicing witchcraft or in possession of materials believed to be used for witchcraft can be charged with a criminal offense.

Belief in witchcraft is common throughout rural Tanzania, and the reputed witches are often old women with relatives who want to eliminate them to get their property.
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-- Ashton & Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), February 09, 2000

Answers

In the USA the "zombie-like slaves" are employed by the media ...

-- different strokes (for@different.folks), February 09, 2000.

LOL diff strokes!

This is done in Jamaica, as anyone with cable can attest. Anyone remember the drug the voodoo witches in Jamaica use to turn people into zombies? It lowers their vitals, so they get burried, then raise from the dead with an altered appearance, looking all wide-eyed and out of it from the permanent brain damage caused by the drug, so they are easily controled by the witch or uh voodoo priest.

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), February 09, 2000.

Hokie, they show this on cable? Even the rituals? Hhhmmm, maybe we should watch cable more often ... ;^)

VooDoo remediation = Windowing?

Time Will Tell, but it sure is looking good now!

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), February 09, 2000.

--Hokie, I believe it's a shell fish poison that is used there in haiti and elsewhere.

Witchcraft, craft of the wicca or wise. too bad it got perverted in it's common usage, and too bad it's used when i think people are referring to satanists, two different critters, there. methinks the old lady wuz maybe looking for a LOVE SLAVE! hehehehehe Who's that comedienne who always uses that in her schtick? LOVE SLAVE...too funny, can see her face, forgotten her name now.

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), February 09, 2000.

Well, from here in So. Calif, all I can say is, what's so odd about all this?

-- Richard (Astral-Acres@webtv.net), February 09, 2000.

Zog, *searching foggy memory here*
Is the shell fish poison a paralyzer? Vaguely remember reading something about that ...

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), February 09, 2000.

Does this witch have a relative who is running for office in New York?

-- haha (haha@haha.com), February 09, 2000.

Is it some fish the Japanese like to risk eating ?

-- Shoo (flyonthewalls@yahoo.com), February 09, 2000.

The "Boker" a Voodoo priest who practices Black Majic uses the gland secretions from the Bouga toad and four different Puffer fish along with various other ingredients to create a Zombie. The puffer fish contain a substance known as Tetrodotoxin. One of the worlds most toxic substances.

People in Haiti eat these Puffer fish but they are extremely carefull 'to say the least' to remove the poison first.

-- ~***~ (~***~@earth.ebe), February 09, 2000.

Yes, the Japanese like to flirt with death also.

-- ~***~ (~***~@earth.ebe), February 09, 2000.

Does anybody know if a Zombie can be restored to a normal human?
Is it brain damage from drugs, or is there more to it?

Is there an antidote?

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), February 09, 2000.

---thanks for the tech zombie report buncha symbols dood! Knew i wuz close!

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), February 09, 2000.

FYI

Haiti: Serpent and Rainbow and Passage and Ethnobiology of Haitian Zombi

By Robert Lawless Department of Anthropology University of Florida

Publish in 1989 in Latin American Anthropology Review 1(1):5-6.

-- Dee (t1colt556@aol.com), February 09, 2000.

Dee, thanks for the Link. It criticized a book but never talked about what actually the zombie is :-(

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), February 09, 2000.

A & L-ever get a good look at albored when he's sitting behind the king? Now THAT'S a zombie fer sure! that's whut they look like!

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), February 09, 2000.

Thanks, Zog. You made my day.

-- Lurkess (Lurkess@Lurking.XNet), February 09, 2000.

ZOMBI ES

-snip-

A zombie is a dead person that is brought back to life through means of voodoo or necromancy, destroying the mental processes of this person through the process. Most people consider zombies only to be the stuff of horror books and movies, but they do exist in Haiti in the present day. Thousands of people in Haiti are considered to be zombies, some of which lead normal everyday lives with families, jobs and are respected citizens. It9s even considered to be a crime to make a zombie in Haiti.

-snip-

Note: Link has more details.

Dee 8-)

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 09, 2000.

Ashton and Leska, whom I like and respect, if you like vampire novels, try the "Necroscope" series by Brian Lumley. The fights beat David Drake's stuff (which I read and like), and even "The Five Fingers" (by Gayle Rivers). As far as the erotic parts go, compared to Rice -- make up your own minds...

www.y2ksafeminnesota.com

-- MinnnesotaSmith (y2ksafeminnesota@hotmail.com), February 09, 2000.

zog,

The comedienne who does the "Love Slave" shtick is Judy Tenuta.

Also, regarding the toxin of the puffer fish: The dish used to be more popular in Japan, but since chefs have become so adept at preparing it, there is such a tiny risk of dying from it, that it is no longer a "challenge" to eat it. Kind of different than eating food in the U.S., where we tend to avoid foods that pose a challenge or risk.

-- CJS (cjs@noemail.com), February 10, 2000.

Zog, this is not case of Wiccans or any sort of witches as Westerners usual know being involved. Wiccans (a tradition of earth-centered neo- pagan spirituality based primarily on re-creations of pre-Christian Northern European practices) have as a primary binding vow the ethical stance of not harming by their actions, just like the Hippocratic oath. The Wiccan concept of the Law of Three-fold return actually takes the Golden Rule more intensely -- not only does what you do come back to you (both for good and for ill), but it comes back threefold.

In many African and some other cultures, the concept of "witch" often is defined as a purely malevolent magic-working individual. They seem to be locked into a cultural construct that cannot conceive of a witch that could do healing or other benign work. Recently there were some problems at (I think) a world interfaith congressin Africa in which some US Wiccan and some African shamanic representatives were getting flak from African Christians, who felt the need to take it upon themselves be the ones who decide what is a valid religion, and what is not.

-- Firemouse (firemouse@fcmail.com), February 10, 2000.

Thanks A&L. The part about old women reputed to be witches, so relative could get their property is interesting. Many old women in Europe were burned as witches and their cats were burned as their familiars, when in actuallity the woman wasn't a witch at all, just an old, lonely woman, whose only friend was a cat.

I never cease to be amazed at the lengths human beings will go to increase their wealth or status.

-- gilda (jess@listbot.com), February 10, 2000.

Speaking of Jamaica, we just ate a Jamaican tangelo, aka Ugli Fruit. Yummy! Very sweet 'n juicy.

Dee, your 2nd Zombies links was really good reading! Thanks. Velly interesting.

MinnnesotaSmith, if we ever get spare time (looks impossible at this point), we'll check out your book recommendations. Thanks! Just wanna say that, erm, uh, we read Rice for the historical details and the riveting escapist trip her novels afford, and the transcendent encouraging spirituality, and because after reading her depictions of past civilizations, our appreciation for the present moment skyrockets. Being of a monastic bent, the erotic stuff isn't our forte ;^)

gilda, do we ever hear you! We could introduce you to our ongoing occupational nightmare, but restraint, restraint.
PS How is your housekeeper? She seemed like one neat girl. Please say "hi" to her for us.

We sent this article to a ListServ inhabited by witches, and not a peep back. This Forum is the best! There are so many strange, weird, and unusual things to explore and discuss, and here there's always some folks who'll have leads and interesting aspects to contribute. TB2K ROCKS !!

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), February 10, 2000.

MinnnesotaSmith, if we ever get spare time (looks impossible at this point), we'll check out your book recommendations. Thanks! Just wanna say that, erm, uh,

"We read Rice for the historical details and the riveting escapist trip her novels afford, and the transcendent encouraging spirituality, and because after reading her depictions of past civilizations, our appreciation for the present moment skyrockets. Being of a monastic bent, the erotic stuff isn't our forte ;^)"

And everyone drinks beverages containing alcohol for the taste, reads Playboy/Penthouse for the articles, watches graphic war movies solely to learn history, etc., right? ;) Incidentally, you may also want to check out books by Poe, Lovecraft, and Dunsany, if you are at all short of highly familiar with any of them. D., in "The Charwoman's Shadow", spends around a full page describing how a common woman (who had her shadow magically stolen) misses having one, and it's not at all boring! Now, that's writing.

Incidentally, all 3 of these author's books are usually old enough that (given the ubiquitous pricing system in used bookstores of using a fraction of the original list price on the book) many of their books can be had for next to nothing. Reading H.P. Lovecraft on a windy (so there are lots of creaks and bumps)moonless night when you are the only one in the house -- now, that'll keep your mind off what drudgery you suffered through that day.

www.y2ksafeminnesota.com

-- MinnesotaSmith (y2ksafeminnesota@hotmail.com), February 10, 2000.