![]() ![]() This article argues that the moral panic between 19, and the emergence of the 'satanic peril', betrays contextually specific anxieties surrounding the loss of power and shifts in class and cultural solidarity as white South Africa's social and geographic borders were transformed. Moral panics betray a host of anxieties in the society, or segment of a society, in which they erupt. From the bizarre to the macabre, the message became one of societal decay and a vulnerable youth. Between 19, white politicians warned against the unholy trinity of 'drugs, satanism and communism', while white newspapers reported rumours of midnight orgies and the ritual consumption of baby flesh by secret satanic covens. This article looks at particular moments in which the 'satanic peril' emerged in the white South African imagination as moments of moral panic during which social boundaries were sharpened, patrolled, disputed, and renegotiated through public debate. There are moments in history where the imagined threat of satanism and the devil have been engendered by, and exacerbated, widespread social anxiety.
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