African barbarism

Life in Mandela's South Africa

African barbarism

The Eastern Province Herald (30/12/1999) reports that an ox was slaughtered in a Port Elizabeth suburb by Nomsa Konza to appease the ancestors after her husband Willard had died an unnatural death (he was shot to death outside the family's supermarket -- so much for crime being a figment of the (white) media's imagination!). This is the culmination of the process -- a goat had been slaughtered at the funeral last year. In typical limp-wristed fashion, the (white) neighbours had "no problem with it".

As part of the ceremony, the ox must "make a noise" (read scream in agony) during the slaughter, in order to alert the ancestors, and its blood must be drunk.

Now if this had been a white family, torturing an animal to death would be regarded as extremely cruel at best and downright satanic at worst. But because we live in the "new" South Africa, anything goes, as long as it's "African". It is no secret that whites have periods in their history that they are not particularly proud of -- the Inquisition, buring people at the stake, etc etc, but at some stage you have to look at your culture and decide whether it is really necessary to carry on as though nothing has happened over the past 2 000 years. Torturing animals to appease the ancestors?!?

What is really amazing is that officials from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Port Elizabeth health department were present at the slaughter. Does this mean that if I want to rip a cat's claws out in my satanic ritual they will be present to advise me as well? Paganism pre-dates Christianity, so I'm sure I could make a case for this being "part of my culture", whatever the hell that means.