The witch hunts of the 16th Century have not vanished but changed borders.
As I explore what it means to be a modern-day Witch in Paris, some issues of its inherent Eurocentrism have appeared. Even though there appears to be a resurgence of interest and acceptance in spirituality in many places, there are still some cultures that continue to persecute women under the vis of ‘dark magic’. Thus, I think it is important to bring attention to the weight of the term ‘Witch’ in many communities today.
Since the turn of the Century, it seems that violence against people (a vast majority being women) labelled as witches has hugely increased across the globe. A 2009 United Nations report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) found that in the Democratic Republic of Congo, “most of the 25,000 – 50,000 children living on the streets of the capital, Kinshasa, are there because they have been accused of witchcraft and rejected by their families”. In Tanzania, it is estimated that around 1000 people a year are killed due to accusations of witchcraft. Saudi Arabia has an Anti-Witchcraft Unit in the police force, and in India over 2000 people were killed between 2001 and 2014 due to Witchcraft accusations, mainly in indigenous communities.
In Papua New Guinea (PNG) from 2016 to 2019, local researchers recorded 300 women accused of witchcraft in three provinces alone. Mob attacks here have also become commonplace, such as a headline case in 2014 where a 20 year old woman was burnt alive in front of hundreds of people. She had been accused of witchcraft after her son died in hospital, no one has ever been convicted for her murder.
Perhaps most shockingly in Northern Ghana there are six active ‘witch camps’. Built-in areas believed to hinder supernatural powers, the accused are left in dire conditions with limited access to amenities. Most of the inhabitants are elderly women, who have been banished by their village and/or families due to witchcraft allegations. Many never return to their homes as they may face violence from their communities if they do so. Some can return if they carry out a ‘purification’ ceremony, performed by camp chiefs or male priests known as ‘Tindanas’ believed to possess supernatural spirits and exorcise the witch. The hypocrisy and blatant misogyny is clear. However, many cannot afford the ceremony, which costs the equivalent of 80 euros, and for those who can, their communities may still not accept them.
Why is this happening?
Poverty and crises
Edward Miguel formed a study where he analysed the state of the economy of Tanzania in comparison to violence against those labelled as witches. He found that income shocks, in most cases due to extreme rainfall, led to huge increases in Witch murders. Elderly and often widowed women are particularly vulnerable, The Independent found this group to make up 80% of the accused in Tanzania.
There is a multitude of reasons for this, one being that human scapegoats can provide answers for things people can’t control or explain. This can be due to extreme weather conditions, like the rainfall Miguel studied, but also health crises. Many women were blamed for the deaths of family and village members during the Ebola epidemic, this was so pertinent that the U.S. Center for Disease Control stated on their website that “Ebola is caused by a virus. Ebola is not caused by a curse [or] by witchcraft”. This raises great concerns about the effects of the current coronavirus pandemic, as an Aid worker in a Northern Ghana Witch camp stated, when someone apparently healthy dies of Covid “it will not be accepted, they will have to find out why, and they won’t go to the laboratories to do a post-mortem, they will go to the witch doctor, the sorcerer, a shrine, a priest, and definitely they will find an answer, and the answer will fall on a woman”.
The economic shocks of such crises also increase the number of the accused. Particularly dangerous in communities already living in poverty, they can prompt “neighbours and relatives into competition over resources that can spill into violence behind the smokescreen of witch hunts”. Seema Yasmin interviewed three sisters-in-law in India who experienced such an event, resulting in a land grab. Two men in the family became sick due to renal failure and cancer, the poor access to healthcare meant the family had to take out large loans and travel to neighbouring towns. The sisters-in-law had already suffered beatings from their male family members after challenging them for damaging their crops, and later when two of these men died, they were accused of “eating their souls and causing their premature deaths”. Thus, the remaining men began a campaign to take their land. This is one of thousands of alike stories.
Root causes
Many compare this to the Witch trials of 16th Century Europe. Indeed, we can see similarities in what has been discussed thus far, many lived in poverty during these times, people were dying from the plague, and there was a ‘little ice age’ where the temperatures dropped for a few years causing famine. The Church also plays a part in both cases, and the persecution of women is clear. However, we must also remember that there are very modern causes, and that poverty is not new to these regions, yet accusations of Witchcraft have become ever more prevalent since the turn of the Century. Perhaps, this is in part due to the increase of environmental shocks due to climate change and increases in health crises, but there are also more local factors at play. Mitch Horowitz talks of the role of Christian revivalism in Central Africa, and Oliver Duff talks of Governmental restructuring in Tanzania changing how conflicts are resolved.
In recent times there have been some movements to counter this violence, for example, in 2013 PNG repealed a 1971 law that made battling witchcraft a legal defence, although, this doesn’t mean such attacks are properly investigated in the first place. In Ghana the government planned to shut down the Witch camps in 2014, however, this was cancelled as many of the women may face violence if they return to their villages and families. And, in Tanzania, there have been attempts to increase politicians and the police’s public stance against these attacks, but it has proven difficult as many fear being accused themselves, or “believe that killing witches ultimately promotes community welfare”.
This shows the need to tackle the root causes in order for legislation to be effective. One suggestion argued by Edward Miguel would be to establish pension schemes for elderly women, thus transforming them “from a net household economic liability into an asset”. Miguel cites Northern Province in South Africa as evidence of this, where witch killings have dropped rapidly since the introduction of a pension scheme in the 1990s. To lessen superstitions there also needs to be better access to education and healthcare services. The blatant issue here is that the named countries in this piece do not have the infrastructure or cash flow to invest in such policy. Miguel thus rather depressingly concludes that violence against ‘witches’ is likely to continue as long as households continue to live in poverty and cannot insure themselves against income shocks.
Patriarchy
A scapegoat has been searched for due to the difficulties communities face from poverty, economic shocks, and illness, and in a patriarchal society this scapegoat falls on women. One statistic demonstrating this can be seen by an ActionAid survey in 2008 that found more than 70% of residents in a Witch camp in Kukuo, Ghana were accused of witchcraft after their husbands died. A female’s rights seem to take the form of a male protectorate.
However, even by tackling the monetary issues previously discussed, will this change the persecution of women? The New York Times ran a piece that suggested modern-day “witchcraft accusations are used to cloak gender-based violence”. Gender violence is a symptom of patriarchy, and until such societal frameworks are changed this will continue, albeit perhaps in other forms. For instance, France no longer has a problem of violence towards witches, but it certainly still has issues of gender violence, with hundreds of femicides every year.
This is a recognition that my exploration of what it means to be ‘the modern witch’ in Paris is certainly not universal, and that the word carries a far different meaning and weight in other societies. A label which has empowered myself and others, and introduced me to a wonderful community in Paris, is sadly still demonised and feared elsewhere. The West must recognise its role in this crisis as ultimately the main driving force of the attacks – poverty and patriarchy – can be at least partially attributed to colonial legacy. I was shocked to learn the extent of modern-day violence against women in the name of Witchcraft and believe it to be a hugely important conversation to raise.
Further reading and resources
UN OHCHR report on 21st witch hunts.
UN OHCHR report with context of Covid-19.
Interview with aid workers in North Ghana witch camps.
Additionally, all source links are embedded within the text.