Penton Pagan Magazine South Africa Editorial

'Witches Gasp' - Luke Martin

Issue No. 43 April 2009

TOUCHSTONE ADVOCACY

Editor's Letter

In this issue of Penton we're devoting the entire issue to highlighting the ongoing tragedy of Witchcraft violence and Witch-hunts in South Africa. This is the second advocacy campaign against religious discrimination and Witch-hunts which will run from 29 March to Freedom day on 27 April 2009.

This campaign is supported by the South African Pagan Council and the South African Pagan Rights Alliance.

I suspect many of you reading this issue will have seen Witch-hunt news headlines but may not be aware of the full scope and horror of this phenomena in Africa. This issue will attempt to provide you with accurate information on the motivating causes and consequence of violence against suspected and accused 'Witches' throughout Africa, but especially in South Africa.

If you'd like to participate in this campaign, are an avid blogger or a member of an online forum, help us spread the message of tolerance for Witchcraft in Africa and South Africa globally.

I'd like to thank Pagan and artist Luke Martin for permitting Penton to use his exquisite painting entitled 'Witches Gasp' as the cover art for this important issue and for this campaign. 'Witches Gasp' was recently selected for exhibit at the Nelspruit Civic Centre annual exhibition.

'Witches Gasp'

In a time when old women are still falsely accused of the most heinous crimes, the protagonist holds aloft the head of the artist in her attempt to illumine the breathless darkness of gender inequality and social injustice.

The mistakes of youth put behind, experience at hand, this solitudinarian recluse, at the dusk of her life, allows even persecution to fall into its place, capable of processing everything in the light of acquired wisdom.

She is the spiritual mystery of the querent seeking clarity in the dark nature of man, where the inexplicable sacrament of ageing and oppressive twists of culture becomes entangled, giving rise to a curse and a motive for persecutory injustices.

Unstoppable, unmasked she presses on, fighting for her rights, to the very last gasp.

view a larger version of this painting

Participant Bloggers
Campaign Guidelines

Topic: Witchcraft and Witch-hunts in Africa (including S.A.) - write anything you want on this subject.

Reinforce the message: An end to Witch-hunts in Africa.

Post: publish your blog between 29 March and 20 April 2009.

Add-on: Please add the following text beneath your blog post:
- This blog is one of several participants of an advocacy campaign to end Witch-hunts in Africa. -

Link: Link your blog post to TouchStone

Forward Link: Forward your published blog's title and url to TouchStone Advocacy

'Africa's Shameful Secret'

Download this power-point presentation
TOUCHSTONE ADVOCACY

30 days of advocacy against Witch-hunts
in Africa

29 March to 27 April 2009

Speak out against religious discrimination and Witchcraft-related Violence.

For more information read:
A Pagan Witches TouchStone

“Ubuntu is the essence of being human. It speaks of the fact that my humanity is caught up and is inextricably bound up in yours. I am human because I belong. It speaks about wholeness, it speaks about compassion. A person with ubuntu is welcoming, hospitable, warm and generous, willing to share. Such people are open and available to others, willing to be vulnerable, affirming of others, do not feel threatened that others are able and good, for they have a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that they belong in a greater whole. They know that they are diminished when others are humiliated, diminished when others are oppressed, diminished when others are treated as if they were less than who they are. The quality of ubuntu gives people resilience, enabling them to survive and emerge still human despite all efforts to dehumanize them.”

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu

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