Introduction to sorcery accusation related violence

by Anton Lutz 

This is the first blog in a series where our guest blogger for the coming weeks, Anton Lutz, will discuss with you his thoughts about the problem of Sorcery Accusation Related Violence (SARV) in PNG and what can be done to overcome it. Please keep returning to our site for more blog posts in the coming weeks!

Introducing Anton

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Anton Lutz and I have been living and working in Papua New Guinea (PNG) for a long time now.  

My journeys in PNG over the last 30 plus years have taken me from the valleys of Enga to the headwaters of the Karawari River, and from the mountains of Hela to beautiful Bougainville. I have seen and experienced the truly extraordinary beauty and hospitality of Papua New Guinea. I have stood in the crater of Mt Bosavi and on the peak of Mt Wilhelm, walked on the sand at Wom Beach, Wewak and dipped my toes in the ocean at East Cape, Milne Bay. I have eaten biskar in the Trans-Fly, mapu in Enga and tamatama in Arawa. I’ve driven the Highlands Highway from Lae to Porgera, from Madang to Kopiago. So yes, mi waitman, tasol mi no nupela lo PNG. 

My questions about sorcery accusations and violence 

But as an educated person with a university degree, and as a development worker who works alongside the churches and development partners to build up PNG, not to mention as a normal member of the human race, it makes me sad to see the way that false and non-Christian beliefs are used to justify terrible violence against fellow Papua New Guineans. 

Like many of you, I was raised by Christian parents. They taught me that God loves you and me with a special kind of love which actively cares for vulnerable people and outsiders. At Sunday School we sang that ‘Jisas laikim olgeta, olgeta’ and learned that Jesus does not separate people into groups such as white and black or man na meri. 

But then I started to come across people who were being mistreated. They were accused and attacked. People used words like posin and sanguma to reject other people, forcing them to run away from their homes. I began to wonder: how can genuine Christians treat other people like this? 

I saw men and women and children all being tortured and murdered, just because of statements made by local con-artists. But is that really a good reason to torture and murder someone?

I saw that the police were finding it very difficult to enforce the law and so allowed murderers and torturers go free. How can a society become safe and prosperous if there are no consequences for breaking the law?

I saw that many people, including church, community and even government leaders did not know what to think and were frightened by the new violence in their communities. Could we do something as a united community?

And I saw that some people were taking a stand and trying to help, and I saw that they often did not have the resources they needed. What if I tried to help them?

Using the right language

I soon learned that the words we use make a big difference. Sorcery Accusation Related Violence (SARV) is a long phrase. Unfortunately, if we leave out some of these words, we begin to lose focus of what we are talking about. Let us now explore some of the reasons we use the whole term Sorcery Accusation Related Violence (SARV) to talk about the wide variety of violence that is inflicted upon those who are accused of sorcery, posin, sanguma, witchcraft, casting curses, and so on. 

First, could we just say ‘Violence’? If we just used the word Violence, some people might think that we are talking about all violence, regardless of the background of the violence. It is certainly true that there is too much violence in Papua New Guinea, including gender-based violence, violence against children and tribal fighting. It is always good to work to end all violence, but sometimes a general approach means that we overlook or even hide the specific violence right where we are. If a police officer tells other people to follow the law, but is secretly breaking the law in his own home, what do you think? Em orait? Nogat. Let’s take care of the terrible violence in our own families and communities, and then we can be strong ambassadors for peace to the rest of the world. 

Second, what if we used the word ‘Sorcery Violence’? If we just talk about Sorcery Violence, some people might think we are talking about sorcerers and ol posin lain that some people believe attempt to use sorcery or magic to hurt other people. In every tribe and for people in PNG, just like all around the world, there are traditional beliefs about how posin and sorcery can be used to hurt other people. We will look at these diverse traditional beliefs – and how they are changing – in a future blog post.

One of the most interesting things about SARV is that everyone seems to think they know everything about the ‘spiritual’ part of it. But if you leave your village and start to ask students and people from other places, you might be surprised to discover that everyone is talking about completely different spiritual ideas! But how could every different kind of belief be true? Should Christians believe the Bible instead of traditional beliefs? What about evidence and science and medicine and anthropology and psychology? We will explore these topics more in future issues. 

These are all reasons why we need to use the whole phrase Sorcery Accusation Related Violence because that focuses our attention on where the harm really is being experienced – on those men, women and children who are being falsely accused of using sorcery and hurt as a result.

Final thought for today. Even though the topic of Sorcery Accusation Related Violence is complex and may be disturbing for some people, we believe that it is very important to learn more about what it is, why it is happening and what we can do about it. With knowledge, we can make better choices for ourselves, our children and our future. Please read our next blog on this subject!