Black magic practices like sihuru or fanditha merges elements of animism and voodoo with Quranic verses and Islamic rituals 
Photo : Wikimedia Commons / Habib M’henni
Black magic practices like sihuru or fanditha merges elements of animism and voodoo with Quranic verses and Islamic rituals Photo : Wikimedia Commons / Habib M’henni

Black magic blackout

How to win a presidential election with the help of your personal sorcerer
Published on

Maldivian domestic politics have made global headlines again, this time for censorship and black magic. A documentary about the personal sorcerer of Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen was banned in the Indian Ocean archipelago. The documentary, first aired on 5 February 2016 by the pro-opposition television channel RaajjeTV, features secretly recorded conversations between Yameen and Sri Lankan national Asela Wikramasinghe, prior to the 2013 presidential election.

Yameen can be heard discussing how to use black magic to remove his opponent, former President Mohamed Nasheed, by making him go "temporarily crazy" or taking his life. Yameen, in the recordings, ultimately rejects murder as an option, protesting, "But Asela, human life is so precious. So precious."

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