Witch Hunts Gone Wrong: Africa Children

Kassidy Chang

Mrs. Olson

English III

22 October 2015

Witch Hunts Gone Wrong: Africa Children

Thousands of children in Africa are being beaten, tortured, and killed every year because they are denounced as witches. Due to the fact that Africa is a third world country with poor education and poverty, Africans turn to resign to guide them through life. Over thousands of cases of witch hunts take place involve children who are used as scapegoats for deaths and sicknesses in their local community. Today, witch hunts occur all over the world effecting the families and communities around the witch hunt. Governments are taking action to decrease witch hunts since it based on people who project their fears onto the African children. African children

Africans mainly look up to priests to guide them for explanations and causes of life because priests are known as well educated due to their “study” in religion. Priests seek opportunities from parents for fame and money by making parents pay for “exorcisms” to punish their child for witchcraft. In this case, priests tend to hold a lot of power in Africa since their beliefs and sayings can easily manipulate others. “One of Nigeria’s most popular Pentecostal preachers, Helen Ukpabio, wrote that “if a child under the age of 2 screams in the night cries and is always feverish with deteriorating health, he or she is a servant of Satan.” (Mitch Horowitz) Most Africans could not understand the causes for reasons like a baby crying at night, so the priests was one of the main people to listen to. As of today, babies are known to cry in their sleep due to development of growth and known reasons like an unchanged diaper or not being fed. In result to Ukpabio’s statement, most babies were identified as possessed because they cried at night. Priests in Africa did not do actual studies, but based on theories formed by their own views on life, they used children as scapegoat to gain fame and

Poor education, conflict, and poverty are the main reason for accusations, which is why families denounced their own child as a witch. Families in Africa were mainly poor, so parents might feel relieved they have one less mouth to feed. Parents, who accuse their own children of witchcraft, tend to abandon their child on the street causing them to fend for themselves as well as pay for exorcisms hosted by priests. Abigail, an eight year old girl was accused her of witchcraft due to the fact she liked to sleep outside on hot nights. This interpreted for her mother, and community that she must be flying off to meet with other witches. (African Children Denounced as "Witches") Children like Abigail were labeled as witches by churches and abused or left on the streets by their