"Anyone, never mind a child, killed by violent acts of exorcism."
Depends on what you mean by "exorcism" and "centuries" is a nonsense.
Violence, often in an extreme form, was the basis of discipline in the Industial Schools of Ireland to at least the middle of the 20th century - not the formalistic ritual of exorcism, it is true, but "beating the devil/evil out" of the pupils was a fairly common phrase, still remembered and quoted by victims.
There is no doubt that deaths occured due to such violence; we'll probably never know how many, the Ryan Report said as much.
The film, 'Raggy Boy' was based on author and poet Patrick Galvin's experiances in Daingean industrial school, Co Offaly, noted for its abuse of young people in its care.
It is to take a somewhat shaky high ground to suggest that Africa is solely to blame for ritual religious abuse.
It is certainly true that ritual killing through exorcism predates the arrival of christianity to Africa, just as it is true that ritual killing was part of the Christian religion long before the discovery of Africa.
As for Christian killing in general 76 people (24 of them British nationals) died during the Waco seige in 1993, including more than 20 children and two pregnant women.
In 1978 at the instructions of Pastor Jim Jones, there was a mass suicide of 913 Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana along with the killings of five other people at a nearby airstrip. Over 200 children were murdered at Jonestown, almost all of whom were forcibly made to ingest cyanide by the elite Temple members.
Jonestown was among the largest mass suicides in history.
Jim Carroll