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Don't Condemn Old women As Witches

09.12.2010 LISTEN
By Vicky Wireko - Daily Graphic

The disturbing trend of atrocities against women accused of being witches is simply unacceptable.

They are just inhuman. In this day and age, we as citizens continue to watch on as human right abuses are meted out to our fellow human beings. Unfortunately, they are happening across the length and breadth of the country under our very eyes.

Not too long ago, some elderly women were murdered at Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo and some more in the West Mamprusi District because they were all accused of witchcraft by members of their own community and in some cases, their own family members, including husbands.

Still in the north and in an unrelated case, five other women were taken hostage accused of witchcraft at Koblimahagu, a surburb of Tamale.

The stories about witch camps where those accused of witchcraft are banished from their communities and sent away to live undignified lives supervised by a man, are just shocking.

These women are completely shunned by their communities and stigmatised for life, that is, if they are able to live through it. In all, there are reports of a total of six such camps in the Northern Region of Ghana.

Sometimes, these women are thrown out there with their very young children who are forced to make the witches camp their home. These children are therefore, denied education as well as had to go through life with stigmatisation and gut-wrenching mental tortures.

Some of the women sent to the camps are so old that they are unable to do anything for themselves once they get thrown in there. Sometimes, if they are lucky, they get their own older daughters in to assist them.

In some other parts of the country, the story is no different. Unfortunate occurrences and fatalities in families and communities including sudden deaths, particularly of younger people are never the outcome of natural causes. Similarly, it is seen unnatural for a young woman to get married and not have children. Most of the time, it is that old woman in the house or the community who has caused the regrettable happenings through her “supernatural' powers.

They are ostracised by their families and communities and made to live with false guilt to haunt them for the rest of their lives. Some are virtually driven out of their homes into the streets to live there as destitutes.

Often times, it is women who lead in the condemnation of their fellow women as witches.Mariama’s rival (not her real name), the younger wife of her husband, accused her of being a witch because her child (the rival’s) had suffered convulsion and died.

When she reported to her husband that her rival, Mariama, had entered the room where the child was sleeping shortly before the convulsion took place, the husband got furious with Mariama and supporting his younger wife, they both declared her a witch not fit to be accommodated in the family home. She was therefore thrown out.

Meanwhile, Mariama, the first wife, had 11 children in that same house and unfortunately, lost eight of them. She never complained against anyone as being the cause of the death of any of her eight children, neither did she accuse her rival as being the cause.

The husband also did not find it necessary to accuse the younger wife of being the cause of any of those eight deaths.

Perhaps, the most horrifying of all these violence against women arising from accusations of witchcraft and which sometimes are so difficult to forget is the most recent barbarism against a 72-year-old grandmother who was burnt alive by a mob at Tema site 15, a suburb of Tema Community One. She was accused of being a witch.

Meanwhile, his own son maintains that his mother was not a witch.

According to the story published in the November 26 issue of the Daily Graphic, the victim, Madam Ama Ahima, was tortured before an extraction of confession of witchcraft was got from her. Once she was forcibly made to admit that she was a witch, she was drenched with kerosene and then set ablaze. She died 24 hours later in hospital from severe burns.

This and many dehumanising stories are too copious in our society, even within supposedly enlightened communities. Abundant brutalities and vindictiveness are being dished out to many more women in the name of witchcraft and which are not hitting the headlines or attracting public comments.

It is even more shocking to hear so called pastors and men of God joining hands with their elders and with the blessings of some members of their congregation to pronounce innocent and helpless women as witches.

Sometimes, very young children are made to confess to possessing “unusual” powers and are made to go through public humiliation.

Instead of focusing energies on developing what we have, helping those who need help to come out of their predicaments and looking for opportunities to better our lots and our communities, we are consistently dragging ourselves in the opposite direction and repeatedly looking for negative tendencies that drag other people down and set them backwards.

What we do not realise is that the harm being caused by such incidents of forced admission and false accusations of witchcraft also brings about unnecessary tensions, broken and shattered families tormented by questions and accusations.

Witch camps and all other forms of banishment and cruelty to women and girls because they are perceived to be witches are events and doings that are breaking relationships and reducing the pride and dignities of other people’s mothers, grandmothers and daughters.

The accused women no doubt would get psychologically broken because socially, they get isolated and made to feel unwanted.

Fortunately, all is not lost for such women and girls.There are some NGOs and advocacy groups helping to change mindsets and gradually building up confidence in those unfortunate women so “condemned” by their own to fit into society and live decent and near normal lives.

It is refreshing to get to know the efforts of organisations such as the World Vision International which are on a continuous basis assessing the situation.

They are indeed going inside the witch camps to help settle the abandoned women and children. While the women are assisted with livelihood projects, and perhaps more important, the children are given early access to education.

Definitely, while the caring groups and individuals continue to assess needs and carry their magnanimities to such traumatised mothers and grandmothers in our communities, sensitisation must be an ongoing thing.

Families, communities and the entire society must learn to be accommodative and appreciate the human rights of all individuals for who determines who is a witch?

Luckily, the world’s attention gets drawn to such ills in societies even to the extent that days are set aside each year for international recognition that such ills exist in abundance and seek for ways that local communities can bring some attention to bear on their rectification.Currently ongoing is the world celebration of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence.

The 16 days has been set aside to create better awareness on gender violence, especially against women and girls accused of witchcraft among others.

Sixteen days because two significant world celebrations are happening between November 25 and December 10. While November 25 has been set aside globally as the International Day Against Violence Against Women, December 10 is also celebrated globally as the International Human Rights Day.

Symbolically, the two days have been linked together to emphasise that such violence is a violation of human rights.

Indeed, the drums continue to sound in the ears of our people. No one individual or groups of people have the right to condemn another human being, brand her a witch and go ahead to mete out atrocities on her. We all have a right to live in the community and such rights must be respected at all times.

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