To get rid of the child witchcraft stigmatization

In parts of Nigeria – especially in Akwa Ibom and Cross River States – thousands of children are branded as witches/wizards and are subjected to isolation and (in some cases) torture to extract a “confession” from them. There is no safe resolution for many “witch” children without intervention, nurturing and education.

The issue of children being branded as witches/wizards is a complex problem, with many causes exacerbating the stigmatization. One of the tenets that creates the problem is a cultural belief in witchcraft, which is further compounded by a widely believed concept that nothing bad happens by coincidence; for those who brand children as witches, it is possible to try and regain control of their situation by blaming a “witch” and removing them from their environment in the hopes to assuage their suffering.

The focus of children being vulnerable to “satanic possession” however is a recent evolution on the traditional local belief of witchcraft that has been manufactured by Nigerian evangelical religious leaders in order to create a pressure for the need to “exorcize” the possessed children for their own financial benefit.

With these pressures in mind, a culture of social pressure from multiple sides has been created, in that locals feel a lack of empowerment in themselves and as a community; they are unable to trust even their own family least they are the cause of their suffering, and if one family suffers, the whole community is vulnerable to suffering also. Some rural communities will place pressure on a parent to abandon their child due to their belief that they are involved in witchcraft, or a parent will choose to abandon their child from the perceived judgment of their community or as a way to regain control, and in other circumstances, a parent will remarry and the new spouse will cast the child out, conveniently branded as a witch.

Essentially, as many Nigerian locals in rural areas are overlooked by their government to support their wellbeing through government funded initiatives and social infrastructure/programs, they are unable to access the support and education to allow them to understand that their suffering is not caused by witchcraft, but from people in power taking advantage of the vulnerable for their own profit.