Dealing with witchcraft in African society
West Africans dread witchcraft. They see in witchcraft a permanent bar to one's progress and prosperity. The dreadful potent powers of witchcraft are generally believed to be possessed by the aged hence old women are always suspected of being witches.
The individual's belief in being haunted by witchcraft begins when he cannot explain or understand why certain things happen to him whereas the same do not happen to others. For instance, the young Ivorian, Ghanaian or Nigerian does not understand why his colleagues pass school or college examinations whilst he fails to make the grade.
One's aged grandmother or aunt in the extended West African Family is held blamable if one is barren or if a member of the family wallows in misty poverty despite working hard for years.
The main reason why West Africans get scared at the mention of witchcraft is that witchcraft-prompted diseases cannot be cured by application of scientific medical treatment. It is usually the witchdoctor or fetish priest or priestess who explains why "certain things are happening to you" and the appropriate cure for them.
One disturbing aspect of the witchcraft syndrome is that there is no scientific basis upon which any allegations of witchcraft could be proved. That is why it has not been possible to bring any action in a court of law against any person for being a witch, or an indictment that a witch has "killed" somebody or has made someone barren.
The traditionally-minded West African who believes he is always ill or poor because of witchcraft approaches the witchdoctor for an explanation "why it should be him and not others". The witchdoctor will normally ask him to bring to the shrine or oracle items like fowls, sheep, eggs, clothing, money etc. He is then told an old woman in his family is the cause of his predicament.
The oracle or the fetish shrine may "arrest" the witch. This "arrest" is spiritual; it is a remote-control mechanism that makes the witch seriously ill or incapacitated. The witch then volunteers to talk to disclose the harm she has done to the victim of witchcraft.
In most cases the witch tells dreadful and mournful tales of how she had previously killed other members of the family by the use of witchcraft.
The witch is then subjected to some kind of "witchcraft cleansing" ordeal to neutralise all the evil powers she possesses. All these take place in the full view of the general public who chastise the witch.
The victim of witchcraft then undergoes some kind of "spiritual therapy" to normalise the abnormality he or she has suffered as a result of witchcraft. The victim may be requested to abstain from certain food items. The commonest is pork, which is generally believed to be the favourite meat of witches. St Luke's gospel tells the story of Jesus Christ removing the powers of witchcraft from demons and casting them into a pack of swine which he cursed.
The application of instant justice methods on people who claim to have killed others by the use of witchcraft is wrong and totally unacceptable in modern West African states.
As already pointed out in preceeding paragraphs, nobody can be successfully prosecuted in a court of competent jurisdiction that she or he is a witch or wizard and that she or he has caused someone's death through the use of witchcraft. Criminal legislation of West African states recognise this riddle hence the avoidance of witch- craft by drafters of criminal laws.
It is against this background that this writer finds puzzling an incident which occurred in Lagos, Nigeria, recently. At the Makoko suburb of the Yaba district of Lagos, an angry crowd spontaneously stoned a woman to death after she had confessed she was a witch and had killed an unspecified number of people in her family.
One may be tempted to say that the action of the Makoko crowd is justified because of the "confession". But said a prominent Lagos State High Court judge: "You cannot charge anybody who confesses to have killed people with witchcraft because it is impossible to prove in court that those people died because the witch applied witchcraft on them".
The judge added that those who stoned the "witch" to death should be arrested by the police and (they instead) charged with the murder of the unknown woman.
A Lagos medical practitioner told me that people who have high fever and related diseases may say all sorts of funny and provocative things, the consequences of which they could not be held responsible for. "Such people go through a temporary mental disequilibrium process and they may not even be conscious of the fact that they are talking", added the medical officer.
According to an eyewitness account which was given prominence by the Evening Times of Nigeria, the "witch" called passersby on the street and told them of her "exploits in witchcraft". The people initially thought she was insane and ignored her.
But as she kept talking some people became interested and listened. The woman told the crowd she had killed fifteen people with witchcraft. What perhaps provoked the crowd was the mention that she had recently killed a member of her family who was a medical officer.
The crowd then started throwing missiles at her until she fell and breathed no more.
The story of the Lagos "witch" brings into mind the need for public education on how people should react to "confessions" of witchcraft by those who claim to be "witches".
The application of instant justice methods on people who claim to have killed others by the use of witchcraft is wrong and totally unacceptable in modern West African states.
Even in traditional West African societies such instant justice methods were not used in "punishing" witches. It is, however, the considered opinion of some eminent West African sociologists that people are ruthless in their reaction to witchcraft because of the recognition of the irreparable harm witchcraft has done and continue to do to the human race. It is this resentment and abhorrence that prompted the stoning to death of the unnamed Lagos woman.
