No 'Witch Camps' in Ghana

Existing knowledge says that 'witch camps', places where 'witches' live and operate exist in Ghana. These 'witch camps' have been popular destinations for tourists, scholars, researchers, diplomats, state and non-state actors, and local and foreign anthropologists trying to understand and make sense of this Ghana-specific or better Africa-specific 'occult' phenomenon. Many studies have focused on these 'witch' facilities and how they are used to culturally contain witchcraft manifestations. My doctoral thesis explained how these institutions feature in the contestations of witchcraft accusations in Northern Ghana. Nobody can adequately discuss and situate the phenomenon of witchcraft in Ghana without referencing the 'witch camps'. Ghana's witch camps have been the subject of documentaries, films, and NGO projects. Local and international media stations such as the BBC, Deutsche Welle, and Voice of America, have reported on these structures in Ghana. The government of Ghana has reportedly tried shutting down these places.

When I heard about Ghana's 'witch camps' decades ago, I was curious. I was eager to know more about these 'camps'. I imagined who populated these places and what could be happening there. So I have always wanted to visit these 'camps', to see and meet Ghanaian "witches". So when an opportunity came for me to conduct some fieldwork on witchcraft accusations for my doctoral study, I was excited when my supervising team asked me to go to Ghana.

I have been to Ghana a couple of times before 2012 but it was mainly for humanist and human rights meetings in the southern parts, in Accra, Tema, and Cape Coast. I had not traveled to the northern part of the country, where the so-called 'witch camps' were located.

I traveled to Ghana three times for my fieldwork from 2012 to 2014. I spent seven months visiting places and communities, tracing accusations of witchcraft in the region. I met accusers and accused. I visited various chiefs, shrine priests, police posts, offices of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice, assemblymen, and regional and central state actors. I was at the 'witch camps' in Kukuo, Gnani, Gushegu, Gambaga, Bonyase, and Kpatinga.

I spent some nights at the 'witch camp' in Gnani. It was from these 'witch camps' that I got cases that I traced to the communities in the quest to understand how accusations arise and how they are negotiated; how some accused ended up in 'witch camps'. Between 2012 and 2014, I met and interviewed over 50 accusers and accused. I saw some newly accused persons arrive to live in these places. During my field work, some who were already living there passed away. I witnessed a witch testing and certification ritual in Kukuo. I noticed that for some accused persons, 'witch camps' were some temporary stops in their quest for safety and security. Some accused persons were briefly there and later relocated to live with family members. I also met accused persons who were not living at these 'witch camps'. They were living in the city with their relatives. I also interacted with some NGO actors and some religious officers working to 'empower', reintegrate and reconcile some of the accused persons with their families and communities.

From my research findings, it was evident that there were no 'witch camps' in Ghana. There were no places where witches were kept. The notion of a witch camp is a misnomer, a misrepresentation of these spaces and facilities. What I saw in Kukuo, Gnani, Bonyase, Gambaga, etc were not 'witch camps' by any stretch of the imagination, conceptualization, or interpretation. What I saw were refuge facilities for victims of witchcraft accusations. I saw make-shift shelters for men and women who were internally displaced due to witchcraft accusations. I saw safe spaces for people who escaped being killed or murdered in cold blood. I saw places where alleged witches called a home, a haven for the accused. The people that I met in these places were not witches. They were not.

Witches are human beings believed to have and use magical or supernatural powers to harm other persons and their estates. Or humans, who as members of the Wiccan religion self-identify as witches or nature worshippers. I never saw witches in both senses. No one I saw or met in 'witch camps' in Kukuo, Gnani, Gushegu, Gambaga, Kpatinga or Bonyase self-identified as such. No one fitted into the category of witches as we know it.

So where are those reportedly fascinating places witches were camped in Northern Ghana? I continued to ask. The term witch camp is English, which is spoken as a second language in Ghana. The term witch camp was given to these places by English describers and documenters of the witchcraft phenomenon in Ghana. Thus witch camp is not an emic term and not reflective of an emic perspective.

Ghanaians use local terms to describe these places such as Tindang which do not translate as witch camps. Tindang roughly translates as a shrine or a traditional god. They are also places where locals go for traditional worship or to resolve local disputes.

So there were no places in Ghana where 'witches' lived or operated as the term implied. I never saw, met, or interviewed even a witch "Inside witch camps" in Kukuo, Gnani, Gushegu, Gambaga, Kpatinga or Bonyase which as some Western journalists and researchers have claimed because no such persons and places existed. I was in Gambaga. I never met 'Witches of Gambaga' as Yaba Badoe claimed in her 2011 documentary.

In my doctoral thesis, I noted the imbalance in the existing literature on witchcraft in Africa because scholars from Evans Pritchard to Peter Geschiere explained the witchcraft phenomenon in Africa from the perspective and assumption of accusers and believers not from the viewpoint, and perspectives of the accused and nonbelievers in witchcraft. Witchcraft is framed as useful and valuable in understanding and functioning of ancient and modern, colonial and post-colonial African societies. The misrepresentation has yielded a mischaracterization of alleged witches as witches and refuge spaces for accused persons as witch camps in Ghana. It is pertinent to note that the misrepresentation of these safe spaces hurts and undermines efforts to combat abuses linked to witchcraft beliefs in post-colonial Ghana. That is why, instead of devoting energies to combating witchcraft accusations and witch persecution in the communities, state authorities are threatening to close down these safe spaces. They are busy addressing the symptoms not the disease, the consequences not the cause.

To this end, I submit that the term witch camp be dropped and replaced with a term that reflects the realities of witchcraft manifestations in the region. The government, students, scholars, researchers, journalists, and ordinary persons should stop calling these places 'witch camps'. These facilities in Kukuo, Gnani, Gushegu, Gambaga, Kpatinga and Bonyase should no longer be described as camps for witches because they are not. These spaces are shelters, shelters for alleged witches, or shelters for victims of witch persecution. These facilities should be designated as follows: as Kukuo shelter, not Kukuo witch camp, Gnani shelter not Gnani witch camp, Gushegu shelter, not Gushegu witch camp, Gambaga shelter, not Gambaga witch camp, and Bonyase shelter, not Bonyase witch camp, and Kpatinga shelter not Kpatinga witch camp. These redesignations are necessary to correct the misconception and misrepresentation of these facilities and those who populate them. The government and people of Ghana should take note.

Leo Igwe holds a doctoral degree in religious studies and wrote his thesis on witchcraft accusations in Northern Ghana.