Proposal from an experientialist perspective for educators involved with learners affected by the occult in Mkhuhlu

Abstract

Existing scholarship on children’s participation in the occult predominantly focuses on adolescents with limited reference to preadolescent children. However, ancectodal evidence from non-academic literature from an African context reveal that many African children introduced to occult practices and participation at a very young age. Hence the researcher identified a need to conduct a study that aims to develop theological guidelines that may be used by educators of Christian faith to care for primary school learners affected by the occult. Through the use of autoethnography, Grounded Theory Method and Osmer’s model of practical theological reflection, this study confirmed that preadolescent children of primary school age do participate in the occult. Conducted in Mkhuhlu community in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa, the study used autoethnographic data to describe the manifestation of the occult among primary school learners in Mkhuhlu community and the ways used by educators of Christian faith to respond to the situation; utilised academic literature and published testimonies of former African occultists; and academic literature to interpret why this situation is happening; developed normative principles based on the exegesis of relevant pericopes from both the Old Testament and the New Testament; and then developed theological guidelines that may be used by edcuators of Christian faith to care for learners affected by the occult. Key findings from the study reveal that African children join the occult from as young as eight years of age and Christian educators discover them through voluntary self-confession, peer whistle-blowing, incidental disclosure and learners’ mystical encounters during school hours. On interpreting why learners are involved in the occult, the study revealed that these practices are passed on from one generation to the next and permeates itself within the same generation through socialisation, social learning, experiential learning, bullying and delinquency. Exegesis of relevant biblical pericopes determined that all occult practices are sinful before God and alienate practitioners from God and will not spend eternity with him. For this reason, the researcher argues that educators of Christian faith should respond to the situation in ways that are aligned to biblical principles that will reconcile affected learners and their families to the Trinitarian God. These are articulated in the caring guidelines which comprise a recommended caring process, principles, practices, systems and institutional arrangements.