Notice any parallels between witch hysteria and CO2 hysteria?

Zimbabwe: The Hunt for Witches - OhmyNews International

Dr Gordon Chavaunduka, a sociologist and also the president of the Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association (Zinatha) notes that witch hunting is just one kind of abuse women in the country are facing. In other places, he says, the victim is condemned to death or expulsion from the community or physical assault by family members.

Arguing that witchcraft does exist, he says that the government should amend the Witchcraft Suppression Act, which he says was a colonial law that did not recognize the existence of witchcraft.

Zimbabwean sociologist Obert Jiya says cases of witchcraft were mainly linked to the country's economic environment and education and the demystification of certain myths that surrounds the subject are paramount.

"We need to look at the wider picture. It seems the upsurge in the country of cleansing ceremonies is also a reaction to sudden changes in Zimbabwe's social upheaval, the problems related to HIV-AIDS, freak weather conditions which have devastated agriculture, and huge increases in living costs."

People may cast around and find scapegoats in the form of defenseless women, says Jiya.

Nowadays, many more widows live alone than in previous times and if they are not seen much around the village, an air of mystery may grow up around them. They have no support systems to help them counter accusations of witchcraft. They are vulnerable and usually poor.

They may have the physical signs which influence those inclined to believe they are witches; for example, blood shot eyes from cooking over smoky fire all their lives, and the inescapable characteristics of old age like wrinkles, bags under the eyes, grey hair, twisted limbs and gnarled hands.

Jiya also argues that there will be those who are greedy and impatient to inherit the resources of the elderly. Trumped up accusations of witchcraft may be one of the easiest ways of getting their hands on coveted property. Or diviners find it more profitable than working the dusty soil of crop fields.

Supernatural powers of witches are believed in Zimbabwe to be at the heart of almost everything that brings sorrow, pain or shame, death, illness, insanity, impotence, barrenness, crop failure, accidents, the breakdown of marriages, unemployment, failure in exams, among other things. The recent violent political violence has created animosities within communities and as such led to many families trading accusations that they have been bewitched.

In recent years there has been some effort by the parliament of Zimbabwe to enact a law to protect victims, but the process was stalled after clashes emerged between faith-based organisations and traditional leaders over the issues of granting the traditional healers sweeping powers that would see them having the sole rights of identifying witches and in some instances prescribing medication.