Two more stories from the National Newspaper in PNG

As sill and stupit as it may sound - beliefs in Sorcery is very real and people display animalistic behaviour when their beliefs take control. The two stories in this post appeared in the National news papers recently. Form your own opinions after reading them. 

Story 1

Cleaner hacked to death


Source:

The National, Thursday 01st December 2011

By ZACHERY PER

A CLEANER at the Kerowagi Mobile Squad Eight police barracks in Chimbu’s Kerowagi district was hacked to death in a sorcery-related killing on Monday.

Chimbu police commander acting Supt John Kale said yesterday that an elderly man from Kondan village was accused of using sorcery to cause the death of a young man from his village on Saturday.

The young man was fishing along Koronigle River when he fell into the water and drowned.

Some villagers found his body on Monday and brought it back to the village where they accused the elderly man of causing the man’s death through sorcery.

Some villagers attacked the man and then turned on his son, a Grade 10 student at Kerowagi Secondary School but police arrived in time to save him.

The boy sustained some light injuries and was sent to the hospital for treatment.

Kale said the suspects were known to the police and advised them to give themselves up.

He also appealed to the people to stop believing in sorcery.


Story 2

Duo sentenced to 15 years for murder


Source:

The National, Thursday 01st December 2011

TWO men have been jailed for 15 years each for killing an elderly woman whom they believed to have caused the death of former Simbu provincial administrator Joe Bal.

Joe Bal Junior, 48, and Balito Sine, 29, of Giu village in Sinasina, Chimbu, were also ordered to do hard labour.

They were convicted of murdering Rose Waras Kuipa of Giu village after accusing her of practising sorcery over the death of the former administrator.

Kuipa was dragged out of her home on Sept 15, 2008 and taken to an unknown spot where she was killed.

A third accused, James Minga, is still under remand and is expected to be tried soon.

In passing sentence at the Kundiawa National Court on Nov 11, Acting Justice Lawrence Kangwia said the courts must impose severe sentences to deter sorcery-related killings which he noted was rampant in the highlands.

He said sorcery had no place in modern society.

Another of the Bizzaire SANGUMA stories

Death in a Simbu village brings sadness as well as fear .

The person that has passed away is gone, but the family still feel connected to the cadaver. Because of this connection, they fear for what may happen to the body once it is buried.

The common belief is that the spirits of the 'Sanguma' world will remove the body in the dead of night for a cannibalistic feast. This fear is so strong that a temporary shelter is built by the fresh grave side and up to twenty young men armed to the teeth with weapons and electric torches keep a vigil every night for a whole week. Anything - animals, night birds, insects, domestic animals, humans - that is caught in the vicinity (say 100m radius) is killed.

After the week is over, they think that the body is decomposed enough not to provide a cannibalistic feast for the evil sanguma spirits, so end their vigil.

Maybe, anyone of you out there that reads this will laugh at it as we are now in the 21st century and people should be more civilized. But what I have written here is so real for the Simbu people and this behaviour still exists.

If the stories about the Sanguma spirit intrigues you, do con tact me through this blog and we will see about some more discussions.

Cheers!

Terrible murders related to evil spirits

Another post on the Sanguma Spirit and a bizzare and unbelivable testamony

News Post Courier

Friday 09th October, 2009

Witch suspect brutal murders

By DAVID MURI in Goroka

FOUR people, three sisters and a brother, were brutally murdered in a gruesome fashion in the jungle at the Northern outskirts of Goroka town yesterday.
 

An eyewitness at the killing scene told this reporter that their bodies were severely mutilated and dumped off a cliff at Zauka. The elderly siblings were suspected of killing a young mother through sorcery at Komiufa village on Sunday.The four were killed when 26-year-old woman, Joki Robin, who was severely interrogated at a kangaroo court, testified that she witnessed the siblings sharing the young woman's heart
at the village. 

Those who died included Mrs Robin's own mother. I saw them eat the woman's heart and told villagers when they tried to kill me. They spared my life when I admitted what I saw, said Mrs Robin. When asked if she really saw her mother partake in the heart party, Robin replied: Yes, I saw her with her brother and sisters sharing it. They boiled it and ate it at a hut in the village, said the severely beaten woman, who lost her entire family in the tragedy. Her three little children were also missing. I don't know their whereabouts now, she said.
 

The witness said the four people were rounded up by the dead woman's relatives at midnight and led to the jungle where they were executed. 

The young woman died at the Goroka Base Hospital on Sunday, allegedly from labour complications after delivery.
But her relatives immediately sought advice from a witchdoctor who pinpointed her death to have been caused by the family. The killing, being perpetrated by many in the village, took place after the young mothers body was laid to rest on Wednesday afternoon.
 

Provincial police commander Augustine Wampe was not aware of the multiple murders when contacted late yesterday. We've received no reports on the killings,he said.
Highlands divisional police commander Simon Kauba said he could not verify the reports but added that he was stunned by the attack on the four people. I am alarmed about this report. Police in Goroka are there to enforce the law and whoever saw what happened should have reported and those responsible should be arrested, Mr.
Kauba said. He called on community leaders in the area to help police apprehend those responsible for the barbaric act of genocide.

This was reported in the Post Courier (one of the two national news papers in Papua New Guinea) on 9th October. One can make his/her own judgment after reading it.

Introduction to the 'Sanguma' spirit of Simbu

In this blog I will gather and post stories related to the evil powers  of the SANGUMA and their alleged related activities 

Just a line - on evil powers

Over the weekend I took a trip to my beautiful home in Simbu.

I caught up with news et cetera with my elder brothers and uncles. They were, as usual, happy to see me. On Saturday evening we sat down to an excellent and highly nutritious village meal consisting of sweet potato, tapioka, eating banana, highlands greens, all spiced up with bimoli oil, fresh birdseye chili, fresh ginger, and garlic. This was topped off with a few cups of strong sweet PNG No. 1 tea.

With full stomachs, we lazed around the evening fire in the communal men's hut and just talked about things - Christianity, politics, the latest deaths in the community, and the 'Sanguma' belief endemic in the Simbu Province.

I will talk about politics in a later blog post. Now just a little about the 'Sanguma' 'belief.

Many people in PNG express verbally that they do not and will never believe in the dark or evil supernatural powers, that supposedly exist in the jungles, river gorges, mountains, caves, and villages all over Papua New Guinea.

While, these are based firstly on common sense, then on Christian beliefs, there are some unexplained phenomena that need investigated. I will just share one real story. You can make up your mind on what you think, would like to think, or would not like to think.

In Simbu there is a bird called ' medondi' in the local tongue. The Simbu people believe that this bird is a vehicle used by the evil Sanguma spirits to visit people in the spiritual realm and bring sickness and death. These birds are usually not nocturnal - and if they are heard at night it is only very rare when another bird, or snake, or a falling branch disturbs their night roost.

My mother was visited by one of these birds at night over a period of ten weeks in 2005. This bird literally lived in a mango tree with thick foliage near her house. Over the ten weeks it would call - and its call while not too loud is blood chilling - the whole evening for about three hours and again in the early morning from about 4:00 AM to 6:00 AM. In the past, our fathers would know what was happening and call in a medicine man to stop the bird and subsequently the death of my mother at an early age, but this did not happen due to my brothers and I losing touch with the beliefs of the evil world. Because of this ignorance my mother passed away early.

After the shock and grief of my mother's passing was over, I decided to call upon a kid of about 18 years, who claimed to have the supernatural evil powers of the Sanguma, that lived in another village about twenty kilometers away from mine. I wanted to satisfy my curiosity about the bird and my mother's death.

As son as the kid came to my village we went immediately to my mum's house. Without wasting time or any prompting questions, the kid pointed at the mango tree and told me that one of my own older cousin brothers and his mother had taken up residence in its foliage and over time had slowly caused my mum's death. They had used the 'mendondi' bird as their vehicle for operations. Then he told me details of how they went about killing my mum and that they were now planning on killing some more of us, as the more they killed the more powerful they would become in the spiritual world. Do remember that this kid was not a relative, nor had he visited my village before, or had heard any stories about my mother's death. He just seemed to know what had happened.

It is now eight months since my family strongly convinced my older cousin brother and his family to leave our village and live in another part of Simbu.

If you are intrigued by this story you can contact me through this blog or my email waigarnem@gmail.com, and we will see what else we can discuss.

Cheers!