CHILDREN ACCUSED OF WITCHCRAFT

PSS Forum Victoria Falls 2015

Voice of Jeremias Kimasha, Mubunda-village

“If I compare the situation of today with the situation some 50 years ago, I can say: There were also some few cases of accusation of uchawi – but not like today. “

African tradition?

Aleksandra Cimpric proposes to perceive the current forms of belief instead of “African tradition” more as a product of an “invented tradition” (Hobsbawm, 2006), or perhaps as “reinvented tradition”. Javier AguilarMolina (from SC) calls even the accusation of child witches an “urban invention”

FACTS

Report on accusations of witchcraft against children in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

This boy was burnt with hot water and suffered 1st and 2nd degree burns as a result, because he was thought to be a witch. He was then dumped on the streets.

FACTS

Report on accusations of witchcraft against children in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

This girl had a nail driven into her head because she was believed to be a witch. This left her with a permanent mental disability. She was found living on the streets.

FACTS

Report on accusations of witchcraft against children in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

In case 182 a twelve year old girl was beaten with rods and cut with a machete, and was told she would be killed due to being a witch.

FACTS

Report on accusations of witchcraft against children in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

This girl was accused of witchcraft by a pastor. She was then imprisoned in a shed by her father for several weeks with her legs tied to a stake.

FACTS

Street children due to accusations of witchcraft:• Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria: 81% of the

documented cases on the street accused • Kinshasa: 60% of the presumed 25,000 street

children have been kicked out of their homes due to allegations of witchcraft (UNHCR 2006). Cahn counts with estimated 100,000 street children where perhaps as many as 50% are accused of witchcraft.

FACTS

P-Y is thirteen years old. After his parents died from AIDS his extended family accused him of witchcraft, and pushed him out onto the streets. (Quoted in the Report by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Street Children)

FACTS

According estimations of the Minister of Social Affairs as many as 50’000 children might be held in the apparently thousands of churches in Tanzania - often in dismal conditions—as they await exorcism (UNHCR – Schnoebelen)

FACTS

Malawi: • 74 % in the semi-structured interviews indicating

their belief that children can be witches • Most of them believing that such children must

be subjected to traditional cleansing ceremonies, exorcisms, arrest, imprisonment and beatings, with some suggesting execution.

(E. van der Meer)

FACTS

The albino boy Adam Robert had his fingers chopped off and suffered terrible injuries to his arm, after being attacked on the doorsteps of his home, while his father and step-mother were inside.

Working definition of “witchcraft”

Witchcraft is • a set of beliefs, • structured and shared by a given population, • that addresses the origin of misfortune, illness

and death, • and the set of practices for detection,

treatment and punishment that corresponds to these beliefs” (quoted in Cimpric )

Vulnerable groups of children (1)Personal origins

• Children with disability including autism, epilepsy, downs syndrome and or even dyslexia

• Children with learning disabilities or mental health problems

• Left handed children• Bedwetting • Children who are geniuses or exceptionally• Children who are “naughty”, rude or have challenging

behaviour or involved in delinquent activity

Vulnerable groups of children (2) Social origins

• Children living away from home in private fostering situations as well as in domestic servitude situations

• Children living with a step parent, with one of the natural parents absent or dead

• Children whose parents have been branded as witches

• Children living in broken families

Vulnerable groups of children (3)By birth

• Children whose birth is considered abnormal which might include also twins.

• Children with albinism who are killed because of the magic powers supposedly contained in parts of their bodies, including their organs, hair, skin and limbs.

Looking at driving forces (1)

• Poverty • AIDS crisis causing death • Lack of understanding of disabilities of

children• Broken homes • Media (Nollywood films, headlines, radio, TV) • Poor health system

Looking at driving forces (2)

• Conflicts using child soldiers and submitting them to rituals

• Trafficking children, especially girls and submit them to ritual oaths in order to control them

• Economic disparity, greed for wealth and power, envy (Signer)

Looking at driving forces (3)

One of main contributing factors are the thousands of “revivalist” or “revelation” churches mushrooming in the world.The revivalist churches fulfil a dual purpose: they play a part in determining who is a witch and they work to “cure” those witches.The pastors generally believe that they have received a spiritual gift to understand these children, and have received a divine call.

Working definition of witchcraft

Witchcraft is • a set of beliefs, • structured and shared by a given population, • that addresses the origin of misfortune, illness

and death, • and the set of practices for detection,

treatment and punishment that corresponds to these beliefs

The new visibilty:Transformation of the traditional concept of “childhood”:

De Boeck and Honwana: Makers and Breakers.• Constructing their own identities • Important actors in “providing answers to the

crisis of the structure of authorities, gerontocracy and gender relations”

Examples of new social power

• Child soldiers • Street children • “bafioti-fioti” launched by the Congolese

musician superstar Papa Wemba• “Yeam” (Y en a marre) (We speak about the

situation, but on our way) in Senegal, “Citizen Broom” in Burkina Faso

• Witchcraft accusations

Self-Defense

Aguiar and his team have collected in discussion with pastors and families signs of witchcraft in a child:Aggressive, disobedient, full of hatred, disrespectful, too open, courageous, violent, fearless, creative and full of initiative, ungrateful

Recommendations

3 promising ways and 1 social-political condition 1. In depth knowledge of beliefs and practices‐2. Support dialogue with religious leaders and

traditional healers in order to identify common ground to combat the abuse of children accused of witchcraft

3. “Normalization” and alternative explanations 4. Social service justice

Malawi: Leitner Witchcraft Clinic

• Offering clients alternative explanation for phenomena attributed to witchcraft

• Children misbehavior: “normalize” – normal “growing pains” > embrace alternative explanations for their behavior

• If alternative explanations are strongly rejected, accept it and present constructive suggestions (e.g. to seek mediation especially when it has deeper family issues)

• Find creative solutions

Thank you