THE GOVERNMENT of Ghana, in collaboration with ActionAid Ghana and Songtaba NGOs, has succeeded in closing down the Bonyase Witch Camp, aptly described as a ‘human zoo’ and one of the permanent six witches’ camps in the Northern part of Ghana. The 55 inmates have also been reintegrated into their original communities and families.

Ghana’s Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, who closed down the camp on Monday December 15, 2014, said the government would not hesitate to disband the remaining five camps, should it (government) reach the expected consensus, with the traditional authorities, opinion leaders, the youth and the victims themselves.

The six witches’ camps were established by chiefs and fetish priests, where women accused of witchcraft sought refuge from beating, torture and even lynching. Many of the women in the camps have been blamed for using black magic to cause misfortune in their communities, such as death, illness or drought.

Denied the opportunity to defend themselves, they are sent to these camps where they stayed away from their families for up to thirty years. They live in appalling conditions with scarcity of food, running water, as well as medical care.The camps are effectively female prisons where the inmates are given life sentences.

Typically, when a woman arrives at the witch camp, a fetish priest confirms her guilt or otherwise, through a special ritual in which a chicken is slaughtered. If the chicken falls on its back with its beak in the air, then the woman is pronounced innocent.

If not, she has to sometimes consume fatal concoction of chicken blood, monkey skulls and soil to “cleanse” her. Only then can she consider returning home. But not all communities are prepared to accept the women back, because of their entrenched stance against witches.

However, at a historic durbar of Chiefs and people of Kusawgu Traditional Area in the Central Gonja District of the Northern Region, the Minister said there were about 600 women between the ages of 60 and 90 years, who are still confined in the witches’ camps, facing several difficulties. There are over 503 of their children and grandchildren, of school going ages, who are also living in the camps.

Nana Oye Lithur said witchcraft accusation and human rights abuses and the mere existence of witch camps put a scar on the country’s human rights record.

There are still five of such camps in four districts of the Northern Region of Ghana. They are; Kukuo, Gnani-Tindang, Gambaga, Tindan-zhie (Kpatinga) and Nabuli in Nanumba South, Yendi, East Mamprusi and Gushegu districts respectively.

She said that the witchcraft accusations interconnect with mental health and domestic violence issues, as well as issues of poverty, disability and gender inequality. Out of the 600 alleged witches, only a few are males.

“We need to work together to develop a national consensus on the underlying issues surrounding the problem, with the view to develop a collective national response to witchcraft accusation.

“The complexity underlying the problem means we cannot just come up with a single and isolated solution. It is instead important that all key stakeholders work together to pursue an integrated, long-term, national and inter-sectoral approach.

“There is the need for a very robust collaboration by all stakeholders to deal with the issue systematically”.

The Central Gonja District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. Mumuni Shiraz Ibn Yacin, was appreciative to ActionAid Ghana and for that matter, the government of Ghana, for the effort to liberate the suffering women.

According to him, the alleged witches were accepted into the Bunyase camp by the Queen mother and Priestess, Ayishetu Kishenaba to discourage their accusers from lynching them.

He pledged that the Central Gonja District Assembly would do everything possible to ensure that the camp is not opened to any woman accused of witchcraft and also warned the people to learn to respect the rights and dignity of the women in society.

The Chairman of the Reintegration Committee, Dr. Al-Hussein Zakaria, expressed his deepest sorrow at the dehumanizing condition the women were made to undergo, for several decades now.

Describing the witch camps as “human zoos”, Dr. Zakaria observed that the nature of the camps did not only take away the dignities and pride of the women, but also put then in perpetual death sentences.

Meanwhile, ActionAid Ghana and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection have put in place special packages for the reintegrated women to have a sustainable livelihood.

They were given livelihood training in soap making, tie and die and beads making by ActionAid and Songtaba, as well as accommodation to those who lost their properties during their banishment from the communities.

The Fetish Priestess, under whose care the women in the Bonyase camp were put, Queen Mother Ayishetu Kishenaba was also given a grinding mill and motor tricycle, popularly known as ‘motor king’, as means of livelihood by the Ministry and ActionAid Ghana.

 The Chronicle