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Pushed out of their houses
Perception in witchcraft is deeply entrenched throughout Ghana, reducing by way of each rural and concrete life, explains John Azumah, the director of the Sanneh Institute in Accra, a analysis centre, which has lengthy supported survivors of witchcraft accusations and is a part of a coalition urgent for authorized and social reform.
“It’s not only a Ghanaian factor,” Azumah says. “Perception within the supernatural is so highly effective in Africa. It’s very sturdy in Nigeria, in East Africa … What is exclusive about Ghana is the camps within the north.”
Though accusations happen in different elements of Ghana, ladies in these areas usually tend to be ostracised than banished. In the meantime, within the north, the accused are sometimes despatched to the “witch camps” that normally function their final refuge.
The camps are sometimes situated close to or inside villages and are overseen by conventional monks or camp chiefs, usually appointed by village leaders. The camp in Gambaga is the oldest and most well-known, however others exist in Kukuo, Gnani, and Kpatinga.
Ladies, usually aged, widowed, or with out sturdy household safety, are most steadily focused, Azumah says. Many, too, are “the poorest of the poor”, he added. As soon as accused, they’re weak to mob violence, abandonment, or lifelong banishment.
Generally, the accusations have lethal penalties. In July 2020, 90-year-old Akua Denteh was lynched in a public market after being accused. Her brutal killing shocked the nation, and sparked requires reform.
“It’s violence towards ladies – a demonisation of ladies,” Azumah says, explaining how witchcraft isn’t all the time considered as inherently evil. Ladies accused of witchcraft are feared and condemned, whereas males who’re accused of it are thought to make use of it for cover or good, he explains.
Virtually any misfortune will be interpreted as proof of witchcraft, says Azumah. “Generally individuals are simply accusing others maliciously, or to get them out of the best way for some purpose. It could possibly be fights over property or farmland, or it may simply be pure jealousy, like any person’s little one is doing properly at school.”
As soon as a girl is accused and despatched to a camp, she could endure a conventional “trial”, involving the slaughter of a hen or guinea fowl. “When the guinea fowl or hen is dying, the place of the physique determines the end result [of the trial],” explains Alasan Shei, the standard religious chief who oversees the Gnani camp. “If it falls on its again with the top going through up, it means the lady has some witchcraft. But when it lies face down, then she is harmless.”
But even when this ritual “proves” innocence, returning house is uncommon. For most girls, the accusation alone is sufficient to drive them from their communities.
“Most frequently, the communities the place the ladies are accused is not going to be prepared to just accept them again,” says Shei.
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