WiCDS Wednesday: The Devil Made Me Do It

.

For our first WiCDS Wednesday of 2026, our Director Nicky Falkof will be discussing her 2025 book The Devil Made Me Do It: Understanding occult crime in South Africa with Dr Dinesh Balliah, Director of the Wits Centre for Journalism. Please join us on the 13^th floor of Es’Kia Mphahlele House from 13.30-15.30 on Wednesday 11 February. Copies of the book will be on sale. RSVP to Ditebogo Kalauba ditebogo.kalauba@wits.ac.za.

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 our national news suggests a society at war with the forces of evil. Why does the occult have such a grasp on our collective imagination? In this vastly unequal country, with its crises of gender-based violence, child abuse, poverty and unemployment, there are more than enough obvious dangers to our 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? And is there any truth to these supernatural tales? The Devil Made Me Do It  examines these and other thorny questions by probing the stories, beliefs and rumours behind the so-called occult crimes that have entranced South Africa’s fractured psyche. They include the murder of a child mistaken for a tokoloshe in the 1920s, the satanic panic that gripped the nation in the 1980s and 1990s, the Krugersdorp cult killings of 2012–16, and the muti murder of a six-year-old girl in 2022. What can these crimes, and the way they are represented by media, police and other institutions, tell us about South Africa today?

Read an article about the book here.

Add event to calendar