Book Launch for "The Devil Made Me Do It: Understanding Occult Crime in South Africa"

In this talk, author Nicky Falkof and Professor Hannah Gibson will discuss Falkof's new book "The Devil Made Me Do It...", which examines the prevalence of supposedly supernatural crimes in South African society.

South Africa can sometimes appear to be awash with occult crime. From satanist conspiracies and witchcraft accusations to muti murders and demonic possession, a trawl through the national news suggests a society at war with the forces of evil. 

In "The Devil Made Me Do It ...", Nicky Falkof asks why the occult has such a grasp on South Africa’s collective imagination. In a vastly unequal country, with ongoing crises of gender-based violence, child abuse, poverty and unemployment, there are more than enough obvious dangers to social stability. Why, then, are South Africans so quick to blame the supernatural for violence and misfortune? How do beliefs in occult crime intersect with problems of gender, race and class?

In this talk, the author will discuss the social meanings of the ‘problem’ of occult crime and will offer detailed explanations of some of the case studies, emphasising their imbrication in national politics of violence and belief.

Speakers

Nicky Falkof is a Professor of Media Studies at Wits University in Johannesburg, where she holds the DST-NRF SARChI Chair in Critical Diversity Studies and is Director of the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies. Her books include Worrier State: Risk, Anxiety and Moral Panic in South Africa (2022), Intimacy and Injury: In the Wake of #MeToo in India and South Africa (2023), Anxious Joburg: The Inner Lives of a Global South City (2020) and The End of Whiteness: Satanism and Family Murder in Late Apartheid South Africa (2016). 

Hannah Gibson is a Professor of Linguistics in the Department of Language and Linguistics, University of Essex. Much of her research focuses on African languages, specifically those of Eastern and Southern Africa. She also works on multilingualism, equality of access, and the role of linguistics in social justice.