Child Witches

Background

An increasing number of children in the Niger Delta are being forced to the streets and trafficked as a result of a deeply held belief in child “witches” and also due to persistent violent conflicts, poverty, abuse, torture, rape, or being orphaned by HIV/AIDS. The role of HIV/AIDS in the escalating street children crisis cannot be underestimated. The United Nations estimates that there are 930,000 HIV/AIDS orphans in Nigeria. The failure to address the increasing incidence of HIV/AIDS and the belief that it is spread by witchcraft is significantly amplifying the primary causes of the crisis. Care for Nigeria's street children remains one of the governments' major challenges, but little is being done by them to support these children.

Child Witchcraft: The Akwa Ibom Perception

The deeply held belief by the people of Akwa Ibom State and the Efik speaking communities in Cross River State cuts across all tiers of society. Widely read and travelled academics and local villagers fear such children. This fear stems from the belief that a spiritual spell can be given to a person through food and drink. The soul of the person who eats this spell will then leave the body to be initiated in a gathering of witches and wizards. The initiated person will then have the power to wreak havoc, such as causing diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria, hepatitis, typhoid, cancer. All accidents, drunkenness mental health problems, smoking of marijuana, divorce, infertility, and misfortunes are seen to be the handiwork of witches and wizards. In recent times it is believed that children have become the target for initiation by the elderly witches as they are more susceptible to their spells and are quicker in action.

• Abandoned, isolated, discriminated, ostracized from the community

• Taken to the forest and slaughtered

• Disgraced publicly and murdered

• Bathed in acid

• Poisoned to death, often with a poisonous local berry (asire)

• Burried alive

• Chained and tortured in churches in order to extract confession

Causes of the Problem

The following have being identified as the major causes of child witchcraft, abandonment and killing:

For more information about the increasingly prevelant belief in child "witches" in Africa please see the following excellent links: