Churches denounce African children as "witches"

This Aug. 18, 2009 photo shows children accused of witchcraft carrying water at the Children's Rights and Rehabilitation Network in Eket, Nigeria. The idea of witchcraft is hardly new, but it has taken on new life recently partly because of a rapid growth in evangelical Christianity. Campaigners against the practice say around 15,000 children have been accused in two of Nigeria's 36 states over the past decade and around 1,000 have been murdered. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

The nine-year-old boy lay on a bloodstained hospital sheet crawling with ants, staring blindly at the wall.

His family pastor had accused him of being a witch, and his father then tried to force acid down his throat as an exorcism. It spilled as he struggled, burning away his face and eyes. The emaciated boy barely had strength left to whisper the name of the church that had denounced him - Mount Zion Lighthouse.

A month later, he died.

Nwanaokwo Edet was one of an increasing number of children in Africa accused of witchcraft by pastors and then tortured or killed, often by family members. Pastors were involved in half of 200 cases of "witch children" reviewed by the AP, and 13 churches were named in the case files.

Some of the churches involved are renegade local branches of international franchises. Their parishioners take literally the Biblical exhortation, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."

"It is an outrage what they are allowing to take place in the name of Christianity," said Gary Foxcroft, head of nonprofit Stepping Stones Nigeria.

For their part, the families are often extremely poor, and sometimes even relieved to have one less mouth to feed. Poverty, conflict and poor education lay the foundation for accusations, which are then triggered by the death of a relative, the loss of a job or the denunciation of a pastor on the make, said Martin Dawes, a spokesman for the United Nations Children's Fund.

"When communities come under pressure, they look for scapegoats," he said. "It plays into traditional beliefs that someone is responsible for a negative change ... and children are defenseless."

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The idea of witchcraft is hardly new, but it has taken on new life recently partly because of a rapid growth in evangelical Christianity. Campaigners against the practice say around 15,000 children have been accused in two of Nigeria's 36 states over the past decade and around 1,000 have been murdered. In the past month alone, three Nigerian children accused of witchcraft were killed and another three were set on fire.

Nigeria is one of the heartlands of abuse, but hardly the only one: the United Nations Children's Fund says tens of thousands of children have been targeted throughout Africa.

Church signs sprout around every twist of the road snaking through the jungle between Uyo, the capital of the southern Akwa Ibom state where Nwanaokwo lay, and Eket, home to many more rejected "witch children." Churches outnumber schools, clinics and banks put together. Many promise to solve parishioner's material worries as well as spiritual ones - eight out of ten Nigerians struggle by on less than $2 a day.

"Poverty must catch fire," insists the Born 2 Rule Crusade on one of Uyo's main streets.

"Where little shots become big shots in a short time," promises the Winner's Chapel down the road.

"Pray your way to riches," advises Embassy of Christ a few blocks away.

It's hard for churches to carve out a congregation with so much competition. So some pastors establish their credentials by accusing children of witchcraft.

Nwanaokwo said he knew the pastor who accused him only as Pastor King. Mount Zion Lighthouse in Nigeria at first confirmed that a Pastor King worked for them, then denied that they knew any such person.

Bishop A.D. Ayakndue, the head of the church in Nigeria, said pastors were encouraged to pray about witchcraft, but not to abuse children.

"We pray over that problem (of witchcraft) very powerfully," he said. "But we can never hurt a child."

The Nigerian church is a branch of a Californian church by the same name. But the California church says it lost touch with its Nigerian offshoots several years ago.

"I had no idea," said church elder Carrie King by phone from Tracy, Calif. "I knew people believed in witchcraft over there but we believe in the power of prayer, not physically harming people."

The Mount Zion Lighthouse - also named by three other families as the accuser of their children - is part of the powerful Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria. The Fellowship's president, Ayo Oritsejafor, said the Fellowship was the fastest-growing religious group in Nigeria, with more than 30 million members.

"We have grown so much in the past few years we cannot keep an eye on everybody," he explained.

But Foxcroft, the head of Stepping Stones, said if the organization was able to collect membership fees, it could also police its members better. He had already written to the organization twice to alert it to the abuse, he said. He suggested the fellowship ask members to sign forms denouncing abuse or hold meetings to educate pastors about the new child rights law in the state of Akwa Ibom, which makes it illegal to denounce children as witches. Similar laws and education were needed in other states, he said.

Sam Itauma of the Children's Rights and Rehabilitation Network said it is the most vulnerable children - the orphaned, sick, disabled or poor - who are most often denounced. In Nwanaokwo's case, his poor father and dead mother made him an easy target.

"Even churches who didn't use to 'find' child witches are being forced into it by the competition," said Itauma. "They are seen as spiritually powerful because they can detect witchcraft and the parents may even pay them money for an exorcism."

That's what Margaret Eyekang did when her 8-year-old daughter Abigail was accused by a "prophet" from the Apostolic Church, because the girl liked to sleep outside on hot nights - interpreted as meaning she might be flying off to join a coven. A series of exorcisms cost Eyekang eight months' wages, or US$270. The payments bankrupted her.

Neighbors also attacked her daughter.

"They beat her with sticks and asked me why I was bringing them a witch child," she said. A relative offered Eyekang floor space but Abigail was not welcome and had to sleep in the streets.

Members of two other families said pastors from the Apostolic Church had accused their children of witchcraft, but asked not to be named for fear of retaliation.

The Nigeria Apostolic Church refused repeated requests made by phone, e-mail and in person for comment.

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At first glance, there's nothing unusual about the laughing, grubby kids playing hopscotch or reading from a tattered Dick and Jane book by the graffiti-scrawled cinderblock house. But this is where children like Abigail end up after being labeled witches by churches and abandoned or tortured by their families.

There's a scar above Jane's shy smile: her mother tried to saw off the top of her skull after a pastor denounced her and repeated exorcisms costing a total of $60 didn't cure her of witchcraft. Mary, 15, is just beginning to think about boys and how they will look at the scar tissue on her face caused when her mother doused her in caustic soda. Twelve-year-old Rachel dreamed of being a banker but instead was chained up by her pastor, starved and beaten with sticks repeatedly; her uncle paid him $60 for the exorcism.

Israel's cousin tried to bury him alive, Nwaekwa's father drove a nail through her head, and sweet-tempered Jerry - all knees, elbows and toothy grin - was beaten by his pastor, starved, made to eat cement and then set on fire by his father as his pastor's wife cheered it on.

The children at the home run by Itauma's organization have been mutilated as casually as the praying mantises they play with. Home officials asked for the children's last names not to be used to protect them from retaliation.

The home was founded in 2003 with seven children; it now has 120 to 200 at any given time as children are reconciled with their families and new victims arrive.

Helen Ukpabio is one of the few evangelists publicly linked to the denunciation of child witches. She heads the enormous Liberty Gospel church in Calabar, where Nwanaokwo used to live. Ukpabio makes and distributes popular books and DVDs on witchcraft; in one film, a group of child witches pull out a man's eyeballs. In another book, she advises that 60 percent of the inability to bear children is caused by witchcraft.

In an interview with the AP, Ukpabio is accompanied by her lawyer, church officials and personal film crew.

"Witchcraft is real," Ukpabio insisted, before denouncing the physical abuse of children. Ukpabio says she performs non-abusive exorcisms for free and was not aware of or responsible for any misinterpretation of her materials.

"I don't know about that," she declared.

However, she then acknowledged that she had seen a pastor from the Apostolic Church break a girl's jaw during an exorcism. Ukpabio said she prayed over her that night and cast out the demon. She did not respond to questions on whether she took the girl to hospital or complained about the injury to church authorities.

After activists publicly identified Liberty Gospel as denouncing "child witches," armed police arrived at Itauma's home accompanied by a church lawyer. Three children were injured in the fracas. Itauma asked that other churches identified by children not be named to protect their victims.

"We cannot afford to make enemies of all the churches around here," he said. "But we know the vast majority of them are involved in the abuse even if their headquarters aren't aware."

Just mentioning the name of a church is enough to frighten a group of bubbly children at the home.

"Please stop the pastors who hurt us," said Jerry quietly, touching the scars on his face. "I believe in God and God knows I am not a witch."

seattlepi

Nigeria: Renaissance of Paganism

Lagos — I can't remember now where I read the true story: it must have been in one of the papers, but certainly not a home video story. Anyway never mind the source. Just read the true story. Once upon a time there lived in Lagos a husband and wife who were childless despite many years of being married. One day in the couple's church, it turned out that the owner of the church saw a vision to the effect that the mother of the lady was a witch "responsible" for the economic misfortune of her son-in-law and the bareness of her daughter.

Believing everything that came out of the mouth of the man of God to be true, the couple ostracized the old woman in the village. To cut the long story short, after missing her daughter for a long time, the old woman decided to travel all the way from the village to Lagos see her first daughter and son-in-law. Her luxurious bus touched down Jibowu, Yaba, Lagos at about 4 p.m. It was a bright evening. Lagos was still fully awake. Vehicular traffic was not so thick either. The young girl accompanying the woman rang up the couple and said: "Mama has arrived to Lagos . We are carrying a big bag and some tubers of yam. Come and pick us up at Ekene Park , Jibowu".

But to the utter shock of everyone, the lady not only snubbed the call but sent someone to inform her stranded mother at the park that she was a witch "responsible" her misfortune and that of her husband and consequently she was unfit to come into their house.

It was at this juncture that I disconnected from the story. So I cannot now tell you whether the couple later changed their minds and went to the park to pick up sorrowful old mama or whether the poor woman entered the next Ekene bus and headed back for the village.

Anyway, what this true story illustrates is that despite the high religious fervour in the land, there is something we are not getting right. Call it religion for atheists, or fanatical atheism, or paganized Christianity, or religious syncretism or Christianity mixed with superstition, the fact remains that we are witnessing the dawn of a new paganism today, a new paganism that is an amalgam of Christianity, African traditional religion and old paganism. Without getting mired into the gobbledygook of sociology of religious talks, whereas the old paganism thrived on superstitious beliefs, divination, incantation, dreams, vision-seeing, the new paganism of today strives on the same platforms but on a new panoply of modern technology, beautiful church songs, bright colours, movements, fine artistry, modern dancing, drama and even poetry. Whereas the pagans of old, at least in Africa , were somewhat uncultured, our new religious people are the aristocrats of intelligence. Handsome boys and beautiful girls having a nice time.

No suffering. No deprivation. No want. Some of the people you find in many places today shouting and heating their heads against the wall are offering the same services which the dibias, babalawos, futurists, clairvoyants, native doctors of those days used to offer, but in modernized ways. They can, among other things, foretell future events. They have the power to command, invoke and the power to do and undo. They can banish the devil, change ancestral curses into blessings, restore sight to the blind, destroy the enemies and restore trapped material wealth. If a woman is in search of the fruit of the womb, there is a child to be implanted in her womb. If a lady is desperately looking for a husband, there is a heaven-made husband waiting for her. Those suffering from financial difficulties should claim the prosperity reserved for them from all eternity.

In the midst of all these is the new reveling in superstition. Whereas Scottish missionary and White Queen of Calabar, Mary Slessor stopped the killing and torture of twins and children branded as witches and wizards in Calabar betweeen1873 to 1915, the children of Akwa Ibom are still crying for help today, crying because some religious bigots in town who have condemned them as witches and wizards are looking for them to kill them or torture them. So superstition is religion and religion is superstition. The evil spirits and devils are hovering all over the world looking for whom to devour. If your business is going down it is a sign that you are having a secret pack with the devil.

If you haven't given your dead great-grand father a third or fourth burial as required by paganized village tradition, be sure that he will be getting up at night from his grave and tormenting you. In my village nothing happens by chance. Everything is either caused by one juju or one medicine man or the other. If the rain is falling, a rain maker is behind it. Conversely, if the rain is not falling, a rain stopper is behind it. If your leg is paining you, know that you have stepped on a juju planted on your way by your enemy. If a successful young man dies, someone who was jealous of his wealth must have poised his food and killed him. So we live perpetually in fear, fear of imaginary an evil spirits, fear of an imaginary devil and fear of life itself.

But nevertheless, you cannot beat the religious fervour in this country. Nigerians are deeply religious people. That probably explains why we are the happiest people in the world. The average Nigerian holds anything sacred in great awe. In the days of Bishop Joseph Shanaham, Revered Hope Waddell and others, it was the Christianization of Africa. Today Africans are being invited to re-Christianize Europe and other parts of the world. Among these Africans are many Nigerians. With the new secularization and Godless materialism depicting Europe as one hellish place, Africa stands taller than many continents in affirming faith in one Triune God.

I spent the last vacation with one Spaniard and others in one seemingly good-for-nothing village in Ezeagu-North Local Council, Enugu State . Without trying to flatter me, this man was so impressed with what he saw about Nigeria . One Sunday we attended Mass at a village Catholic Church. After Mass, he called me to his side and confided in me that Nigeria was the hope of the world. Why? Because of the young men and women he saw inside the Church attending Mass. Probably in Spain and other countries only a few old people go to church. And since there is scarcity of people to form the choir, liturgical hymns and recorded ahead of time and played by the official minister at the opportune time.

But in Nigeria churches are daily jam-packed with exuberant young men and women including children, singing and dancing. God is still present in the public square. Every time you set out to travel in Nigeria there is always someone volunteering to pray for journey mercy. There are many prayer warriors in Nigeria whose professional job is to pray for others. The other day I was traveling to Onitsha by bus and one highway evangelist stood up to preach. After preaching he asked for contribution for his highway evangelism. Many offices in Lagos cannot start the day without prayers. This is the good thing about Nigeria . Everybody remembers God at all times. But it is dangerous to carry the cross on one shoulder and at the same time carry juju or superstitution on the other shoulder. Granted, the faith is deep here but it is yet to penetrate the culture. That is where the issue of acculturation, unity of life and all that may come in. If a guy goes to church on Sundays, he should struggle to do his work well; love his neighbour; pay his tax as and when due; he should stop stealing public funds and stop rigging elections to grab power by all means.

Those who argue that religionis a very personal thing which should be exercised privately and subjectively forget that unreasonable practice of the so-called private religion could cause a great harm to the Common good. For example, the Akwa-Ibom child torturers cannot argue that they are exercising their private religious right or their right to freedom of worship. This is because, without prejudice to religious freedom guaranteed in our Constitution, the State owes the citizens a duty to control the unreasonable way in which religion is practised.

allAfrica.com

Nwanakwo’s death, the search for justice and the re-branding project

Absolutely shocking! Distasteful, traumatizing and unbelievable! Can this be another April fool? No, it is not. The news is indeed true: Nwanakwo is DEAD! This is state that beclouded the Child’s Right and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN) Centre when the news of the death of 9 year old Nwanakwo Udo Edet from Ikono LGA who was receiving treatment at University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH) having been bathed with acid by his father.

Pitiful! Poor, innocent Nwanakwo was taken to the UUTH in July this year from General Hospital Ikono when his medical situation deteriorated. His sin is the acceptance to an invitation to attend a prayer meeting with a church in Urban, near Calabar, Cross River State Nigeria. “When I arrived the church, people were clapping and dancing. I prayed God to bless me and our family including my father; soon the pastor came, turning around, holding my head ‘Do you know that you are a witch?’ he asked me. I told him no, I am not a witch…” ‘He told me that I must confess or he will beat me, even as he slapped me immediately. He handed over a bottle of olive oil to me to be drinking at home. I was annoyed, and went and told my father so that he will arrest the pastor with police.

To his chagrin, his father merely told him that if he were a witch he would be cast out of the house. That was an understatement. After four days his father told him that they would travel home to see their relatives. The little lad was so elated by this offer. Did Nwanakwo and his father come back truly?

He told CRARN team who visited him at the UUTH in August that his father called a cyclist and whispered to him. They mounted on the bike and moved to a particular road that was bushy up to a distance where there were no houses and stopped there. His father took him inside the bush and pretended that he wanted to ease himself, while the cyclist waited. “He brought out a gallon from a sack bag and forced me on the ground, pressing my legs with his knees, he forced my mouth opened and poured acid into it. I cried and pleaded with him that I am his son; he shouted and called me a wizard and devil. He poured the acid on my face, head and body and ran away. Somebody came and took me to the police.” He said with a clear as is using a wireless microphone

Looking at Nwanakwo’s photograph, the acid burns are very glaring. The boy, who lost his mother four years ago, said he wants justice to prevail. “Even in my grave I want my father and Pastor King of Mouth Zion Light House, Urban to be arrested and brought to book.” The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of UUTH, Prof. Emmanuel Ekanem was contacted to know what measure has been taken to ensure that justice is done. “The Head of the Corporate Affairs Unit (UUTH) has contacted the Divisional Police Officer of Ikono LGA who said that his men have been drafted to investigate the matter …” the CMD had responded briefly.

This brutish act was committed in January this year, precisely eight months ago, and Nwanakwo died about four days ago. As at the time of writing this piece, there was no news as to the arrest of Nwanakwo’s father or Pastor King. Will justice ever be done?

Nwanakwo represents the hundreds or thousands of children in Akwa Ibom , Cross River, Bayelsa, Abia Rivers States, etc, who have suffered similar faith; either by being set on fire, thrown into the river to serve as delicious meal for the fish, buried alive, poisoned to death, slaughtered, hacked to death, pierced hot pokers into the anus, stoned to death, incarcerated and manacled in churches or prayer houses, sold to child traffickers or ritual syndicates, enslaved in brothels, strangled to death, starved, neglected, hung or suspended to die by piece-meal and or bathed with acid.

The rebranding of Nigeria is a project I so endeared and so I can die for it. But the rebranding has to start from the first rung of the ladder. The first rung is the children. The visit by the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Chief Godswill Akpabio to children at CRARN Centre where over 200 stigmatized or witch-branded are rehabilitated children is an inroad to this concept of rebranding. Therefore, all the undoing committed against these children must be addressed and redressed. The Childs Right Law should not be allowed to be sleeping in archives and libraries unattended to. Its spirit should be evoked and allowed to hound the phony pastors, fake evangelists, apostles and prophets. The Child Witch Inventors should not be allowed to continue in the hoodwinking business using the name of God and garnering criminal awe and reverence while children continue to suffer, the image of Christianity and Nigeria remain in the mud; they must face justice. There should be no sacred cow. This to me is rebranding! Rebranding should be an egg we cannot trifle with, if sincerity is anything to go by. Parents who give themselves up to be brainwashed by the renegade men of God thereby unleashing all sort of terror on children should be made to face the full weight of the law. To say that the rate of child-witch branding with its attendant consequences on children is alarming is making an understatement.

This is not enough; there must be a Special Implementation Committee saddled with the responsibility of monitoring the activities of churches, liaising with the police in ensuring the prosecution child’s right violators in the truest spirit of the law. But I am confident that where the conventional law take some doses of sedatives and remain drowsy, fidgeting or opt not to wake up at all, the natural justice will brave the storm and fish out the untouchable and the sacred cows. ‘Be not deceived, God is not mocked…’

You will agree with me that I have digressed a lot. So I hereby plead for amnesty. Yes Nwanakwo, in the spirit of rebranding should be immortalized! This will awaken the consciousness in our psyche that children, the world over, deserve special attention; not assault and battery, not machetes cut, not hot iron-branding, not hot water-bathing, not even violent exorcism, but love, good food, education and good health. And that no one should be religiously irreligious as this sometimes leads to ‘insanity’-so giving the urge to harm others, especially vulnerable children.

Nwana, my sole-friend, your death reminds me of the 9 year old Mary Effiong of Oruko, Oron axis who was slaughtered in a broad daylight in 2007 by his beloved daddy because an apostle of God revealed to him that his frequent arrest by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency-NAFDAC for trading in Indian hemp and hashes, was the handiwork of his daughter who was a witch. He was arrested; but pressure from the elite and the community made him to walk the street like Fidel Castro of Cuba while in office. Justice was not done! So for Nwanakwo, will justice ever be done?

Sam Ikpe-Itauma is the President,
Child’s Right and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN) Akwa Ibom State.

Kenya: Human Body Parts Don't Create Wealth

Nairobi — This week's kidnapping and eventual murder of a six-year-old Sudanese boy, Emmanuel Agwar Adar, in Nairobi was gory as it can be. But they rubbed it on cutting off his tongue.

Emmanuel's murder comes barely a month after the city's taxi drivers took to the streets to protest the murder of their six colleagues in mysterious circumstances.

The taxi men claimed all the victims had their private parts chopped off before being dumped in the outskirts of the city.

Although there was no official confirmation, the drivers' say these murders could be related to a mix of occult and extortion.

Witchcraft hasn't disappeared from African culture just as it refuses to go in the West. For centuries, human body parts have been used as ingredients for magical concoctions and charms. To obtain body parts, performers of these dark arts kill people in order to harvest specific organs for use in the occult.

Things haven't been easy for them with the advent of the nation-state in Africa where murder is a capital offence, meaning witchdoctors can only acquire these body parts from underground organ hunters.

Demand for human skin

Cases similar to that of the Kenyan drivers, where people disappear mysteriously, only for their bodies to be discovered several days later minus various body parts are so many in the continent today that they are treated as routine crimes in some countries.

According to the South African Police Service Research Centre reports, there is a belief that body parts taken from live victims are rendered more potent by their screams, which means victims must be subjected to pain before death.

Ritual killings have been reported in Mozambique where the country's Human Rights League has blamed them on the proliferation of witchdoctors from western Africa. Authorities have also confirmed that although most of the organs trafficked in that country are for transplants, extraction of organs for witchcraft purposes also happens.

Human skin appears to be one of the most sought-after things by ritual killers in Africa.

During the early 2000s, there were widespread cases of people being killed and skinned in Mbeya region of Tanzania and Mwiki outskirts of Nairobi. Investigations by the media and police revealed there was a high demand for human skin in Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, South Africa where it fetched $2,400 (Sh180,000) to $9,600 (Sh180,000) depending on the age of the victim. In an effort to raise awareness about the trade in human skin Tanzania's chief government chemist's office kicked up a storm at an international business fair in Dar es Salaam by displaying skin and other human body parts.

Nigeria has the highest number of occult killings in the continent. Not surprisingly, the vice has found thematic expression in the country's vibrant film industry. According to Nigerian authorities, the killings are perpetrated by people commonly known as headhunters, who act at the behest of juju men.

Murdered in London

Cases of children being abducted and ritually slaughtered are so many in southwest Nigeria that they sparked a spate of murderous protests and mob lynching early last year that left more than 20 suspected kidnappers dead.

The murder in London of a Nigerian kid, which British police named "Boy Adam" for lack of positive identification, in September 2001, brought to international attention to Nigeria's ritual killings.

Forensic examinations on Adam's torso, found floating in River Thames, revealed that he was a native of Yoruba Plateau in Nigeria and the state of the cadaver indicated a style of ritual killing practised in West and Southern Africa.

Although this case came about barely ten days after the September 11 terrorist attack on the US, it prompted such a huge media coverage that retired South African President Nelson Mandela and Nigerian soccer star Nwanko Kanu joined the rest of the world in appeals for clues leading to the arrest of Adam killers.

But even after the arrest of 22 West Africans in Britain and an aggressive campaign by Metropolitan police in Nigeria to track down the boy's mother, the case was never resolved.

A confidential report by the police afterwards established that children were being trafficked into the UK from Africa and used for human sacrifice. The report also claimed that "for spells to be powerful it required a sacrifice of a male child unblemished by circumcision".

Increased unemployment, poverty, food shortages, famines and greed for money are some of the reasons blamed for the recent surge of deaths attributed to human sacrifice in Uganda. The frequency of the killings is especially high in the country's poor north and eastern regions.

Although in 2008 alone more than 300 cases of ritual related murders cases were reported to the police, only 18 of them made it to the courts. The situation was made worse by the fact that several of the high-profile suspects arrested in these cases were parents and relatives of the children victims.

"My experience working with victims suggests that the perpetrators are greedy people who want to get rich quick. In rural areas, people can sacrifice their own child. In urban areas, educated and rich people will look for somebody else's," says Elena Lomeli, a volunteer with the British charity VSO.

The situation has been so bad that in January 2009, the Ugandan government appointed a special police taskforce on human sacrifice and announced that 2,000 officers were to receive special training in tackling child trafficking with the support of US government.

These incidences have prompted Bakayambira, a renowned Kampala theatre group, to come up with a production called Baffesa Iwa feza. In the midst of its humour, the production carries a strong condemnation of ritual killings. However, all these murders take a backseat compared to the killings of albinos in Tanzania.

Believed to have magical powers to attract wealth in a short time, albino body parts are a hot commodity for sorcery and witchcraft in that country.

Derogatorily referred to as zeru, ghost in Kiswahili, people with the pigmentation defect in Tanzania are not, in certain cases, safe even among members of their own families.

A 35-year-old man in Lake Tanganyika was accused of trying to sell his 24-year-old wife to Congolese businessmen for $2,000 (Sh150,000) while in Mwanga District a mother was alleged to have sold her albino baby girl to a group of men who slaughtered her and drunk her blood.

Danger lurks everywhere

"They are cutting us up like chickens. Our biggest fear now is the fear of living. If you leave work at night as an albino you are unsure of reaching home safely. When you sleep you are unsure of waking up in one piece. In the streets you hear people plotting how they can get you," lamented Zihada Msembo, Tanzanian Albino Society secretary general.

The case of Elizabeth Hussein, a 13-year-old girl from Shinyanga, is a testimony to the plight of albinos in Tanzania.

After leaving home alone to watch a film about Jesus in the village centre, the girl had signed her own death warrant. On her way back, she was waylaid and hacked to bits by a machete-wielding mob.

Official reports in Tanzania indicate that 35 albinos were murdered in 2008, mostly women and children, but leaders in the Tanzanian albinism community believe the number of deaths could be higher. The situation is so bad in some areas that children with this genetic defect have to be escorted to and fro school by community or government bodyguards.

Even in death they are not safe. Heavy rocks have to be placed on graves to deter grave robbers.

The growth of mining and fishing activities in the Lake Victoria regions of Mwanza, Shinyanga and Mara regions has led to a sudden rise in demand of albino body parts. Besides the three regions being known for witchcraft, some miners and fishermen believe that albino body parts cause instant success.

Fishermen for instance, have this macabre belief that if they weave strands of red albino hair into their nets, fish will be attracted by the glimmer. Although poverty and ignorance are the major causes of these barbaric acts, Nigerian films are being accused of touting the efficacy of witchcraft.

Reports also indicate that albino body parts harvested in Tanzania are being exported to neighbouring countries where they fetch higher prices. In one instance last year, a Tanzanian trader was intercepted travelling to the Democratic Republic of Congo with an albino baby head in his luggage. On further questioning the man confessed that a businessman was going to pay for the head by its weight. In North America and Europe one in 20,000 people have some form of albinism but in Tanzania it's five times as common with one in 4,000 being albinos.

Although various sources put the number of albinos in the country at around 300,000, the WHO says the number hardly exceeds 170,000.

The wave of killing sprees has led to many albinos seeking refuge in the remote Ukerewe Island on the shores of Lake Victoria where murders are rare. Albinism is a hereditary lack of melanin pigment which protects the skin, eyes, and hair from the sun's ultraviolet rays. But there is a myth in the lake region that a mineral in a native fish causes the high levels of albinism.

Al-Shaymaa Kwegyir, Tanzania's first albino MP, launched a spirited campaign in 2008 to sensitize the public on these heinous acts.

In October 2008, albinos staged a demonstration in the city of Dar es Salaam to raise awareness and many people supported it. But that same evening one of the demonstrators was followed home by unknown assailants who chopped off her hands and left her for dead. It's that bad.

During his monthly television addresses to the nation Preside nt Jakaya Kikwete has dwelt on the issue at length in several occasions, urging Tanzanians "to discard superstitious beliefs and shortcuts to wealth" and instructing the police to crackdown on traditional healers involved in the albino killings. May 4 is National Albino Day in Tanzania and draws representatives with albinism from Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Senegal, South Africa and United Kingdom.

During last year's Albino Day forum in Dar, the Albino Association of Kenya chairman, Alex Munyere, urged Tanzanian authorities to stop the killings before they spread to Kenya.

However, albinos in Burundi, affected by the killing wave in Tanzania, got a moral boost when eight men charged with killing albinos in the town of Ruyigi were sentenced to life imprisonment.

"I think it will reduce the amount of attacks on albinos in our country," Mr Kazungu Kassim, spokesman for Burundi albinos, told journalists.

The stature of ritual murders and witchcraft in the past was reinforced by the rise of leaders like Jean-Bidel Bokassa and Idi Amin who, from their public utterances and evidence discovered in their homes after their ouster, had an affinity for human body parts.

Although the reason for ritual killing is squarely blamed on witchcraft, ignorance, poverty, greed for money and power, the quest to overcome diseases like HIV/Aids also contributes to the escalation of this barbarism.

In Swaziland for instance, a country weighed down by intricate traditions and superstitions, police and the press have reported an upswing in ritual murders during electioneering periods.

"It's a form of sympathetic magic where the life force of the victim is sacrificed to give power to the recipient" says Dr Thandie Malepe, director of the National Psychiatric Centre in Manzini, the country's commercial capital.

allAfrica.com

Witch Doctors, 5 Others Sentenced To Life For Murder

The Meme High Court, Presided over by Justice Emmanuel Mbando Ngoe, recently slammed a life term on six persons for murder. A seventh person was sentenced to death by hanging.
Five of the convicted persons are members of a family. They are a 49-year-old widow, Margaret Asongo, Jonas Ndungakeu, 34, Vincent Ndungakeu Njukang, 39, and Aloysius Asonganyi Njukang, 50.

The judgment also sentenced a certain Patrick Mbah Musi, a 38-year-old native doctor, to death, by hanging. But he is said to have escaped prison before his death sentence was pronounced. His friend, Moses Che Ngunu, 69, was sentenced to life for being an accomplice in murder.
The Post learnt that, sometime in 2007, Asongo's daughter took ill. Her condition deteriorated in spite of the medical attention accorded her in their Small Ekombe, Mbonge Sub Division residence.

According to sources, Asongo, who is second wife to her deceased husband, suspected that her husband's sister, Pauline Ngu, was responsible for her daughter's illness. Following trades of accusations in the family, Asongo's step-son, Aloysius Tazizong, reportedly suggested that they should invite a witch doctor to determine the cause of the girl's sickness.
Tazizong is said to have invited Musi to the family residence, while the latter took his friend, Moses Che, for assistance.

The Post gathered that the native doctor told the family that he would prepare a concoction for oath-taking and whoever is responsible for the child's sickness would die instantly. The family members allegedly agreed to the condition. Musi thus allegedly prepared a duck sauce, and after the meal, Pa Ngu and Pauline Ngu died instantly.

Tazizong is said to have reported the matter to forces of law and order who immediately arrested Asongo and the other family members, including the native doctor and his friend.
After a post mortem, a medical doctor at the Kumba District Hospital disclosed that the duck sauce contained some poisonous substance that killed the two persons. After several appearances in court, the seven accused declared guilty of murdering two persons, according to Section 276 of the Cameroon Penal Code.

Appeal

But, following the judgment, one of the Defence Lawyers, Barrister Alfred Forba, disclosed that they will appeal the judgement. He said Tazizong brought Musi for the oath-taking but he was not an accused person in the matter.

Besides, he said the duck sauce wasn't poisonous because over 23 people ate of it but didn't die. "This shows that the two deceased were witches," he stated. Forba held that the medical doctor never conducted a post mortem on Pa Ngu and Pauline Ngu, but concluded superficially that they died of poison

ICI Cemac

Witch-doctors 'hunt children to sacrifice to dead tribal chief'

PARENTS in a remote part of eastern Zimbabwe are keeping their children at home for fear one of them will be abducted and killed as a human sacrifice.

The case has opened up debate on ritual killings and witchcraft in this still deeply divided southern African country.

Despite denials from local officials, some villagers in Makoni district claim ritual killers have been moving around looking for a victim who will be buried alongside the late tribal chief of the area, Naboth Gandanzara Makoni.

"Someone has to be sacrificed and serve as his pillow," sources told the state-controlled Manica Post newspaper. Worryingly, police are not saying a thing.

Burial practices for the reclusive Makoni clan are normally shrouded in secrecy. But delays in burying the mummified chief – who is believed to have died more than 11 months ago – and fights over who will succeed him appear to have led villagers to speak openly for the first time.

Pupils at St Luke's Primary School have been told to move about in groups for their own safety, the Manica Post has reported. The school is near to where the chief's body is being embalmed.

A Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) official said claims a child would be killed were not true. "There is nothing like that," the official, who is from Makoni, told The Scotsman. "But in our culture we do not say when the chief died." The official said the chief would most likely be buried next month.

Still, locals are worried. "Please stop these traditional killers," one reader wrote to the Manica Post. Another parent wrote in to say that his 14-year-old daughter had disappeared, though from the central Gweru area and not from Makoni.

In the past, Makoni families from whom a child was taken for such sacrifice would be rewarded with land, or one of the chief's daughters would be handed over in marriage to a relative of the murdered child, by way of recompense.

With a strong tradition of mission schools, Zimbabwe has a population that is more than 80 per cent Christian. But many also believe in spirits, particularly in the countryside.

Witches and goblins make headline news, even in the stuffy, propaganda-riddled official Herald daily.

Zimbabwe was kept agog in June by the tale of 21-year-old Regina Sveto, who claimed she had flown naked in a winnowing basket for 75 miles on a supernatural mission to kill her brother-in-law. A Harare magistrate handed her a one-year suspended jail sentence and ordered her to get help to escape a "spell" that had been cast on her. The brother-in-law got away.

Witch-hunters are also doing a roaring business, taking cattle and goats as payment from often impoverished villagers as they identify witches in rural communities. A 19-year-old girl from Goromonzi was raped by a so-called witch-hunter. The respected Traditional Medicines Practitioners' Council says the tsikamutandas have to register before they can practise.

Last week, stallholders at a flea market in Bulawayo beat up a man they said was having mubobobo or "supernatural sex" with female shoppers.

The Scotsman

BAUCHI: THE NEXT WAR

...Warning! If you’re a witch or wizard, do not go near Bauchi, else…

If you are a witch or a wizard, do not come anywhere near “Dr” Moses Amos Innocent Tafari.
Tafari whose fame is spreading in Bauchi State humiliates and casts out spirits of witchcraft and other satanic powers from people.
Not just that, he ensures that such persons are certified “clean” before they are released from his grip.

In fact, suspects of witchcraft after confession must be given a certificate of being “clean” before they are discharged.
In Tafari’s kingdom, witchcrafts are in bondage.
When Daily Sun visited Hope Medial Centre in Yelwa Kagadama area of Bauchi Metropolis where Tafari operates from, the place was a beehive of activities.

It was like a market, no, like a rally of sort. Hundreds are waiting for their problems to be solved. They come from far and near with their families for succour. Many told Daily Sun that Tafari was capable of bringing back smiles to their faces again.

He not only casts out witchcraft and other demonic spirits from persons possessed,, Tafari claims to have the power to heal any kind of diseases.
From the high and mighty, irrespective of religion or sex, Tafari’s fame is spreading beyond Bauchi State as people throng his centre from far and near looking for cure to different afflictions.
“A lot of people gather here because of the healing that I do,” 32 year old Tafari told Daily Sun.
His centre consists of eight rooms. The entrance door leads you to another room opposite, perhaps the ninth room. This is where Tafari uses as his office.

The building is not plastered. There are no beds in the centre. No pipe bore water.
In an exclusive interview with Daily Sun, Tafari discloses how he came about his power.
He also says some Pentecostal churche pastors who get their power from the marine world are after his life, even as he boasts, however, that he is stronger than such “evil pastors”.

Excerpts:

How I got my power
We were triplets. God gave me and my two brothers the talent to heal since we were children. It started when we were seven years old. The three of us were going to the stream in our village when we saw a cow tied to a tree. We ran back home to tell our parents and when people came out, they did not see the cow, instead they saw a man who was possessed by witchcraft tied to a tree. So they said we did not see any cow, but a man. Then one of my three triplet brothers, Usseini ran to tell someone called Sarki Wari that was well known man in the village that was tied by spiritual forces. His name is Ciroma Tafari. Sarki Wari now said “Hassan,” which is me, “go and untie him.” So I went and untied him. After I untied him, he became normal and since then, many people started coming to us with different kinds of ailments especially spiritual attacks and were cured.

They brought people attacked spiritually and we healed them. If anybody has any spiritual problem, no matter how many clothes you put on, as soon as you come to my centre, I see it. There was a time when many people were coming to us for cure and one day as the three of us were asleep, someone, a man with Takobi (sword) and white clothes appeared to us and showed us a tree (Itacen Kpauri) and he asked us to use the leaves. Anytime people come with ailments, when we give them the leaves, they get cured. In many cases, they brought a child unconscious but when we give him that leaf, he recovered. The healing was amazing. So from then we went into the bush to get different leaves to cure people suffering from all kinds o diseases. If there is any incurable disease, I go to a quiet place to pray or meditate quietly and this same man in white clothes would come to me and tell me what to do to heal that person. That is how we are doing it and many people are coming to us for help.

So where are your two brothers?

One is a naval officer and the other one is in South Africa. The one in South Africa is also doing this healing business.

Do you get attacks because of what you do?
Truly, I receive several attacks. I get attacks from different people even from pastors from Pentecostal churches who get their healing powers from secret societies and marine powers. There was one that was brought to me. I went to the stream when they brought him that he wanted to kill Fatalwa, that this fatalwa was entering the church to kill people. I went there and after praying, thunder from heaven broke the fatalwa. When I left the church, the pastor came to attack me. The vehicle that brought me was destroyed. The driver of the vehicle died and many people were injured. Nothing happened to me. He followed me home again. But by God’s grace, with prayer, he couldn’t harm me. I was sitting last week when they brought him that he was confessing. His stomach was swollen. He confessed that he wanted to kill me but the whole thing reversed to his head. I told him that I don’t plan evil against anyone. I am always practicing Alheri (good deeds) and Alheri is hard to get but wickedness is easy to find.

Where are your parents?
My father is a pastor in Nubanki, in Kogi State. They are under RCC Tafawa Balewa but now they have a new RCC Marti.I am from Tafare in Lere district of Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area.

What is your level of education?
I attended BSS, Gindiri and Health Technology, Pankshin, Plateau State.

Are you married?
Yes

How many children do you have?
I got married less than a year ago. I am yet to have any child.

How many people come to you daily for cure?
I can’t count the number of people. On Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays are days that people can see me. The other days, I am in my village where I have another centre. There are patients that outnumber the ones you see here. So I usually go there some days to heal them.

Is there any amount you charge them for healing?
I have oil that I give to them like “Back to Sender,” “Fully Life Power,” “Seven Powers,” “Goodluck,” “Stop Evil,” “Open Road,” different kind of them. I usually charge them a token for. Sometimes, some would tell me they don’t have money, I still give them the oil and they come back to thank me after being cured.

Do you have people coming outside the state to see you for help?
Yes. A lot of people come from Adamawa, Jigawa, Maiduguri.

What kind of cases do you tackle?
I deal with cases such as witchcraft. As you can see, the people chained are witches and wizards. Many of them initiated children into things that are improper. I don’t let them go until they confess. I give them certificate to show they have been cured of witchcraft before I discharge them.

Don’t they attack you?
As for me, if I am casting witchcraft, they always attempt to attack me. But where I am stronger than them is I use ‘back to sender’ oil. This medicine is very powerful and helpful. I don’t put any leaf in the water I use to caste out witchcraft from the person possessed by it. This oil is what I put in water, I pray and drink. If anyone has witchcraft, or is a wizard, they will confess. Sometimes some of the witches and wizards put bottle or pot on their necks, I remove them practically. You don’t have to see it with spiritual eyes. You will see the bottle or the pot removed from them with your physical eyes.

Have you ever had a special case that has disturbed you or made you uncomfortable?
Yes. There was a case that disturbed me so much but God in His infinite mercies helped me. I traveled to Abuja and one of my triplet brothers, Aaron Haruna who is now in South Africa. We look alike. When he gave drug to one man called Baba Richard from Gudum. He confessed and after taking the drug, he died. I just came almost the same time and I was arrested by the police. I went to CID and explained to them. Fortunately there was an agreement which was signed by my brother and the deceased that he would accept anything that happened if he drinks the drug, especially if he was a wizard. There were a lot of witnesses. After he took the drug, Baba Richard confessed and died. I spent 53 days in detention. I started dry fasting on Wednesday and I told the inmates that I would be out on Saturday. They did not believe me. That Saturday, I could not stand up because I refused to eat or drink for three days. On Saturday, I felt a heavy wind blew and told me to stand up that I was going to be released I stood up . As I did this, I heard the Chief Judge, Justice Habibu Idris Shal calling me to come over that I was about to be released.. My inmates were amazed. I was also amazed. I would never forget.

Why haven’t you opened a church?
The reason is because my power here is not strong for that. But I have been praying to open a church soon.

Is there any particular problem you are battling with in your activities?
The problem I am battling with is the rampant spiritual problems affecting particularly women. Most women Muslims whose husbands practice polygamy are facing serious spiritual attacks. I want to advise that people should stop attacking their mates. Most of the time, it is the mothers that send these attacks to their daughters’ mates in their homes because they don’t want their daughters to share their husbands with other women.

You see, this is very pitiable. I advise parents to fear God and desist from it. Government should assist me because a lot of people are coming here for healing but this place is becoming too small to accommodate them. Some of them feel they have been abandoned because the truth is there is not enough space to accommodate all. I try my best but the oil and other things I use to heal is always finishing and I buy them from Jos. I also want to advise Christians and Muslims to shun bitterness. Some out of malice would accuse the other person of being the cause of his problems. There is sickness called Makareni. It can take your face to the other person or bring the other person’s face to you and cause damage in the house or family. So witch craft does do this.

The Sun News On-line