Volk, Devils and Moral Panics in White South Africa, 1976 - 1993
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The Devil’s Children: Volk, Devils and Moral Panics in White South Africa, 1976 - 1993 by Danielle Dunbar Thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts (History) in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University Supervisor: Prof Sandra Swart Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences March 2012 Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za DECLARATION By submitting this thesis/dissertation electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third party rights and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification. March 2012 Copyright © 2012 Stellenbosch University All rights reserved i Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za ABSTRACT There are moments in history where the threat of Satanism and the Devil have been prompted by, and in turn stimulated, social anxiety. This thesis considers particular moments of ‘satanic panic’ in South Africa as moral panics during which social boundaries were challenged, patrolled and renegotiated through public debate in the media. While the decade of the 1980s was marked by successive states of emergency and the deterioration of apartheid, it began and ended with widespread alarm that Satan was making a bid for the control of white South Africa. Half-truths, rumour and fantasy mobilised by interest groups fuelled public uproar over the satanic menace – a threat deemed the enemy of white South Africa. Under P. W. Botha’s ‘total onslaught’ rhetoric, a large sector of white South Africa feared total ‘moral onslaught’. Cultural guardians warned against the satanic influences of popular culture, the corrupting power of materialism, and the weakening moral resolve of the youth. Others were adamant that Satanists sought to punish all good, white South Africans with financial ruin and divorce in their campaign to destroy white South Africa. From the bizarre to the macabre, the message became one of societal decay and a youth that was simultaneously out of control. While influenced by the international Satanism Scare that swept across the global West during the 1980s and early 1990s, this thesis argues that South Africa’s satanic panics reflected localised anxieties as the country’s social borders changed over time. While critically discussing the concept of the ‘moral panic’ and its analytical value in historical study, this thesis further argues that these moments of moral panic betray the contextually specific anxieties surrounding the loss of power and shifts in class and cultural solidarity. In so doing, this thesis seeks to elucidate the cultural changes in South Africa between 1976 and 1993 by highlighting the social, temporal and geographic boundaries which were contested and renegotiated through the shifting discourse on Satanism. ii Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za OPSOMMING Daar is oomblikke in die geskiedenis toe die bedreiging van Satanisme en die Duiwel deur sosiale angstigheid aangespoor is en dit ook verder gestimuleer het. Hierdie tesis neem bepaalde momente van ‘sataniese paniek’ in Suid-Afrika – waartydens sosiale grense deur publieke debat in die media uitgedaag, gepatrolleer en heronderhandel is – in oënskou as oomblikke van morele paniek. Terwyl die 1980s gekenmerk is deur agtereenvolgende noodtoestande en die agteruitgang van apartheid, het dit begin en geëindig met wydverspreide verontrusting dat Satan poog om beheer oor wit Suid-Afrika te verkry. Halwe waarhede, gerugte en fantasie, gemobiliseer deur belangegroepe, het publieke onsteltenis oor die sataniese gevaar aangehits – ʼn vyandige bedreiging vir wit Suid-Afrika. In samehang met PW Botha se ‘totale aanslag’ retoriek, het ʼn groot deel van wit Suid-Afrika ook ʼn ‘totale morele aanslag’ gevrees. Die kultuurbewakers het gewaarsku teen sataniese invloede op populêre kultuur, die sedebederwende mag van materialisme en die verflouing van morele vasberadenheid onder die jeug. Ander was oortuig daarvan dat Sataniste daarop uit is om alle goeie, wit Suid-Afrikaners deur finansiële ondergang en egskeiding te straf in hulle veldtog om wit Suid-Afrika te vernietig. Van die grillige tot die makaber, die boodskap was een van sosiale agteruitgang en ʼn jeug wat terselfdertyd buite beheer was. Alhoewel Suid-Afrika beïnvloed is deur die heersende internasionale sataniese verskrikking wat gedurende die 1980s en die vroeë 1990s, dwarsdeur die globale Weste gevind is, voer hierdie tesis aan dat die Suid-Afrikaanse sataniese paniek, soos die sosiale grense in Suid-Afrika verskuif het, gelokaliseerde angs gereflekteer het. Buiten die kritiese bespreking van die konsep van die ‘morele paniek’ en die analitiese waarde daarvan, argumenteer hierdie tesis verder dat hierdie momente van morele paniek konteks-spesifieke angs blootlê, paniese angs wat met die verlies van mag en veranderings in klas- en kulturele samehorigheid saamhang. Hierdeur beoog die tesis om kulturele veranderinge in Suid-Afrika tussen 1976 en 1993 toe te lig, deur te fokus op die sosiale, temporale en geografiese grense wat deur die verskuiwende diskoers oor Satanisme betwis en heronderhandel is. iii Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am greatly indebted to the guidance by and patience of my supervisor, Professor Sandra Swart, and to her endless faith in this thesis and me. I must also thank my long-suffering mother and friends, who heard every possible argument and read every version of this thesis. I would also like to thank my examiners, Bill Nasson and Julie Parle, as well as Glen Thompson and Jonathan Hyslop for their constructive criticism and advice, as well as the comments made when part of this thesis was presented at the 23rd Biennial Conference of the Southern African Historical Society, 27 – 29 June 2011, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Thank you to Kobus Jonker for granting me a personal interview. I am also grateful to Lize-Marie van der Watt and Dané van Wyk for translating the abstract of this thesis into Afrikaans, and to Freda Cronje and Rosamund Eliza van der Westhuizen for their help translating certain Afrikaans texts. iv Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE Introduction and Literature Review 1 CHAPTER TWO Panics and Proxies: Folk Devils, Moral Panics and Theoretical Departures 15 CHAPTER THREE The Devil Rejoiced: Politics and Pessimism in White South Africa, 1976 – 1982 39 CHAPTER FOUR The Devil’s Decade: Satanism and the Transnationalism of a Scare, c. 1983 – 1990 65 CHAPTER FIVE The Path of Total Destruction: The Devil, Democracy and Moral Panic in White South Africa, 1989 - 1993 90 CHAPTER SIX Volk, Devils and Moral Panics 122 SOURCES 131 v Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Chapter One: Introduction and Literature Review Adam and Evil Bloodless and bloated it drifted between London skies and muddy water. Washed up by the cold tide of the Thames, it bobbed beneath Tower Bridge where a passerby finally recognized it as human. The body of a small child, headless and limbless, was pulled from the river near the Globe Theatre on 21 September 2001. Dressed in a pair of bright orange shorts, the body had been in the river for up to ten days and was immediately connected to the otherworldly rituals of deviant occultists and African witches, initiating one of the most bizarre investigations in recent police history.1 After dismissing links to similar finds in Europe, police became increasingly fixated on the idea that the boy – christened ‘Adam’ by the London Metropolitan police – was the first recorded victim of an African black magic ritual in the United Kingdom. Although police detectives stressed that they were following other possible links, the notion that the Afro-Caribbean Adam was a sacrificial victim became the lead in story in press and police investigations. He died from a violent trauma to the neck, but there was little further evidence: Adam’s body revealed simply that he was aged between four and seven and that his shorts were bought from a Woolworths store in Germany.2 With the rest of his body missing and his identity unknown, the speculation surrounding the case of Adam grew darker. Within a month of its discovery this ‘Thames torso case’ was explicitly linked to African witchcraft, and more specifically to South African ‘muti’ killings.3 The British public was quickly ‘educated’: ‘muti’ is the Zulu word for medicine, it is practiced by witchdoctors and ‘sangomas’ throughout South Africa and these African healers habitually use human body parts in concocting potions for their ‘clients’. The police, by all reports, were equally eager for education on the subject and a national conference was soon organized, attended by 1 S. Tendler, ‘Murdered boy’s torso found in Thames’, The Times, 24 September 2001, 14; ‘Witchdoctor investigation in Torso Case’, 16 October 2011, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/England/1602477.stm, available: 12 April 2011 and S. Tendler, ‘Macabre find raises ritual murder fear’, The Times, 26 January 2002, 3 and G. Tramlett, ‘Tracing Adam’, The Guardian, 7 August 2003. 2 S. Tendler, ‘Dutch murder link to child found in Thames’, The Times, 25 September 2001, 13 and R. Kennedy, ‘Mandela plea for help to identify torso of boy’, The Times, 20 April 2002, 6. 3 S. Bird, ‘Witchdoctor theory on boy’s torso’, The Times, 17 October 2001, 13. 1 Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za detectives, criminologists and officials from the Home Office.4 Police also took heed of grisly stories of sacrifices rife throughout London and rumours that similar murders would soon occur. As commander Andy Baker of Scotland Yard commented, ‘there is some suggestion of ceremonies taking place and strong rumours that body parts are used. They could be brought in or taken from murdered bodies.