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Satanic panic (South Africa)

Satanic panic in South Africa

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The local context

The long-term focus in a South African context has not been on claims of child abuse by Satanic cults and the psychiatric community has not played a significant role, as was the case in other countries. The local phenomenon is characterised by Christian evangelism and the scapegoating of Satanism for crime and societal problems. In his 1997 PhD thesis, psychologist Gavin Ivey attributes the local phenomenon to an increase in Christian fundamentalism coupled with a perceived Satanic threat in the social context of the contemporary occult revival:

... the current cultural paranoia concerning the 'satanic epidemic' is directly attributable to the extreme dualistic theology of the burgeoning evangelical Christian movements, which simultaneously promotes persecutory anxiety in the Christian faithful, and spurs would-be Luciferian rebels to genuine satanic practices.

— Gavin Ivey, The psychology of Satanic cult involvement: An archetypal object relations perspective (1997)

Ivey states "All monotheistic religions are forced to account for the presence of evil in a world where everything is created by God, who in theory should be able to vanquish all forms of evil but seems incapable to do so." He compares the importance of Satan in the only two contemporary major religions with a personified principle of evil in opposition to a single omnipotent deity who is unambiguously good, namely Satan in Christianity, whose identity evolved in the New Testament, and Satan in Islam. He notes the greater significance of Satan in Christianity, as Satan emerged as a less threatening figure in Islam and "Because it embraces a fundamental dualism, the Christian spiritual world is seen as a battleground between God and the personification of evil, the Devil." However, members of the relatively small Muslim community in South Africa have also been outspoken about the alleged dangers of Satanism.

In her 2012 MA thesis, Danielle Dunbar argues that while influenced by the international Satanism scare, past periods of Satanic panic in South Africa reflected localised periods of political upheaval and social anxiety. While in the past Dunbar and other academics have associated the South African phenomenon with the white population group in particular, some more specifically with Calvinist Afrikaners, the racial divide is disappearing. According to American sociologist Jeffrey Victor,

Satanic cult stories arise as a response to widespread socioeconomic stresses, particularly those affecting parenting and family relationships. These social stresses are products of the rapid social change and social disorganization that began during the 1960s, and that caused a deep cultural crisis of values and authority. The satanic cult legend says, in symbolic form, that our moral values are threatened by evil forces beyond our control, and that we have lost faith in our authorities to deal with the threat.

With reference to this quote, academic Nicky Falkof states in a South African context "alongside this, the figure of the Satanist provides an object for the displacement of anxiety and the concurrent cohesion of nationalistic sentiment."

Apart from religious groups, the media and the government have aggravated the local phenomenon. In 2007 Afrikaans-language newspaper Rapport dismissed journalist Deon Maas, who had advocated religious tolerance in his new column, to protect its commercial interests. According to Nicky Falkof, the English and Afrikaans media have not differed materially in their treatment of the subject: "The paranoia, sensationalism or occasional scepticism with which stories were reported generally had more to do with the class or locality of the audience than with their language group." The mainstream media in general persists in sensationalistic reporting regarding Satanism and the occult, especially regarding criminal cases with any suggestion of Satanic involvement.

The phenomenon is also evident in South Africa's neighbouring countries. In March 2013, Zimbabwe's national police spokesperson Charity Charamba said media reports about Satanic incidents were unfounded and were causing unnecessary panic.

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