Juju (religious practice)
Juju or ju-ju (French: joujou , literal meaning roughly: "toy") is a spiritual belief system in which objects such as amulets and magic spells are used. It is part of the belief in witchcraft in West Africa and can be assigned to the West African religions .
From a social and cultural point of view, the juju belief can have the function of ensuring compliance with contracts or even of forcing the “conclusion” of such a “contract”. This can also be the case in the context of migration, human trafficking and forced prostitution . In a typical scenario, a Nigerian woman is cast in a juju spell before being smuggled into Europe for prostitution. The Juju magic is intended to ensure that she will pay her smugglers or human traffickers and not evade them. The “witch doctor” who organizes the magic receives a fee for this service.
Juju is also often used to influence the outcome of football matches.
Despite some similarities, Juju is said to be different from Voodoo . There should be good juju that could come from almost any good deed; bad juju could arise vice versa. Furthermore, Juju naturally has an influence on luck and wealth. Typical of this superstition are small objects that are carried with them or worn like jewelry, which usually contain “medicines” produced by “witch doctors”.
The term "juju" and the practices associated with it came from West Africa with the transatlantic slave trade to America and continues to exist in some groups of Maroons in particular .
In July 2017, a process in Berlin caused a nationwide sensation. In this, a stepfather from Gambia was convicted of serious abuse of wards, among other things because he treated a five-year-old child for a period of at least two months in "apocalyptic juju rituals", which involved scalding with hot water and beating them with objects such as hammer, stick and a belt and cord included. This should be punished for having " summoned horned jinn in human form."
In trafficking Juju curse be used to keep the victim characterized intimidated to docility. In the spring of 2018, the representative King of Benin invalidated any juju spell on human trafficking.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Juju . Dictionary.reference.com. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
- ^ Augustus Ferryman Mockler-Ferryman: Imperial Africa: the rise, progress and future of the British possessions in Africa. Volume 1, 1898 ( books.google.com ).
- ↑ Sex trafficker used African witchcraft to smuggle children for prostitution . In: The Telegraph , October 29, 2012.
- ^ A b People & Power - The Nigerian Connection . In: Al Jazeera . June 11, 2012.
- ↑ James Politi, Maggie Fick: FT Seasonal Appeal: The long and dangerous road to slavery . December 3, 2015. Accessed December 3, 2015.
- ↑ Stefan Lövgren: World Cup Witchcraft: Africa teams Turn to Magic for Aid . In: National Geographic News . June 30, 2006.
- ↑ Uta Eisenhart: Stepfather torments five-year-old girl - mother doesn't want to have noticed In: Berliner Zeitung . Retrieved July 20, 2017.
- ^ Helena Piontek: Forced prostitution in Berlin: In the clutches of the human traffickers. In: www.tagesspiegel.de. October 17, 2019, accessed October 19, 2019 .