Globalisation and the massive population movements that come with it may have led to the macabre arrival in Europe of the African ritual murder.
That is the fear of police chiefs from across the continent attending a conference on Monday of Europol, the European Union’s police coordination agency.
Their concerns were sparked by the discovery last September of the dismembered body of a young boy of Afro-Caribbean origin in the river Thames in London.
Experts said the death of the boy, whom police officers called Adam, was “consistent” with an African ritual murder.
The boy was was around five years old, circumcised and was wearing orange shorts when the body was found. His throat appeared to have been cut before his arms, legs and head were severed.
Hendrik Scholtz, a South African expert in ritualistic or witchcraft murders, examined the body and declared it bore all the hallmarks of an African ritualistic death. Eight months after the death, Scotland Yard officers have come to discuss the case with their European counterparts at the conference in Europol’s headquarters in The Hague.
They admit their inquiries have progressed little, despite an impassioned plea for information by former South African president Nelson Mandela. They still do not know who Adam was, who killed him, where or how exactly he was murdered.
But they are convinced his death was a ritual homicide as practised in certain parts of sub-Saharan Africa. “When people move around the world they bring their culture with them,” said Scotland Yard’s Commander Andy Baker, in charge of the inquiry.
But he added that “we are not here to judge culture. We are here to investigate murder.”
Adam’s body was completely drained of blood when it was found. It is thought it may have been hung upside down. The limbs and the head had been carefully severed from the torso, which spent several days in the water before being spotted by a Londoner walking across Tower Bridge.
A few days after its discovery police found seven half-burned candles wrapped in a white sheet washed up on the southern shore of the Thames. A name — Adekoye Jo Fola Adeoye — was written on the sheet and the name Fola Adeoye was inscribed on the candles.
Scotland Yard said the candles were of the type used in certain rituals in the west African state of Nigeria which involved animal sacrifice.
Richard Hoskins of Bath Spa University in England outlined for the conference the characteristics of the African ritual murder. Such killings were often carried out by a specialist upon the request of a “client,” Hoskins said.
The aim of the exercise was often for the client to gain power and wealth. In South Africa such practices come within the scope of muti, the Zulu word for medicine.
The victim is killed in order to use the organs in potions and medicines by those who seek to awaken supernatural forces. In western Africa, ritual murder is usually accompanied by the invocation of a god. A goddess often invoked is Oshun, the Yoruban goddess of love, whose favourite colour is believed to be orange.
The conference was shown a series of photographs of ritual murder practices — each more gruesome than the last — before being given statistics. Twenty to 30 such killings are recorded every year in Africa but the true figure is believed to be much higher.
But Hoskins emphasised in his speech that ritual murder remains an extremely marginal practice, noting that it was a “deviation” and not representative of African culture.
Murders presenting what police called “similarities” with that of Adam have been committed recently in Belgium, France and Germany. One of the aims of this conference was to enable police chiefs from these countries to compare notes. – AFP