CHILD WITCHES PHENOMENON IN AKWA IBOM STATE, SOUTH - SOUTH

NIGERIA

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA-UNICEF SUMMER PROGRAMME,

JULY 2 – 13, 2013

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• Background• Description of the Problem/Challenge• Intervention

OUTLINE

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BACKGROUND

• Phenomenon of witchcraft is rooted in the traditional beliefs of the people of the Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria

• It has to do with manipulating and using supernatural powers to kill, destroy and cause havoc to individuals, families and community or society

• The child witches phenomenon is therefore based on a premise that the child is exercising or invoking supernatural powers to control people or events and involving sorcery or magic.

• Studies show that the prevalent rate is quite high about 66.42%.

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BACKGROUND• NIGERIA WITH AKWA IBOM STATE INSET IN RED

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BACKGROUND CONT.

• Several reasons were given for accusing children of being witches. They include:

• - varying range of misfortunes in the family or community, such as sickness and death in the family, - infertility, loss of a job, and poor sales in the market.

• Other reasons include children being stubborn; having abnormal behaviour; being arrogant; having no respect for elders; rascality; feeling superior to other children; exhibiting violent behaviour; unsteadiness; greed; always in a very deep sleep; sleep walking and mental disorders.

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DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM

• Children are accused of being witches and are thrown out of their family homes by their parents.

• They are seen as defiled and capable of defiling other children, hence are further ostracized by the community members.

• The extreme stigma and discrimination robs these unfortunate children dubbed witches of any social support network from their families, communities and churches.

• A number of questions come to mind when trying to deal with the issue

• Is the phenomenon a Social norm or a Custom?

• If a Social norm or Custom, is it a positive one that should be allowed to continue to exist, if not, what do we do to bring about the abandonment of this norm or custom?

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DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM CONT.

• Two patterns of behaviours were identified as supporting this practice.

• They are:

a)The behaviour of accusing the child of practicing witch craft by the parents and

b) The behaviour of ostracizing the child by the community. 

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Is the Practice of Accusation of Children of Practising witchcraft a Custom or a Norm?

• Children are accused of practicing witchcraft by their parents when they exhibit certain behaviours, this may be followed by misfortunes in the family such as sickness, death, infertility, loss of business, accident etc.

• Most accusers have the personal normative belief that children practicing witch craft should be punished or in the alternative seek for help to exorcise them of the evil spirit

• There is also the factual belief that children practicing witchcraft possess evil spirits or forces and have supernatural powers to kill, destroy and cause havoc to individuals, families and community.

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Is the Practice of Accusation of Children of Practising witchcraft a Custom or a Norm?

• This is a case of unconditional preference, since their decision are based on their factual and personal normative beliefs

• Hence the practice/behaviour of parents accusing their children of practicing witchcraft is a custom and not a Social norm since there is the absence of Empirical and Normative expectations linked to it.

Cristina Bicchieri, defined Custom as

“… A pattern of behaviour such that individuals prefer to conform to it because it meets their needs”

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Is the Practice of Accusation of Children of Practising witchcraft a Custom or a Norm?

• Diagnosis

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Is the Practice of Ostracising Children by the

Community Members a Social Norm?

• In order to identify a social norm, it needs to be the case that those who ostracise them are motivated by Empirical and Normative expectations.

Cristina Bicchieri in her book, The Grammar of Society: The Nature and Dynamics of Social Norms, 2006, defined Social Norm as

“A rule of behaviour such that individuals prefer to conform to it on the condition that they believe that (a) most people in their relevant network conform to it (empirical expectations) and (b) most people in their relevant network believe they ought to conform to it (normative expectations)”.

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Is the Practice of Ostracising Children by the

Community Members a Social Norm?•  The Empirical Expectations are that members of the

community ostracize children who are said to be witches/practice witchcraft

• The Normative Expectation is that members of the community believe other members ought to ostracize children dubbed witches

• The pattern of behavior, beliefs and preferences identified in the practice of ostracizing children by the community members can be said to be that of Conditional Preference where people prefer to follow the observed pattern of behaviour because others in their reference network follow it

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Schemas And Scripts

• Norms do not exist in isolation; it is embedded in a mesh of beliefs: Factual beliefs, Attitudes, Normative beliefs, other norms and Expectations and Ideals (Schemas & Scripts)

• Schemas involve beliefs, expectations and behavioural rules; they are structures representing knowledge about people and events. The schemas here are that a child is an indispensable and useful member of a family and community where he/she resides. Furthermore, a child with supernatural powers to kill, cause harm and havoc in the family and community should be ostracized.

• Scripts according to Cristina Bicchieri, are schemas for social events; they describe stylized stereotyped sequences of actions and define actors and roles.

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Schemas And Scripts

• The Script is perceived as stable and projectable and subsequently become legitimate, and a violation of it elicits a causal retribution.

• The scripts here are that: A child is always obedient, respectful and useful member of the family and community/society in which he/she lives or resides.

• A violation of this script elicited the causal attribute of a child that practices witchcraft is wicked and evil and should be ostracized, discriminated against and rejected by all members of the community.

• Norms are part of scripts, this implies that scripts have to change for there to be a change of an existing practice.

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Intervention• Two practices/ behaviours were identified as fueling

the harmful practice. One is a Custom, the other is a Social norm

• To deal effectively with the harmful practice, both practices should be addressed to ensure the complete elimination of the practice.

• Since custom is a pattern of behaviour preferred to be conformed to by individuals to meet their needs, it can be changed by changing the factual beliefs and attitudes as well as the external conditions that produce the particular needs.

• Change in the Empirical and Normative expectations of the social norm of ostracizing children accused of practicing witchcraft will bring about a norm compliant change

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Intervention

CUSTOM ABANDONMENT – Accusing children of practicing witchcraft

1.Change of factual beliefs – if persons no longer believed that witchcraft was real, they would stop accusing children of being witches. Some have a factual belief that certain children have the powers of a witch, so if they stopped believing that, they wouldn't accuse.

2. Change external conditions that produce particular needs– we need to determine why parents accuse children of being witches. For instance, If it is because of economic hardship and starvation, then "changing the external conditions" would include getting persons out of poverty – Poverty alleviation programme.

3.Change attitudes / preferences - Community coming together to create a social norm of their not accusing children of being witches. Individuals might develop a new preference to not accuse children. In this case, the new social norm changes the custom.

 

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Intervention

NORM ABANDONMENT – Ostracizing Children accused of practicing witchcraft

Change of beliefs/attitude –

Any Child practicing witchcraft must be

ostracised

Collective decision to abandon –

Community members decide to change

their beliefs

Coordinated action –

Meeting to publicly declare for the

change of beliefs

Abandon Old Normative

Expectation –

No child ought be ostracized

New Empirical expectation –

No child should be ostracized

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Intervention

Tools For Effective Norm Change

Media campaigns - For Change of beliefs, attitudes and social expectations

Educational campaign – Leading to change of beliefs and attitudes

Community –driven theater

Intensive verbal group deliberation

Legislation – Legal norm

Other Strategies - Working with the Core group to bring about diffusion;

- Working with Social Networks to bring about effective diffusion; Values Deliberation;

- Mockus Harmonization of Norms – Core moral norms, Legal norms, and Social norms

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Current Intervention

• Integrated Approach

- Community dialogues

- High level advocacy

- Education Campaign

- Media Campaigns

- Community Theater for development

- Legislation

- Child Protection Network• Institutionalization

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Change in Current Practice

• A change in the factual beliefs and attitudes of individuals will bring about a custom change

• so also will changing the empirical and normative expectations of a social norm bring about a norm compliant change which when widely spread among the reference network members will eventually lead to the norm abandonment.

• This will be achieved through the combination of:- Media and Education Campaigns- Community dialogues- Intensive verbal deliberations with influencers, religious and

traditional leaders

- Working with the Core group to bring about diffusion;

- Values Deliberation;

- Harmonization of Norms – Core moral norms, Legal norms, and Social norms

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Children Accused of being Witches in CRARN Centre

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Current Intervention

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BACKGROUND CONT

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Child Dubbed Witch on the Street