Ghana "witch camps" shelter victims of witchcraft accusations

Leo Igwe’s field study into witchcraft accusations in Ghana was a Foundation Beyond Belief small grant awardee and is now open for ongoing individual donations. Witchcraft accusations constitute a serious threat to human rights and individual safety in several regions of Africa, none more so than Northern Ghana. Click here to make a donation in support of this project.

By Leo Igwe

A 48-year-old woman, F., is currently languishing in a “witch camp” in Kukuo in Northern Ghana. If she is not relocated and rehabilitated soon, F., like other victims of witchcraft accusation, will spend the rest of her life in this remote village. She is the newest alleged “witch” to arrive in this community, which is one of the few places in Ghana that provides safe spaces to victims of witchcraft accusations. F. was accused of bewitching a girl, and she had to flee the community to escape being lynched by a local mob.

Most cases of witchcraft accusation take place in remote villages where local chiefs and elders, chief priests, and soothsayers wield a lot of influence. There is widespread poverty and lack of infrastructure. Witchcraft accusation is often a cover for many social problems, such as ignorance, envy, jealousy, struggle for scarce resources, sickness and disease, family disputes, rivalry, hatred, and gender injustice. Alleged witches are often made scapegoats, particularly in communities where any instance of misfortune is often believed to be caused by human beings through magical means.

F.’s husband died some years ago, and she relocated to live with her mother and to take care of her. But there she fell out with the family head, G. After a dispute with the family head and the village chief, G. accused F. of bewitching a child. The child was sick and claimed she saw F. in her dreams. This claim is locally associated with witchcraft—the person seen in a dream is believed to be a witch and the cause of the illness. F. agreed to go to a shrine for a witch testing to prove her innocence, but a local mob was threatening to kill her if she did not “release,” or heal, the child. A family member of F. living in a neighboring town sent a police team that rescued her and took her to another village. The “bewitched” girl was taken to a nearby hospital, where she received medical treatment. F. was taken to a nearby town for a few days before she was sent to Kukuo, where she is currently staying.

The police station that sent a team to rescue F. has no record of the incident. Officers at the station said that they were only interested in rescuing and conveying her to a safe location and not in bringing criminal charges against her accusers. This is apparently a common attitude among police throughout the Northern Region. There is lack of political will to tackle the problem head on. Hence the scourge of witch hunting continues to ravage many communities, and witch camps continue to proliferate in the region.  

Click here to make a donation in support of the Igwe Witchcraft Accusation field project.