"A perverse belief in Harry Potter has gripped Kinshasa"

Last Wednesday, I posted "Recommended reading: Planet of Slums." The following description of what’s happening in Kinshasa, the capital and largest city in the Democratic Republic of Congo, caught me by surprise:

Kinshasa, a city of 6 million, is described by its own inhabitants as a “cadaver, a wreck.” Less than 5% of Kinoans earn a regular salary. According to Mike Davis, the author of Planet of Slums, “Kinshasa, like the rest of Congo-Zaire, has been wrecked by a perfect storm of kleptocracy, Cold War geopolitics, structural adjustments, and chronic civil war.”

“The Little Witches of Kinshasa” are described on pages 191-198 in Chapter 8, “A Surplus Humanity?” As a result of the collapse of Kinoan society, “The bitter frustration of the people led to an imaginary yet vicious mentality of sorcery….” As a result, literal, perverse belief in Harry Potter has gripped Kinshasa, leading to the mass-hysterical denunciation of thousands of child “witches” and their mass expulsion to the streets, even their murder.”

The same fictional character who enchants our safe, well-fed children (and adults) stands for something else in a country where the basic care and protection of children has broken down.

(photo of Kinshasa: 3 Quarks Daily)