Witches have long been associated with the formulation of remedies, potions, and spells. Throughout history, witches have been revered for their knowledge of herbs and plants and their ability to create remedies for various ailments. These remedies often included a combination of herbs, roots, and other natural ingredients that were believed to possess healing properties. Witches would gather these ingredients from their surroundings, such as forests, meadows, and even their own gardens. They would carefully choose the specific plants that they believed held the necessary properties to cure specific illnesses or ailments. This knowledge was often passed down through generations, with witches in a particular family sharing their wisdom and expertise.

Deadly hunt for 'witches' haunts Kenya villagers

KEGOGI VILLAGE, Kenya (CNN) -- It may be difficult for modern-day Western cultures to fathom, but in Western Kenya, beliefs in ghosts and witches are very real. And sometimes they have deadly consequences.

Justus Bosire stands in front of his house, which was destroyed by a mob that also killed his grandmother.

In late May, news outlets in Kenya told the story of 15 people, mostly elderly women, who were murdered in a witch hunt near the town of Kisii. The killings shocked the nation.

Villagers said more than 100 people gathered machetes and knives and stormed the village of Kegogi after midnight.

"They started banging on the doors, they broke into the house and then they killed our grandmother inside," says Justus Bosire. "The mob was screaming and we panicked. We ran away and they came to our house and burned it to the ground."

When Bosire returned to his grandmother's house, he found her dead on the floor in a bed of embers. His father is missing.

"They claim that my grandmother and father were practicing witches," Bosire says. Watch Bosire describe her die »

Belief in witchcraft is strong in this part of Kenya. A few days before the incident, a group of schoolchildren reportedly found a book in their school that listed all the people in the community who would soon die and the witches who would be responsible. iReport.com: Share your stories, videos from Africa

For Bosire and his family, the killings are hard to believe. His grandmother, Peris, was the matriarch of the family. She was 86 but still actively farmed and dispensed invaluable advice to the family.

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Up the road from Bosire's house lives Paul Magoma. "I believe there is witchcraft and the witches kill," Magoma says while building a chapel. His fellow workers concur: Witches exist and can put spells on people.

Others are skeptical the slain women were witches. At the top of a hill outside Kisii, Joseph Omache practices his craft. Omache is a shaman, or traditional healer. He throws bones and communes with ancestors to help heal physical and spiritual ailments.

"It is very painful when somebody kills another person in the name of witchcraft," he says. "Why couldn't they come to me so that I can perform my herbal potion to identify the real witch so that I can go ahead now to trap him and then we can see what to do?"

Omache says that in his 10 years of studies and decades of practicing, he has never come across a witch.

"These are vendettas. It is not that people really bewitched somebody," he says, adding he believes that witch hunts are really about people expressing hatred and coming up with an excuse to hurt someone.

The area is one of the most populated rural areas in Kenya. Over the years, farming plots have been divided and subdivided. Omache and others say they believe witch hunts are about greed and vendettas in a place where almost everyone struggles to survive.

Whatever the reason, Bosire and his family must live with the consequences. Due to local taboo, they will never live in his grandmother's house. The doors are boarded, her belongings still lie charred on the floor. The family fears further attacks.

"We are fearing for our lives," Bosire says. "I knew my grandmother since I was a young child and I have never seen evidence of her being a witch."

'Witch' Burnings Haunt Kenyan Tribe

Back now with Day to Day. Across Africa, superstition runs high, and that can be dangerous. Last month in the Democratic Republic of Congo, accusations of black magic started a riot that left 13 dead. In Kenya, the belief in witchcraft led to the murders of 11 people. NPR's Gwen Thompkins has that story.

GWEN THOMPKINS: This story is not about what you believe or what I believe. It's about what the people here in the green, green hills of southwestern Kenya were thinking when they killed 11 of their neighbors last May and set their homes on fire. What happened was a witch burning, and it's happened before. Maybe that's part of the reason why James Gitau (ph) keeps an open Bible on his desk.

Mr. JAMES GITAU (District Police Officer, Marani, Kenya): Because the Bible doesn't go against the law, and in most cases, it assists us to know the law better.

THOMPKINS: Gitau is the district officer and highest ranking law-enforcement authority in a farming area called Marani. He's not from here, but he must sort out the difficulties of the people who are. Their tribe is called Kisii, and they are known to believe more deeply in the power of witchcraft than any other tribe in Kenya. Witchcraft is against the law in this country, and Gitau says God doesn't like it one bit.

Mr. GITAU: Witchcraft is just a sin like any other, something that is contrary to God's will.

THOMPKINS: Back in May, Gitau was here when a suspicious notebook was found at a local school. It appeared to be a kind of witch log. The notebook reportedly contained a roll of all the local witches and checkmarks by the names of residents they'd allegedly killed.

Mr. GITAU: We realized that this a security threat.

THOMPKINS: So, Gitau called a town meeting under the area's soaring blue gum trees, and about 3,000 people showed up. Even the Luo, the next tribe to the west, came. They were armed with machetes, which folks here call pengas (ph), and they wanted the authorities to name names.

Mr. GITAU: They are going to lynch them. They want to lynch them in front there. They want to do it there. In fact, they had pengas. They had stones. You see, they had thrown some stones. In fact, it was a very tense meeting.

THOMPKINS: There's a belief among the Kisii and Luo tribes that death is never inevitable. Instead, people say that death comes to those who've been bewitched. Hence, the morbid dread of witches. Solomon Monyenye is a 64-year-old Kisii and teaches philosophy at the University of Nairobi. He says the reprisals against witchcraft have gotten nastier.

Dr. SOLOMON MONYENYE (Philosophy, University of Nairobi): I do remember women being accused of being witches. But during those days, there was no that kind of punishment. What happened in May, it was never there.

THOMPKINS: Monyenye is an avid nonbeliever, and when asked, most Kenyans say they don't believe either. But give the conversation a little time, and soon you'll be hearing tales of things that go bump in the night.

Reverend ENOCH OBIERO: I don't believe in the witches, that is why I never thought that things could turn out as serious as such.

THOMPKINS: Enoch Obiero is a Pentecostal minister who lives along a sun-blessed road in a place called Ogembo. He says that if you believe in Christianity, witchcraft has no effect on you. But he is wrong, because on May 21st, a mob slit his wife's throat, cut off her hands and legs, and torched her body. Then they looted his house and burned it to the ground. Ebisiba Obiero was a 55-year-old retired schoolteacher.

Rev. OBIERO: Why they cut and took her legs, we don't know. She was chested (ph) there without legs.

THOMPKINS: Obiero is rebuilding his house in the very same spot, near the shade of an old guava tree. His wife is buried by the front door. He says he never saw the notebook found at the school, but after some reflection, he claims that a jealous brother and sister-in-law paid the mob to come to his door.

Rev. OBIERO: You see, they never even came to the funeral. It is not easy to forgive someone who has done you such a terrible thing.

THOMPKINS: Local authorities say that some witch hunts do have an element of petty opportunism. Some people cry witch for revenge, or maybe to eliminate a person who has become burdensome to a family. Most of those killed in May, for instance, were elderly. Again, Solomon Monyenye.

Dr. MONYENYE: These are nothing other than misplaced aggression. And who would be a better target than helpless old women?

THOMPKINS: Today, the Bible on James Gitau's desk is open to Psalms XII, "the wicked walk on every side." He says he learned the hard way about misplaced aggression in Kisii. By the time the notebook reached him, he says the villagers had already copied down the names listed. Gitau says they knew exactly who they were going to kill when they were all at the town meeting. But then something extraordinary happened. An old woman stood up and in front of everybody, admitted that she was a witch.

Mr. GITAU: A whole crowd stood up, shouting that they can't forgive.

THOMPKINS: Gitau suspects that the old woman knew she would be killed that night, so in a preemptive move, she asked for police protection. A man and three other women stood up and did the same. But to get them out of there alive, Gitau says he needed police backup. Now, a total of seven are in hiding.

Mr. GITAU: In fact, I'm proud of that. Even if, maybe, people not see that I did a good job, God will see. God will still remember me for that.

THOMPKINS: The police say they've arrested more than 100 suspects in the May killings, but many locals prefer the protection of people like Onyango Nyakundi.

Mr. ONYANGO NYAKUNDI (Witch Doctor, Magombo, Kenya): (Through Translator) I'm a witch doctor.

THOMPKINS: Nyakundi lives in neighboring Magombo. He says his concoctions can shield people from being bewitched. He uses herbs, and in some cases, a little bloodletting.

Mr. NYAKUNDI: (Through Translator) The person who does not, maybe, believe in that, he's just living a life in denial.

THOMPKINS: Nyakundi says that good is stronger than evil in the Kisii region, but it's a struggle. In the rest of Kenya, people from other tribes are on the lookout for ghosts and genies and creatures called night runners, who are said to careen through forests and villages making mischief. National faith in the occult prompted a former president to convene a commission on devil worshiping, but that came to nothing. Because at the end of the day, people here have an unshakeable dread of things that go bump in the night. Gwen Thompkins, NPR News, Kisii, Kenya.

COHEN: Day to Day is a production of NPR News, with contributions from Slate.com. I'm Alex Cohen.

ALEX CHADWICK, host:

And I'm Alex Chadwick.

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Real Life Weirdness: Kenya in the grips of its own witch trials.

Kisili, a district in Kenya, Africa is in the middle of its own witch trials. It’s been going on for months and almost 60 victims have been burned alive.

Much like The Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts from 1692 to 1693, citizens are being dragged from their homes and are being accused of performing witchcraft. During the Salem Witch Trials, those that stood accused were housed in a jail like environment until they could stand trail – which may seem troubling to some of you. The witch trials in Kenya, however, are much more violent with public beatings and people literally being burned alive without any sort of chance to explain themselves. The villiagers watch in enjoyment as “witches” are being burned alive in the streets.

So why is this happening?

While some part of the madness is due to a witchcraft, voodoo, witch doctor hysteria sweeping the Kisili region, a much more sinister explanation is available. The Kisili district is one of the largest, most fertile regions in Kenya. Many of the elderly people who live there are no longer farmers and live in a retired fashion off the land. It is believed that citizens of the area are using the witchcraft hysteria as a means to drag people out of their homes and eliminate them…all so they can gain entry to the property and take over the land. People are being murdered in cold blood for their land and it’s all being done under the guise of witchcraft.

I will pray that whatever government exists in Kenya comes to these peoples aid. I hope that the madness stops before more people are humiliated and tortured for no reason. If there ever was a case for foreign governments to get involved, this would be one. So sad and depressing for humanity. The greed that some people hold inside them, the things they are willing do to for money… Unimaginable…

This knowledge was often passed down through generations, with witches in a particular family sharing their wisdom and expertise. The art of formulating remedies was not only limited to physical ailments but also extended to emotional and spiritual healing. Witches believed that the mind and body were interconnected, and therefore, their remedies often addressed both aspects.

For example, a potion for a broken heart may include ingredients that promote self-love and healing, both physically and emotionally. The process of formulating remedies was often seen as a sacred and spiritual practice. Witches would often perform rituals and chants while gathering and combining the ingredients, infusing the remedy with their intentions and energy. These rituals were believed to enhance the potency of the remedy and strengthen its effectiveness. However, it is important to note that the notion of witches formulating remedies has been heavily stigmatized over the centuries. Historically, witches were seen as dangerous and often subjected to persecution and witch-hunts. The practice of witchcraft was considered taboo and associated with dark magic and evil intentions. In contemporary society, there has been a resurgence of interest in natural remedies and alternative medicine, which has brought more acceptance and appreciation for the knowledge and practices of witches. Today, many people seek out the wisdom of witches and practitioners of herbal medicine for their holistic approach to healing. In conclusion, witches have played a significant role in formulating remedies throughout history. Their knowledge of herbs and plants, combined with their spiritual practices, allowed them to create remedies that addressed both physical and emotional ailments. While the practice of witchcraft has faced stigma and persecution, it is now being embraced for its valuable contributions to natural healing..

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