A young man that was suspected of being a 'vampire' was reportedly beaten to death and set ablaze by an angry mob near Blantyre, in Malawi.
According to journalist Lucy Ashton who told the BBC that the man had been found by a graveyard near a main road outside the city of Blantyre before taken to a police station on Thursday. It's most likely he was suffering from a mental illness or epilepsy as he was carrying a health card and may have been returning from hospital.
But the angry mob who had heard about the 'vampire' rumours reportedly invaded the police station and dragged the man out before beating and setting him on fire.
Its gathered that the man's death now brings the number of people that has been killed for being suspected “vampires” to eight since September.
Speaking on the incident, Clinical psychologist Chiwoza Bandawe, from the University of Malawi, said:
"Given the fact that we’re conservative and generally superstitious or a culture that believes in mysterious magical explanations for things then people will tend to attribute their difficulty on what they call blood suckers. It’s almost a symbolic representation of the life, their blood, their hope being drawn out of them, being sucked out of them."
"Tragically it was people with mental health problems who were often targeted," he added.
According to journalist Lucy Ashton who told the BBC that the man had been found by a graveyard near a main road outside the city of Blantyre before taken to a police station on Thursday. It's most likely he was suffering from a mental illness or epilepsy as he was carrying a health card and may have been returning from hospital.
But the angry mob who had heard about the 'vampire' rumours reportedly invaded the police station and dragged the man out before beating and setting him on fire.
Its gathered that the man's death now brings the number of people that has been killed for being suspected “vampires” to eight since September.
Speaking on the incident, Clinical psychologist Chiwoza Bandawe, from the University of Malawi, said:
"Given the fact that we’re conservative and generally superstitious or a culture that believes in mysterious magical explanations for things then people will tend to attribute their difficulty on what they call blood suckers. It’s almost a symbolic representation of the life, their blood, their hope being drawn out of them, being sucked out of them."
"Tragically it was people with mental health problems who were often targeted," he added.
No comments:
Post a Comment