CANNIBALISM EVER SUSPECTED IN TANZANIA?

In some parts of Africa and world at large, cannibalism is said to be practiced transparently. But in some places the practice takes place secretly. Let's go to East Africa in the city of Dar es Salaam to see the incidence of early 2000s where four people were reportedly held responsible of trafficking a dead human body.

In the last week of August 2000, police arrested six people in southern Tanzania on suspicion of cannibalism after they reportedly dug up the body of a child buried in the same week as reported by a newspaper and radio reported.

The suspects were found with large chunks of human flesh, two pairs of shoes made of human skin, four sets of human skins and four skulls, the independent Swahili newspaper Nipashe said.

The then Ruvuma regional police chief Maneno Zavalla told the newspaper the suspects included Ajibu Liyoko, 70, identified as a principal supplier of human flesh.

The independent Radio One identified the others detained as Bakili Saidi, 60, Mdogo Bakari, 50, Daudi Abdalla, 38 and Ally Bakari, 34.

Daimu Omari, 25, was arrested while transporting the body of Anifa Ali, a child who died and was buried last Wednesday, the police official said.

Two others are at large after fleeing into a forest when local residents tried to catch them because the bodies of several of their relatives had been stolen from graves last month, the newspaper said.

Omari reportedly told the police the group cut up the bodies and dried the flesh.

The arrested men, were scheduled to appear in court on Monday on unspecified charges, Nipashe said.

"This is all very shocking and unbelievable that people would do such inhumane acts in this day and age and in Tanzania of all places," Dar es Salaam resident Sylvester Tarimo said.

Reports of cannibalism in this East African nation are rare.

Last year there were a series of killings in the rich agricultural region of Mbeya linked to the cross-border trade with Zambia in human skins for witchcraft purposes.

Some people believe that human skin protects a home from demons and spirits and that when associated with special rituals increases harvests and lures clients to local brew clubs and shops.

Ruvuma district borders on Mozambique, and Mbeya borders on Zambia and Malawi.

  

DOES THE WORLD EXPERIENCE HUMAN FLESH CONSUMPTION TODAY? 

Human flesh processing in one of communities suffering from hunger

The answer is obviously hard to utter. But in communities experiencing hunger and drought cannibalism is widely practiced as people who suffer deaths are the ones who are consumed by those who still survive.