Akwa-Ibom Child Witches: So Far, Not Yet Uhuru

Children in almost all African cultures are bundles of joy that societies often impatiently await their arrivals. The eagerness to have these wondrous creatures, most often than not, has selfish undertone (that of preserving the traditions and cultures as well as family legacies to be imbibed in them). The arrival of new born babies, into families, is therefore seen as a way of guaranteeing the going entity of such families. But when bundles of joy suddenly turns into bundles of sorrow, then I think the cause needs to be searched. Hence many global citizens are today concerned about the fate of African children passing through horrific times simply because someone thinks they are witches.

From Nigeria to Congo, Kenya to Tanzania, The Gambia to Cameroon, there are reported cases of teens been hacked to death, toddlers being drowned in rivers, adolescent being macheted by frustrated men and women all because someone CONFIRMED spiritually that THEY ARE WITCHES! "Unbelievable"! "Bizarre"! "Absolute madness"! Use whatever exclamative expression within your immediate linguistic capability to convey your disgust for such "barbaric, unscientific and really nauseating" act, I won´t stop you. If you could manage to utter these words, I would be glad because like Michael Jackson, I was 'speechless' on my part when I heard of the menace. Indeed, I considered it unthinkable in this century.

As an African, belief in witchcraft is not alien to me neither is the news of stoning to death of many confirmed by native spiritualists to be a witch. I could remember an incident that happened sometimes in 1985. I was on my way to the school, then, I met a crowd very close to the school torturing an aged woman to dance and confess 'to her sins'. What sins? Well, a stone-happy boy notorious in my school for stoning teachers and school prefects from hiding told me that she (the old woman) "has been using blood to fry bean cakes and sell for people". Having been brain washed into believing such, I immediately developed a stomach upset knowing that I have also eaten the bean cakes sometimes. Of course, I need not tell you what would become of an elderly woman abandoned in the hands of annoyed youngsters. She was beaten into coma with sticks and stoned severally for hours after been tortured to confess for having been responsible for the death of pupils in my school. Her corpse was taken away by the local authority after two days.

From that experience and stories from other friends, it is often women that are witches; many of them for allegedly having killed their children in the other world or coven (the barren women), others for daring to confront local practices like wife battering (using spiritual extra power on the husbands), and so on. Men are hardly stoned or openly fished out as witches. Men involved in activities akin to those abrogated to the possessed women (the witches) are called wizards. They are not considered as harmful as the women. This is the norm in most African societies. And that was what I and many others were made to belief as we grow into adulthood.

With education, however, I was able to re-examine these beliefs and then come to the conclusion that it is a GENDER problem. Our society is patriarchal and therefore sees women as mere objects that could be used as a means to an end. Otherwise, why is it that only women are detected as witches and stoned or sent out of their homes? From that moment, I became resolute about my resolve not to see any sense in witch-hunting or stoning. Joining the International Coalition Against Stoning, an organisation based in London (sometimes in 2004) gave me another insight into the magnitude of the problem. A visit to the witches´ camp in Gambaga, Ghana, sometimes in 2005, solidified the decision.

In 2008, however, I was again confronted with the reality of a shift in object of witchcraft accusation. The gender angle of my resolution went crumbling. Children and not women became the target of the witch-hunters. As I watched the documentary, 'Dispathes: Saving the African Child Witches', tears flow uncontrollably down my cheeks. The story of Nwa-eka, a girl who had a 3inches nail hammered into her head by those who once welcomed her joyfully into the family, is simply pathetic. What about Nwannakwo, the boy whose father lured to farm and sprayed with acid? Looking back, I would have wished I never watched the documentary and that I never embark on that mission to "see things for myself".

The first report I wrote after my visits to the child-witch endemic areas of Akwa-Ibom, in late 2008 and early 2009, was titled: We Went, We Saw, We Wept. Realising that weeping will not help, I resolved to intervene through The HAWK Project. The Humanist Against WitchKilling Project ad Stigmatization was well received and supported by the two key actors working with these alleged witches. Messers Gary Foxcroft and Sam Ikpe-Itauma could not hide their joy of having a hand to support them on the field in other to change the people attitudinally. One year, six months on, HAWK Project, now being funded by the Humanist Action for Human Rights based in Norway, has organised town-hall meetings, meetings with men and women of God, met with notable citizens of the area. The feedbacks from all of these have been awesome. But alas, I can't say things have changed that much.

From one hundred and seventy five children in the third quarter of 2009, the Child Rights and Rehabilitation Center, where the children are accommodated, as of April, 2010 provides accommodation for two hundred and nine children. Of course, many of the new arrivals are with less/minor wounds (a far cry from the horrible treatments meted earlier), but what we want is NO ARRIVALS at all! Reunification now tops the action-plan of all the organisations working with these children: Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network, Stepping Stones Nigeria UK, Young Humanistas Network and Stepping Stones Nigeria Child Empowerment Foundation. Prosecution is also a priority because even though the Governor of Akwa-Ibom State has signed the Child Rights Bill into Law in the state, over eighty five per cent of the people are unaware of the provisions of the bill. The prosecution for deterrence action is another joint effort between Basic Rights Counsel led by Barr. James Ibor and the four organisations mentioned earlier. Maintaining the Center and the school has not been an easy task but thanks to Comic Relief, Stepping Stones Nigeria, HAMU, among others, the management team led by Sam Ikpe-Itauma with the robust support of Gary Foxcroft, are trying their best.

From my field experience so far, there is no doubt that there is need for more action. The pages of newspapers is not the place to solve the riddle (afterall how many of the witch-hunters read the newspapers?) neither are name-callings and verbal attacks good omen to the achievement of our goal. Christians (most especially the men and women of God involved in witch-hunting) are culpable, but they have also proved to be capable of offering insight and assisting in stamping out the menace; the traditional religion priests are also not innocent as they are involved in fingering who they think are witches but the joy is that they are also considering how they would help in changing their methods. As for those of us working with these children, we are convinced that we are not too far from our goals but we are more convinced that if freedom must come to these children then we must work more intelligently and with open minds! Not yet uhuru, we are aware; but uhuru is a near possibility, we are sure.

Onward!