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Tuesday, 2 April, 2002, 10:00 GMT 11:00 UK
'I was forced to kill my baby'
Muti originated in sub-Saharan Africa
 
Last September a boy's torso was found inthe Thames. Police now believe it couldhave been a "muti" killing, a humansacrifice practiced in southern Africa. Here,as seen in a BBC Two documentary, amother reflects how she was forced to help
kill her own child.
 Helen Madide, of the Thohoyandou area inSouth Africa, was 18-years-old when shebecame a social pariah.She was the mother of a toddler namedFulufhuwani and was separated from hisfather, Naledzani Mabuda, a traditional healerknown as a sangoma.While the couple triedto sort out theirdifferences, Helenreturned to herparents' village. BabyFulufhuwani regularlywent to stay with hisfather andgrandmother.While most of the
70,000 sangomas in
South Africa provide
herbal remedies for
minor ailments, some crave more potentingredients to practice muti, the Zulu word formedicine."He began to tell me stories. His ancestors saidthat he must kill me and the child so that hecan be rich," Helen told Nobody's Child, a BBCdocumentary on the investigation into theLondon boy's death."He showed me the path and forced me to goalong that path. He was pushing me anddemanding me to go whether I like it or not. Hesaid he was going to kill the baby first while Isee the baby, then secondly he will kill me."Although Helen tried to escape, Mabuda
Helen Madide: Acquittedbut guilt-ridden
 
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14 Feb 02|England
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Helen Madide
 
I tried to escape.... but hebeat me with his fists
Generated bywww.PDFonFly.comat 12/5/2009 6:20:14 AMURL:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1899609.stm
 
caught her and forced her to holdFulufhuwani's legs while he cut the child'sthroat."When the child was dead, he started to cutall those pieces, the hands, the legs and eventhe sex organs," Helen says.
Limbs from children, primarily the sexual
organs, are said to be the most potent. Theseare sometimes taken from live victims becausetheir screams are thought to enhance thepower of the medicines.Mabuda then lockedHelen up with thechild's body. But hisrelatives, fearing forhis wife and child,called the police.Although her husbandwas sentenced to lifein prison, Helen wasacquitted. Six yearsafter her child's death,Helen is trying to getinto university tostudy human sciences.She has been accepted at a number of universities but the offer is always withdrawnwhen they realise she is
that
Helen Madide.One university refused to provide her withaccommodation because they feared she mightbe a danger to local children.
Butchered innocence
 Conservative estimates are that at least 300people have been murdered for their bodyparts in the past decade in South Africa.And Dr Anthony Minnar, of the Institute for
Human Rights and Criminal Justice in South
Africa, fears the toll could be much higher."We have children
going missing everyweek from our
townships," he says."The assumption isthat those missingchildren are being putinto prostitution andalso that they arebeing used for muti
murder."
 One of the few wholived to tell the taleswas Jeffery Mkhonto, who four years ago whenhe was 12 was mutilated by an organised gangsent to harvest body parts.Jeffery was called over to the house of aneighbour for some food. Instead the man cutoff his genitals with a butcher's knife.
A police graphic of thechild's remains found inthe Thames
 
Jeffery Mkhonto had hisgenitals cut off at age 12
 
Generated bywww.PDFonFly.comat 12/5/2009 6:20:14 AMURL:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1899609.stm
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