Old Women Accused of Being Witches Live in Poor Conditions – Committee

Chairman of the Alleged Witches Reintegration Committee, Sheik Dr. Al-hussein Zakaria, has decried the poor human rights situation in which inmates of the various witch camps in the Northern Region have found themselves.

 

According to him, there were witches and witchcraft activities everywhere in the world including Europe, Asia and Africa but wondered why suspected witches in Ghana often went through dehumanizing treatment at the hands of family members and their communities.

Speaking at to members of the Northern Region House of Chiefs at a day’s stakeholders meeting in Tamale, Sheik Zakaria said it was a disgrace to the whole Northern society to have witch camps where foreigners and other people went to watch them and write stories about them.

He outlined plans being put in place by the Committee to address challenges in the witch camps, some of which included sensitization of communities, media campaign, meeting with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection to show interest in the plight of inmates, registration of inmates with the National Health Insurance Scheme and among others.

The meeting was organized by Songtaba and NORSAAC in collaboration with Plan International Ghana and OXFAM with funding support from STAR-Ghana and its partners such as the European Union, DANIDA and UKAID.

It sought to create awareness about the rampant witchcraft accusations and its associated challenges impeding the disbandment of the various witch camps in the region.

The meeting also sought to seek the support of the chiefs and queen mothers on how they could effectively assist Songtaba and its partner organisations to fight the problem of witchcraft accusations and other issues such as child marriage and teenage pregnancy.

Currently, there are five alleged witch camps dotted across remote and poor communities in the Northern Region. The camps are Gnani and Kpatinga camps in the Yendi Municipality, Kukuo in Nanumba North District, Gambaga in East Mamprusi District and Nabuli in Gusheigu District. 

Three hundred and forty (340) old women alleged to be witches live in these camps with the Gnani camp having 131 women, Kukuo, 68, Kpatinga 41, Nabuli 34 and Gambaga 66.  Between 2010 and 2017, about 198 women have been facilitated by the Alleged Witches Reintegration Committee to go back home and live peacefully with their families and communities.

The Executive Director of Songtaba, Hajia Lamnatu Adam, pleaded with the chiefs and queen mothers to support the efforts of her organization and partners to end the issue of witchcraft accusations and child marriages in the region.

“At the various paramountcies we have camps around. We’ve been to Gusheigu, we’ve been to Wulensi and Sagnarigu chief palace. And so therefore we want to urge that our queen mothers to add their voice to the effort we’re making”, she stressed.

Contributing to discussions during the open session of the meeting, Paramount Chief of the Sagnarigu Traditional Area, Naa Yakubu Abdulai, advocated that chiefs should be made to sign an undertaking and publicly declare their support to end child marriages as well as witchcraft accusations and other forms of abuse in their jurisdictions.

This was a direct response to Songtaba and NORSAAC to pass a new byelaw that would be adopted and implemented by all metropolitan, municipal and District Assemblies in the Northern Region to end dehumanizing customary practices, servitude, trial by ordeal, banishment, harassment and persecution based on allegations of suspicion or other social health conditions.

Naa Abdulai also urged the organisers of the meeting and their partners to educate chiefs, queen mothers and other traditional leaders on existing laws of the state that prohibited the violation of human rights including the rights of children and other vulnerable persons. 

Songtaba is a women and children’s rights organisation based in Tamale in the Northern Region of Ghana. For the past 10 years, Songtaba and its partners have been in the forefront of campaigning against witchcraft accusations as well as advocated for their wellbeing and welfare, an effort that has contributed significantly to the reintegration and empowerment of some of the accused women.