From an email recently sent referenced: Orisha and Child Murder

Dear Friends:

We apologise if you are receiving this email more than once as we have put together different address books to ensure that this reaches as many orisa devotees as possible. We all have busy lives, but please be patient and read this message. You can contact us for Spanish or Portuguese versions.

We are writing to you out of concern for what is becoming an internationally significant media event that effects all of us as Orisa/Ifa people and sympathisers. In September 2001, a child's torso was found in the Thames river in London. The ongoing police investigation and media reporting are committing some of the most fallacious racism against Africans and, for us, against the Yoruba and the Orisa, specifically Osun and Sango. The crux of the matter is that the police and media are perceiving the death of this child not as a murder but as a "ritual sacrifice" by which they are condemning Africans and Orisa religion. Both Yoruba culture and the Orisa religion are being represented as primitive and savage which conforms to a Euro/American racist expectation of Africa rather than truth. And the weak excuse of saying it is done by a "deviant cult" does not relieve the media of responsibility for its portrayal of all Orisa traditions, indigenous African traditions as a whole, as deviant and savage from the assumed civilised gaze of the West.

We must respond with consistent and organised effort to hold journalists and film makers and their publishers/producers accountable. Were this being done to other communities of faith (e.g. Jewish or Muslim communities) there would be an insurmountable opposition and censure. Since it is done to Africans and African traditions, the media frenzies in their unaccountable witch hunt. Despite that this crime occurred in London, England, its representation is global through news agencies and the Internet. If left without our response, it will certainly become a precedent used by other countries and police forces against out traditions. We must respond globally to protect ourselves, maintain solidarity, and to fight bigotry and ignorance. We have included links below to some online articles, some from the US and Canada to prove the global effect this is having, as well as a radio program by the BBC which you can listen to. To date, it is mostly the BBC that is churning out the racist portrayal.

The main point to make when writing a response is that murder is not a part of African religious practices and this murder should be treated the same way as any other murder, not as a cultural persecution through invented "cultural profiling". Social deviancy and pathology is not the same as cultural norms! This ethical point must be demanded for African cultures, not just those of developed nations!

You can click on some of these links to read for yourself:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/news/7oclocknews/features/torso_161003.shtml (BBC news)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,2763,726490,00.html (Guardian Newspaper article)
http://www.religionnewsblog.com/archives/00003899.html (Toronto Star)
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9401EFDC173EF933A05754C0A9659C8B63 (NY Times)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/itsmystory.shtml (BBC radio program)

In the last month, there was a mini-series, Sea of Souls, made by BBC Scotland production. It was clearly based on the Thames torso murder and the subsequent hysteria towards African religion. To view a synopsis click this link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/seaofsouls/episode_guide/episode3_1.shtml (Sea of Souls Part 1)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/seaofsouls/episode_guide/episode3_2.shtml (Sea of Souls Part 2)

We are encouraging the global communities of Orisa and Ifa devotees to flood the BBC with emails and letters about their offensive and incorrect representation of this murder and to demand its correction along with a public apology to the communities damaged. As well as email, we encourage people to write hard copies to the relevant agencies and demand a written response to your letter.

The following is a list of important BBC individuals to contact:

Mark Byford (acting director general of the BBC) mark.byford@bbc.co.uk
Room 313 CB
Bush House
The Strand
London WC2B 4PH
United Kingdom

Peter Salmon (BBC race champion) peter.salmon@bbc.co.uk
BBC TV Centre
Wood Lane
London W12 7RJ
United Kingdom

Jana Bennett (BBC director of TV) jana.bennett@bbc.co.uk
BBC TV Centre
Wood Lane
London W12 7RJ

Executive producers of Sea of Souls:

Nadine Marsh
Room C212B
Centre House
Wood Lane
London W12
nadine.marsh-edwards@bbc.co.uk

Barbara McKissack (Head of Drama TV Scotland)
Room 2170
Queen Margaret Drive
Glasgow G12 8DG
barbara.mckissack@bbc.co.uk

May the Orisa and Ifa support us and may we make a just and peaceful world. Thank you for your support in this matter. Forward this message freely to all those concerned.

Yours in irunmole,

K. Noel Amherd, Eni Orisan Ni Joba
Babalawo and Ph.D. student
Centre of West African Studies
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK
noelamherd@aol.com

and

Amanda Vincent, Osunbunmi Apeke
Olosun and Ph.D student
Music Department
School of Oriental and African Studies
University of London
Thornhaugh St.,
Russell Square
London WCIH OXG
msamandavincent@yahoo.co.uk