"Nigeria is a land with fast growing Christian and Muslim communities. Almost 62 million Nigerians are Christians. In addition to mainstream Christian churches, there are many local evangelical and Pentecostal churches that blend aspects of Christianity with tribal religious traditions. Some of these communities, such as the Liberty Foundation Gospel church, have a strong sense of possession and witchcraft.
Some pastors of these churches are helping to create a tragic campaign of violence against children. Children and babies branded as evil are being abused, abandoned and even murdered on the charge of being witches, while some of these preachers make money out of the fear of their parents and their communities by charging for a deliverance from possession.
Twin boys Itohowo and Kufre stand surrounded by angry villagers who believe they are bringing evil to their lives (Robin Hammond/The Observer)
(Below are some of the stories of children harmed as witches recorded in a recent article by Tracy McVeigh for Britain’s Guardian newspaper. You can find her video report at Child ‘Witches in Africa’. (See also Children of Nigeria for horrific pictures which convey the gravity of the situation).
“ But an exploitative situation has now grown into something much more sinister as preachers are turning their attentions to children - naming them as witches. In a maddened state of terror, parents and whole villages turn on the child. They are burnt, poisoned, slashed, chained to trees, buried alive or simply beaten and chased off into the bush.
Some parents scrape together sums needed to pay for a deliverance - sometimes as much as three or four months' salary for the average working man - although the pastor will explain that the witch might return and a second deliverance will be needed. Even if the parent wants to keep the child, their neighbours may attack it in the street.
………. Mary Sudnad, 10, grimaces as her hair is pulled into corn rows by Agnes, 11, but the scalp just above her forehead is bald and blistered. Mary tells her story fast, in staccato, staring fixedly at the ground.
'My youngest brother died. The pastor told my mother it was because I was a witch. Three men came to my house. I didn't know these men. My mother left the house. Left these men. They beat me.' She pushes her fists under her chin to show how her father lay, stretched out on his stomach on the floor of their hut, watching. After the beating there was a trip to the church for 'a deliverance'.
A day later there was a walk in the bush with her mother. They picked poisonous 'asiri' berries that were made into a draught and forced down Mary's throat. If that didn't kill her, her mother warned her, then it would be a barbed-wire hanging. Finally her mother threw boiling water and caustic soda over her head and body, and her father dumped his screaming daughter in a field. Drifting in and out of consciousness, she stayed near the house for a long time before finally slinking off into the bush.Mary was seven. She says she still doesn't feel safe. She says: 'My mother doesn't love me.' And, finally, a tear streaks down her beautiful face.
Gerry was picked out by a 'prophetess' at a prayer night and named as a witch. His mother cursed him, his father siphoned petrol from his motorbike tank and spat it over his eight-year-old face. Gerry's facial blistering is as visible as the trauma in his dull eyes. He asks every adult he sees if they will take him home to his parents: 'It's not them, it's the prophetess, I am scared of her.'
Nwaekais about 16. She sits by herself in the mud, her eyes rolling, scratching at her stick-thin arms. The other children are surprisingly patient with her. The wound on her head where a nail was driven in looks to be healing well.
Nine- year-old Etido had nails, too, five of them across the crown of his downy head. Its hard to tell what damage has been done. Udo, now 12, was beaten and abandoned by his mother. He nearly lost his arm after villagers, finding him foraging for food by the roadside, saw him as a witch and hacked at him with machetes.
What can we do?
....Write to the mainstream churches in Nigeria urging these Churches to speak out forcefully. The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria might also be written to as many of the churches involved in this issue are loosely affiliated as Pentecostal. One could also write to the founder of one of the churches engaged in the condemnation of Children – the Liberty Foundation Gospel Church.
You could also contact your local churches and urge them to look into the issue.
Catholic
Most Rev. Felix Alaba Job
President of the Nigerian Catholic bishops Conference
c/- Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria
6, Force Road,
P.O. Box 951, Lagos, Nigeria
Fax: 01-2636680
E-mail:Cathsecl@infoweb.abs.net
Anglican
The Venerable Akintunde A. Popoola
24 Douala Street, Wuse Zone 5,
Abuja,
Nigeria.
OR
Mrs Helen Ukpabio
Liberty Gospel Church Headquarters
Behind Desan House off Ndidem Usang Iso Road
Calabar, Cross River State
Nigeria.
OR
Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria
c/o Redeemed Evangelical Mission
Oshodi Apapa Expressway
Ijesha,Surulere,Lagos,
Nigeria "
