Exorcizing Devilsdorp

Abstract

Abstract The South African crime documentary series Devilsdorp (lit. “town of the Devil”) reports on eleven murders carried out between 2012 and 2016 in and around Krugersdorp on the West Rand by a group called Electus per Deus (Chosen by God). These murders were labeled the “satanic murders” because the leader of the gang claimed she was a reformed satanist. Various commentators claimed that the group operated as a satanic cult and that members were possessed by evil spirits. The discourse of interpreting crimes as “satanic” and criminals as “possessed” can by analyzed to illuminate a given society’s sense of self and its social and political institutions and traditions, in this case in post-apartheid South Africa. Possession discourses emerge in specific social, cultural, and ideological contexts that are also performed through such discourses and can reflect and translate other deeply submerged tensions and trajectories in society.