Abuse of vulnerable children and old people in the name of witchcraft. How can we as Africans tackle it?

Witchcraft, in various historical, anthropological, religious and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers, usually to inflict harm or damage upon members of a community or their property. Other uses of the term distinguish between bad witchcraft and good witchcraft, with the latter often involving healing, perhaps remedying bad witchcraft. The concept of witchcraft is normally treated as a cultural ideology, a means of explaining human misfortune by blaming it either on a supernatural entity or a known person in the community.
Witchcraft is one of the most potent and 'dreaded' superstitions in Africa. Most Africans believe witches are real active beings that can act to influence, intervene and alter the course of human life for good or ill. Africans accept witchcraft as a mode of explanation, of perception and interpretation of their problems, events, nature and reality even when reason and common sense suggest otherwise. They believe witches can cause poverty, diseases, accidents, business failures, famine, earthquake, infertility and childbirth difficulties. Many people in Africa attribute any extraordinary, mysterious or inexplicable event, manifestation or phenomenon to witchery and wizardry. In some African communities there is even a talk about positive and negative witchcraft. The belief is that positive witchcraft is used to do good-cure diseases or solve problems, and negative witchcraft is used to do evil. But generally, in Africa, witchcraft is associated with evil, harm and destruction. Unfortunately this mentality prevails in spite of the emergence of modern science and technology.

Africans believe witches and wizards are spirits but that they carry out their nefarious activities as human beings, animals or insects. The belief is that witches and wizards transform into humans, animals and insects to perpetrate their evil machinations. Hence in countries like Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Uganda, witches are identified mostly with women or infants. In Sierra Leone witches are associated with barren women, children with “abnormal” features, animals like cats or birds like owl. In Nigeria all nocturnal insects and animals especially birds are suspected to be witches or wizards. In the Gambia or Senegal, witches are associated with the bird, “owl”. And children are advised to kill it wherever they see it. Witches are believed to operate mainly in the night. They allegedly organize nocturnal meetings in the seas, oceans and forests where they feast on human blood, flesh or fetuses. The general belief is that witches and wizards always convene to plan evil. They gather to plot how to inflict harm or undermine the progress of people especially their family members. As a result of this, throughout Africa witchcraft accusation in families is common. People blame their fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, children, uncles and aunties, grandfathers and grand mothers for any evil or misfortune that befalls them even the ones they caused for themselves. In most cases these accusations have led to ostracization, persecution, torture, and inhuman and degrading treatment or outright liquidation of alleged witches.
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Among the Catholics, Protestants, and secular leadership of the European Late Medieval/Early Modern period, fears about witchcraft rose to fever pitch, and sometimes led to large-scale witch-hunts. Throughout this time, it was increasingly believed that Christianity was engaged in an apocalyptic battle against the Devil and his secret army of witches, who had entered into a diabolical pact. In total, tens or hundreds of thousands of people were executed, and others were imprisoned, tortured, banished, and had lands and possessions confiscated. The majority of those accused were women, though in some regions the majorities were men. The Malleus Maleficarum, a famous witch-hunting manual used by both Catholics and Protestants, outlines how to identify a witch, what makes a woman more likely than a man to be a witch, how to put a witch on trial, and how to punish a witch. The book defines a witch as evil and typically female. This backward practice was finally exterminated in most parts of Europe and the western world by rigorous educational and enlightenment campaigns.

While witch hunting is outdated in most parts of Europe and the entire western world, in Africa, it is still an ongoing activity. Witch attacks, persecution and killings still take place on the continent. Incidentally, most of the victims are women and children. Recently there have been several reported cases of witch attack and killing in different parts of the continent. In Eastern Cape of South Africa, a woman, her daughter, and grandson were hacked to death for allegedly practicing witchcraft. In Ghana, a woman- Samata Karim- was almost lynched by a mob on the suspicion that she was a witch. The mob went after Samata after a neighbour said she dreamt and saw Samata strangling her to death. In Ghana, a witch camp- a place where women suspected to be witches are kept- exists in Northern part of the country.
In Uganda, three women suspected to be witches were lynched in Kitgum. The women were accused of using witchcraft to kill a man in the district. The man called, Kenneth Akena collapsed, the body started swelling and the skin peeled off. These signs were identified with witchcraft. The villagers indicted these women and lynched them instantly.
In 2004, in Edo State Nigeria, 27 men and women suspected to be witches and wizards died after they were forced to drink a local concoction believed to be for witch identification. Moreover, in June this year a 70-year-old man killed the grandson in Kaduna in Northern Nigeria. He alleged that the son used witchcraft to kill his three children in quick succession. In Tanzania and Mozambique there have been reported incidents of killing, torture and maiming of persons in the name of witchcraft.
As of 2006, between 25,000 and 50,000 children in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, had been accused of witchcraft and thrown out of their homes. In April, 2008, Kinshasa, the police arrested 14 suspected victims (of penis snatching) and sorcerers accused of using black magic or witchcraft to steal (make disappear) or shrink men's penises to extort cash for cure, amid a wave of panic. Arrests were made in an effort to avoid bloodshed seen in Ghana a decade ago, when 12 alleged penis snatchers were beaten to death by mobs. It was reported on May 21, 2008 that in Kenya a mob had burnt to death at least 11 people accused of witchcraft. In Tanzania in 2008, President Kikwete publicly condemned witchdoctors for killing albinos for their body parts which are thought to bring good luck. 25 albinos have been murdered since March 2007. In the Meatu district of Tanzania, half of all murders are “witch-killings”. In the Nigerian states of Akwa Ibom and Cross River about 15,000 children branded as witches and most of them end up abandoned and abused on the streets. In Gambia, human rights organization Amnesty International reported that about 1,000 people accused of being witches were locked in detention centres in March 2009 and forced to drink a dangerous hallucinogenic potion. Every year, hundreds of people in the Central African Republic are convicted of witchcraft.
Christian pastors in Nigeria have been involved in the torturing and killing of children accused of witchcraft. Over the past decade, over 1000 children have been murdered with some being set on fire. Church pastors, in an effort to boost their relevance in the society, establish their credentials by accusing children of witchcraft.


One of the most intriguing aspects of the belief in witchcraft is witch confession- the claim that witches and wizards sometimes openly admit to have indulged in occult activities. Believers in witchcraft often cite- and use- this as a justification for witch attack and persecution.
For instance in 1998 in Lagos, Nigeria, a middle-aged woman was stoned and later burnt to death after she allegedly confessed to have indulged in witchcraft activities. The woman reportedly confessed to have killed ten people including her own kids as well as being responsible for the repatriation of her brother from Europe.
Unfortunately as in all cases of witch confession, no one tried to critical examine or confirm these claims. No one tried to find out if this woman was mentally sound.
At best, witch confessions are utterances elicited under duress by a mob or pronouncements made by individuals of questionable mental health.
Besides, in some cultures in Nigeria, confession is believed to be therapeutic. Among the Okpameri people in Southern Nigeria witch confession is believed to be curative. So those suffering prolonged and complicated ailments are urged 'to confess and be healed'. Also in Pentecostal churches, witch confession is perceived as a process of spiritual rebirth and recreation.

As in other aspects of African life and society, Christianity has been confusing and complicating efforts to understand and eradicate witchcraft and realize social and cultural progress. Though the belief in witchcraft predates the advent of Christianity to Africa, over the centuries the Christian faith has spread and succeeded in reinforcing and appropriating this primitive belief. Many churches in Africa organize fellowships and revival meetings to cast out the demons of witchcraft and counteract their occult activities. The Bible enjoins believers to suffer and torture witches to death. So today, Pentecostal churches with their literalist approach to the Bible are championing a neo-witch hunt in Africa. In 2003 at least 25 people suspected to be witches and wizards were clubbed or hacked to death in Akwa Ibom State in Southern Nigeria. The killings started after some members of the Christian churches accused their congregation's parents and relatives of allegedly practicing witchcraft and being responsible for poverty, diseases, business failure, infertility and other calamities that befell them. As a result, some children attacked their parents, grandparents and relatives to elicit confession for their alleged participation in witchcraft activities. Therefore, Christians in Africa torture persecute and kill those alleged to be witches because their Bible tells them so. Actually, witches are imaginary beings with no real existence. Witches are fantasies crafted by human beings out of fear and ignorance. Witchcraft is an offshoot of the spiritualist and supernaturalist worldview, which prevailed at the infancy of the human race. Absolutely there is no evidence that witches cause poverty, diseases, accidents, business failures, famine, earthquake, infertility and other calamities that befall humankind, as most Africans believe. Witchcraft has no basis in reason science or in reality. The time has come for Africans to abandon this primitive belief and the atrocious crimes of witch attack, torture, persecution and killing.

The time has come for Africa to undergo rigorous awareness and enlightenment champagnes to stamp out this counter-progressive tradition and embrace modernity just as the Europeans did.