Addressing witchcraft allegations is an urgent gender issue

Ama Tilicher, President of the Alleged Witches Network meeting with other alleged witches at Gnani camp, Northern Ghana, July 2023 (credit Kelvin Odonkor)

Last week, the Parliament of Ghana passed the Criminal Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2022,  commonly referred to as the anti-witchcraft allegations Bill. This Bill is a critical cornerstone in efforts to reduce the prevalence of witchcraft allegations in Ghana. Allegations of witchcraft can have devastating consequences for women, mostly older women accused of witchcraft.

These include mob murders in the most extreme cases, as well as banishment from their homes and communities. Many of the alleged witches flee to so-called witches’ camps for their own safety, sometimes with only the clothes they are standing up in.

At the camps, the women lack access to basic living conditions. Research by Songtaba, supported by Ghana Somubi Dwumadie identified high levels of depression and extremely low quality of life in the camps. It also identified that the vast majority of alleged witches are older women, indicating a socio-cultural driver for witchcraft allegations. This important issue received some attention in the recently released report on 20 years of the Maputo Protocol.

As a signatory to the protocol, Ghana has a responsibility to take this issue seriously. The passage of the Bill becomes an important step in reducing the inflow of women into the camps following witchcraft accusations. The many stakeholders who worked together to ensure this important milestone was reached should rightly be very proud of their achievements.

Now that the Bill has passed and awaits presidential assent, we cannot relax our efforts. Criminalisation of witchcraft allegations will hopefully over time reduce the number of allegations being made, however, hundreds of women remain in the camps. Addressing their quality of life, and access to essential services such as healthcare is critical and Songtaba have made important strides in this direction by highlighting the deplorable state of conditions in the camps.

Equally important are efforts to educate communities and support the reintegration of women into communities of their choice, leading to the eventual closure of the camps completely – this will take time as some of the women have been there for decades. An important aspect of this work will be to support and uplift the voices of the women accused of witchcraft, including through the Alleged Witches Network, which was set up to support alleged witches to have a voice.

While we can look forward somewhat hopefully, a note of caution. The infamous and brutal lynching of Akua Dente in 2020 recently saw the imprisonment of two of the perpetrators under existing legislation. While this is on the face of it, justice served, let’s not forget that many of the perpetrators are still walking free while the two imprisoned are women.

The new Bill will need to be applied equally to allegations being made by men as well as women, and we trust that in time, witchcraft allegations will become a shameful piece of history, rather than the present reality.

You can read more about the research in Songtaba’s policy brief here

You can read the journal paper here