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Books and Arts;Book review;Black magic in London;
文藝；書評；倫敦巫術；
Crimes of passion;The Boy in the River. By Richard Hoskins.
激情犯罪；《河里的男孩》，理查德·霍斯金斯著。
In the late 1980s Richard Hoskins, young and newly married, spent six years as a missionary in Bolobo, upriver from the Congolese capital, Kinshasa. Now back in Britain and something of an Africa specialist, he advises the authorities on tribal and ritual crimes. In his new book, “The Boy in the River”, Mr Hoskins argues that these atrocities are a perversion of African belief systems and highly unusual.
在二十世紀八十年代早期，年輕且新婚不久的理查德·霍斯金斯，在博洛博（地名）做了六年的傳教士，該地位于剛果首都，金沙薩市的上游?，F今已返回英國，有幾分非洲專家味道的他，在部落和宗教式犯罪問題上給當局提出相關建議。在他的新書《河里的男孩》中，霍斯金斯先生說這些暴行是對非洲信仰的一種曲解，是極不尋常的。
His first case, in 2002, involved the mutilated torso of a boy they named Adam, found in the River Thames. The police thought it was a muti killing, a South African practice that involves removing organs for use in tribal medicines. Mr Hoskins recognised that Adam was in fact a human sacrifice (a term the police initially recoiled at) by a Nigerian tribe. His evidence was the precise slit in the victim’s neck and a body drained of blood—a divine tribute that is condemned as juju, or black magic, in West Africa. The boy’s killer has not yet been convicted, but the investigation did uncover a trafficking ring that smuggled African children to Britain for such ritualistic abuses.
在2002年，他的第一個案例：在泰晤士河中發現的一名為亞當(Adam)的男孩的殘缺軀體。警方認為這是起巫術殺人案（見注釋），這是一種南非部落習俗，取出人體器官以作藥用?；羲菇鹚瓜壬嬲J出亞當實際上是一個尼日利亞部族的活人祭品（一個警方最初所不愿提及的術語）。他給出的證據是受害人脖子上精確的切口和鮮血流盡的軀體—一種被譴責為juju(某些西非部族所用的物神)的“神圣”禮物，或者可稱為西非的巫術。殺死男孩的兇手仍未被定罪，但通過此次調查，警方卻發現了一個偷運非洲兒童，賣到英國作為儀式獻祭的走私集團。
Mr Hoskins and his wife suffered their own tragedy in Congo; one of their twins was stillborn, the other died before she was two. He admits his work presents emotional challenges. But he is not overly sentimental. He writes about criminology, how the police deal with the media and the perverted beliefs behind the crimes. Much of the book is about kindoki. Mr Hoskins understands this as a benign affliction treated with a potion of plant extracts from a nganga, a traditional healer. But there is a growing trend of pastors in new revivalist Christian churches, both in Africa and Britain, preaching a different, malevolent kind of kindoki. They convince parents that their children are possessed by demons which must be exorcised through isolation, fasting and beatings. Gullible and desperate believers, who consider their pastors to be “little Gods”, will pay good money for them to cure this malady.
在剛果，霍斯金斯夫婦自己也慘遭了不幸；雙胞胎中的一個是死胎，而另一個在兩歲前死亡。他承認在他的作品中帶給了讀者情感上的挑戰。但他并沒有過度感傷。他寫到犯罪學，警察怎樣與媒體周旋，怎樣應對罪行背后扭曲的信仰。書的大部分是關于kindoki (非洲巫術手冊)。霍斯金斯先生把這認為是一種較為仁慈的折磨，用從 nganga(剛果哺果蘇木)中提取的植物藥劑治療，這是一種傳統治療物。但在非洲及英國，復興基督教會的牧師有增加的趨勢，布道一種不同的、惡毒的kindoki。他們使得父母們相信自己的孩子被魔鬼蠱惑，必須通過隔離、禁食和鞭打才能除怪。這些將他們的牧師當做“小神”的絕望而易受騙的信徒們，就會付出很多的錢給他們以治愈這種疾病。
The most harrowing case is that of Kristy Bamu. Attempting to exorcise the boy of kindoki, his sister and her boyfriend tortured him to death over five days in December 2010 using an array of weapons, including light bulbs, floor tiles, knives and pliers. Mr Hoskins testified in court that Africans do not practise exorcism like this.
最悲慘的事例是一個叫克里斯蒂 巴姆的男子。為了驅除kindoki 的鬼怪，在2010年十二月，他在被妹妹及妹妹的男朋友使用大量武器，包括電燈泡，地板瓷磚，刀子及拳腳相加折磨五天后死去。霍斯金斯先生在法庭上證明非洲人并不用這樣的方式除怪。
It is heartening to read that the British authorities go to great lengths to solve these crimes, but infuriating to learn about the flaws in the system. An important witness to the Adam crime, for example, was deported before she could be properly questioned. An eye-opening book that makes a strong case for cultural understanding.
所以當知道英國當局不遺余力要解決這些犯罪時，是很振奮人心的，但在知道系統中的不足時又難免讓人感到憤怒。例如，亞當一案中的一個重要證人在被正當地審問錢就被驅逐出境。所以這是一本為文化理解提供了有力事實證據的書。
