French Immigrant Reveals Dark Side of Marabout Consultations and Witchcraft Scams

Anissa’s* father was the first to experience the marabouts. His daughter was even younger. During his trips back and forth to Morocco, he would have met a taleb from whom he would no longer separate. A kind of manipulator. According to her, the seer "would actually be in the pay of one of his jealous cousins, of the parental couple," and would have had "her father participate in rites to bewitch her family before divorcing," reports L’Express. Like her father, Anissa will herself have the bitter experience. 2022: discovery of incantatory artifacts at her home.

The young mother mentions a bottle hidden behind the toilet, filled with urine and egg whites but also an unusual black liquid used by her husband. "Another marabout who has sold his services to several people," she suspects. The sorcerer would have used her companion to reach her. Under the influence of talebs or other marabouts, some resort to Islamic preachers. They offer them "rites to end their misfortunes," or to disenchant them. These rites are not simple. During these sessions, Anissa claims to have scratched herself to the point of bleeding, to have been made to convulse. In total, a few hundred euros spent for nothing. Except for atrocious suffering.

Anissa is not an isolated case. Many people are scammed or abused by certain marabouts. This is evidenced by the reports received each year by the Miviludes, the interministerial mission to combat sectarian drifts. In February, a marabout based in Nice was sentenced to six years in prison for extorting 400,000 euros from his victims. Suspected of having taken 44,000 euros from a retiree by promising to disenchant his daughter, a Toulouse marabout was taken into custody on June 6, 2023. During the same month, the Senlis correctional court, in the Oise, sentenced a sorcerer to three years in prison for having forced sexual relations with his clients.

* First name changed