Witch persecution will not end in Nigeria until a critical
mass of students wean themselves off superstitious beliefs and become advocates
for alleged witches.
I just returned from the University of Nigeria Nsukka where
I attended an event on ‘Who is afraid of Witchcraft?’ Concerned students
organised the program with the support of Basic Rights Counsel Initiative and
the Advocacy for Alleged Witches. At last, university students at Nsukka
displayed the lion and lioness in them. They came from various departments,
engineering, sociology, political science, public administration, arts and
sciences. They were curious and keenly interested in examining the phenomenon
of witchcraft and in sharing their stories and experiences.
The day started with a radio program at Lion FM, I was the
guest on the program. I explained to the university community the need to
explore and not fear the topic of witchcraft. I told listeners that witchcraft
was a myth and a form of superstition. That witchcraft should evoke curiosity
and not apprehension or anxiety from students. I made it clear that the protest
that Christian students staged last November betrayed the trust on universities.
It was in violation of academic freedom and inquiry. Some listeners phoned in
to express their opinions on the topic of witchcraft and the event.
The first caller said that I needed to properly research
before coming to declare that witchcraft was a myth. He alluded to the
confessions by alleged witches and experiences within his family as evidence
that witchcraft was ‘real’. In fact the caller said emphatically that the
mother in law was a witch. And as a former cultist who had repented, he could
attest to the reality of witchcraft. In my response, I told the caller that my
position was based on research and that from my findings, threatening mobs and
witch hunters used to extract confessions from alleged witches. Otherwise witch
confessions could be symptoms of psychological imbalance or dementia. Thus
those who supposedly confess to witchcraft need care not cruelty; they should
be treated with compassion not subjected to torture and trial by ordeal.
The next caller stated that there was a justification of
witchcraft in the Bible because in various sections of the Christian holy book
there were allusions to witches and familiar spirits. I told the caller that
the Bible was a reflection of its time in history and embodied the beliefs that
prevailed at the time of codification. That many acts and notions that the
Bible glories and sanctifies are not tenable in the contemporary world
including among westerners who introduced the Bible to Africans.
Another caller noted that there were positive and negative
forces; black and white witches. He stated that while Africans used their own
witchcraft for negative purposes, to harm and destroy, white people used their
witchcraft to do positive things- to build cars, ships and airplanes. I made it
clear to the caller that these distinctions and categorizations were
meaningless and not backed up by facts or logic. That by implication, the owner
of Microsoft, Bill Gates was a wizard and the Boeing company was a witchcraft
company. Students who attended the event in the evening raised these issues
again and highlighted the absurdity and peripherality of the idea. One student
recounted that the grandmother was accused of witchcraft and allegedly
confessed to making him partially blind. Another student recounted a witch hunting
episode in the community in Abia state that led to the death and injuries of
many persons including his father. One of the students who facilitated the
event, Vincent, noted the importance of posing the question: How do you know?
He noted that the question could reveal the absurdity and contradictions in
witchcraft claims and ideas. Vincent notified the attendees of the death of
Prof BIC Ijomah. A centre named after him organized the ‘witchcraft’ conference
in November. He later shared a comment that a student posted on hearing the
death of Prof Ijomah: “They said that witchcraft is not real, can they now see
its effects?”.
Another student who facilitated the event, Daniel (popularly
known as Tigerwest) is a person living with albinism. He noted how superstitious
beliefs about persons with albinism motivate ritual attacks and killings of
"albinos". The deliberations went on for hours into the night. The
participants have started a WhatsApp group to continue the discussion and
interaction. Witch persecution will not end in Nigeria until a critical mass of
students wean themselves off superstitious beliefs and become advocates for
alleged witches.
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