Political will and witchcraft accusations in Ghana
In the wake of the lynching of Madam Akua Denteh and other attempted killings in the former Northern Regions, The Sanneh Institute undertook research and data gathering into witch-hunting and the “witch camps” in the north.
The research established the existence of six “witch camps”, all in the Northern and Northeastern Regions. Most victims in the camps are from the Konkomba ethnic group (60%), followed by Dagomba (37%), Mamprusi (1%) Bimoba (1%) and others (1%).
Most of the women in the camps have severe physical scars and some have lost limps from machete attacks, not to mention the hidden mental and emotional scars. In all the camps, except Gushegu, traditional priests (known as tendanas) perform rituals to detect who is a witch and to “exorcise” the victims.
It was obvious from the research that the rituals constitute witch-hunting, the tendanas the principal witch-hunters, and the camps serve as witch-hunting grounds. The priests also serve as gatekeepers of the camps.
![IT must be one of the most difficult – and exasperating – tasks in the world to be the President of a nation like Ghana. For you may travel all over4 the world, talking to the leaders of “the developed nations”, to try persuade them that the pandemic that is afflicting the world, Covid-19 (with its variants) is a truly global destroyer and thatnowhere is safe from it, until everywhere is safe. You may deploy your most eloquent language to point out that although, the scientists of the “developed countries” have managed to manufacture a vaccine that has been seen to work against the pandemic, the politicians of the “developed countries” are, contrary to undertakings they have made to the World Health Organisation (WHO) hoarding the vaccine in their countries. Reports suggest that whereas the governments of the “developed countries” are targeting 100 percent of their populace for vaccination, and getting closer to their objective every day, less than 10% of the populace of the developing countries have so far been vaccinated, as a result of a lack of vaccines. Is this fair? you ask. Air travel (you continue) has made international contacts extremely easy. And since the Covid-19 virus and its latest variant (Omicron) in particOman Ghana versus Covid-19 08 www.ghanaiantimes.com.gh GHANAIAN Times Features TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2021ular, are very transmissible. So it is in everyone's educated self-interest to see that all people on the planet are fully vaccinated. As a result of your Government's efforts, you hear that plenty of vaccines have arrived in your country and you are emboldened to announce that your Government will soon be able to vaccinate its entire adult population. Then, you get the shock of your life: an intelligence report tells you that some mischievous people are spreading the fake news that if a person allows himself or herself to be vaccinated, the “vaccine will make that person vote for your governing NPP whether he/she wants to do so or not!” WHAAAAT! How does one counter such fake news? If the Government say it is not true, the conspiracy theorists shoot back, “And are you so naïve as to expect them to admit that the vaccine will make you vote for the NPP?” Wow! Are people so wicked that despite the gains that the world has already made through vaccination (such as the elimination of small pox from the world and the near-extinction of polio and yellow fever) they try to dissuade others from taking advantage of anti-Covid vaccination? Especially since people who are clever enough to invent such fake news must know of the horrible pain that Covid-19 subjects people to, before it finally kills them? What makes the anti-Covid vaccination story doubly awful is that its seeds are sown on pre-fertilised ground. In the past, some wicked scientists in the developed countries have allowed themselves to be used by their [usually racist] governments to administer harmful vaccines and other medications to people, using the lie that such interventions can save them from certain disease. One of the most devastating such deceptions occurred in the United States in 1932. Below is the horrible story as told on the OFFICIAL website of the US CENTRES FOR DISEASE CONTROL [CDC]: https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm QUOTE: THE U.S. PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE SYPHILIS STUDY AT TUSKEGEE In 1932, the USPHS, [US Public Health Service] working with the Tuskegee Institute, began a study to record the natural history of syphillis. It was originally called the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphillis in the Negro Male” (sic) [now referred to as the “USPHS Syphilis Study at Tuskegee”]. The study initially involved 600 Black men — 399 with syphillis, 201 who did not have the disease. Participants’ informed consent was not collected. Researchers told the men they were being treated for “bad blood,” a local term used to describe several ailments, including syphillis, anaemia, and fatigue. In exchange for taking part in the study, the men received free medical exams, free meals, and burial insurance (sic)! By 1943, penicillin was the treatment of choice for syphilis and becoming widely available, but the participants in the study were not offered treatment. In 1972, an Associated Press story about the study was published. As a result, the Assistant Secretary for Health and Scientific Affairs appointed an Ad Hoc Advisory Panel to review the study. The advisory panel concluded that the study was “ethically unjustified”; that is, the “results [were] disproportionately meagre, compared with known risks to [the] human subjects involved.” In March 1973, the panel advised the Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to instruct the USPHS to provide all necessary medical care for the survivors of the study. The Tuskegee Health Benefit Programme was established to provide these services and in 1975, participants’ wives, widows and children were added to the program. In 1995, the program was expanded to include health, as well as medical, benefits. The last study participant died in January 2004. The last widow receiving THBP benefits died in January 2009. ... I973, a class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of the study participants and their families, resulting in a $10 million, out-of-court settlement in 1974. On May 16, 1997, President Bill Clinton issued a formal Presidential Apology [over the study.] UNQUOTE In Ghana, the fake news that the anti-Covid vaccine would make people “vote for the NPP” has already begun to cause disagreements in some households. A family known to me has had to dismiss its house-help because she obstinately refused to take the jab. To illustrate the way the way the political message contained in the fake news has been camouflaged, I offer a version of the last conversation between the head of the household and the house-help: BOSS: Hey, “A”, you are very lucky! Instead of you going around to look for the vaccinators, they are coming to our estate! HOUSE-HELP: They are coming here? B: Yes! H: But Boss, I told you that my brother took the jab and had to be admitted into hospital. B: It doesn't mean that you too will become ill if you get the jab. It affects different people in different ways. Look, as you know, I have had all my own jabs and I have never been ill – as you know! H: But Boss, if you have taken all your jabs, then you are PROTECTED, are you not? B: Yes, I am. H: In that case, even if I become infected because I have not taken the jab, I cannot transmit the disease to you and YOU will be all right? B: I can't say that! Because, as I have explained to you, the pandemic can affect different people in different ways. H: Then the jab is useless? B: Listen, I can't take any risks with such a dangerous disease. Either you take it or you leave, I am sorry. I cannot allow you to expose me and my family to the risk of catching Covid. As I reported earlier, the House-help chose to leave. Both her Boss and I are convinced that it wasn't mere logicthat made her decide not to take the jab. She was probably under the influence of a church/cult. Or political propaganda! • Omicron cases at Kotoka International Airport are amongst the unvaccinated](https://ghanaiantimes.com.gh/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/GT-8.pdf-Adobe-Acrobat-Pro-DC-4-220x150.jpg)
Conditions in the camps range from deplorable to desperate. In Gushegu, victims feed themselves by gathering spilled grain from the ground in local markets.
Abuses at the camps include rape, multiple exploitations (forced labor and diversion of relief aid), as well as verbal and emotional abuse. Child marriage in the host communities of young minders and dependents from the camps is common.
Despite some efforts by government institutions, huge sums of monies spent on conferences and visits to the camps, as well as the best efforts of NGOs, civil society and religious organizations, not much has been achieved in reducing witch-hunting or addressing issues around the witch camps. On the contrary, accusations are on the rise as is the population of the camps! Clearly, something radical needs to be done.
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
Part of the reasons for the lack of progress is the uncritical acceptance of some prevailing attitudes. Some of these include: We don’t
need a new law specifically addressing witchcraft accusations. Passing a law will not stop the practice. The witch camps are safe-havens and should not be disbanded. The women do not want to leave the camps.
The camps “should be rebranded.” Firstly, laws are meant to punish crime, not to stop crime. Secondly, existing laws address incidents such as attacks after accusations. The root cause, however, is the accusation which needs to be addressed on its own through legislation.
The Sanneh Institute has therefore petitioned Parliament to pass a law criminalizing witchcraft accusation and witch-hunting.
Such a law will shift the burden of proof currently placed on the accused to prove their innocence, onto the accuser to provide proof in a court of law for accusing or attacking someone as a witch. The law will also contribute to creating a safe environment and confidence for the victims in the camps to return to their homes.
How about the camps? The witch camps are a double-edged sword. As stated already, the camps are bases for with-hunting and the tendanas are the principal witch-hunters. The camps and the role of the tendanas is like someone helping to set your house on fire and turning around to offer you a place to stay for them to treat your burns! But most of the women don’t want to leave the camps, goes the common refrain. This is true.
It has to be said that often, the question is posed to the women in the presence of the gatekeepers, i.e. the tendanas, their representatives or some NGO and Church workers at the camp. Some of these people have vested interest in the perpetual existence of the camps.
Some of the women have been schooled and/or scared into staying in the camps. Others choose to stay because of the relief aid while others are genuinely afraid to return home for fear of their accusers and attackers.
WHAT ABOUT THE CONSTITUTION?
In my view, questions related to the camps should not be whether these are safe-havens or not, or whether the victims want to leave the camps or not. The question should rather be whether the camps are in breach of Ghana’s constitutions or not.
Article 14 of the 1992 Constitution talks about protection of personal liberty and states in Clause 1: “every person shall be entitled to his personal liberty and no person shall be deprived of his personal liberty” except by court order, infectious or contagious disease.
Clearly, the women in the camps have been deprived of their personal liberties.
Article 15 outlines respect for human dignity, stating inter alia, “the dignity of all persons shall be inviolable,” and that no person shall be subjected to “any other condition that detracts or is likely to detract from his dignity and worth as a human being.” No one will dispute that the conditions in the camps violate the dignity of the women.
Article 17(1) declares that. “All persons shall be equal before the law” and that “A person shall not be discriminated against on grounds of gender, race, colour, ethnic origin, religion, creed or social or economic status,” (Clause 2).
Obviously, the accusers and attackers who continue to roam freely in the villages are above the law, and the pattern of accusations constitute a clear discrimination against the women because of their gender.
Article 18 (2) states that “No person shall be subjected to interference with the privacy of his home, property, correspondence or communication” except in accordance with law, public safety and health, the prevention of disorder or crime.
Yet, for years the women in the camps have been deprived of their farms and other property in their villages and driven out of their homes. The women in the camps have been rejected as outcasts by families and communities which make the camps human dumpsters rather than safe havens.
Finally, the 1992 Constitution stipulates in Article 26(2) that “All customary practices which dehumanise or are injurious to the physical and mental well-being of a person are prohibited.” Article 39(2) “The State shall ensure … that traditional practices which are injurious to the health and well-being of the person are abolished.”
Witchcraft accusations and the camps are deeply rooted in culture and tradition and no one can dispute the fact that life in the camps dehumanizes and is injurious to the health and well-being of the inmates.
Article 37(2b) demands that the State shall enact appropriate laws for “the protection and promotion of all other basic human rights and freedoms, including the rights of the disabled, the aged, children and other vulnerable groups.”
Enacting a law that criminalizes witch-hunting and disbands the witch camps will protect the rights
PROF. JOHN AZUMAH
