Friday 9 September 2011

News: 'Witch' receives appalling neglect

This news story, from Ghana, shocked and upset me. Apparently an old woman in a seriously bad physical state was refused any kind of treatment or care because she claimed to be a witch: http://www.modernghana.com/news/349674/1/8216flying-witch8217-crashes-on-cliff.html

4 comments:

Vivienne Moss said...

Wow, that is very sad and disturbing. I can't believe they would treat an elderly lady that way. Very sick and twisted.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately there is a history of witch beating and expulsion from communities in Ghana. Special camps have been set-up to take these displaced men and women.

I attended a talk at Treadwells that covered this topic: http://simontomasi.blogspot.com/2010/12/treadwells-talk-witchcraft-accusation.html

Ananael Qaa recently blogged that the camps are soon to be disbanded: http://ananael.blogspot.com/2011/09/ghanas-witch-camps-disbanding.html

Badwitch said...

Simon - Yes, indeed, Ghana certainly has a history of persecution of people accused of being witches. Thanks for sharing the links - it is a subject that really ought to be talked about more so that something can be done to help these poor victims.

Anonymous said...

I'd recommend getting in touch with the two lovely ladies that made the documentary (email at the end of my blog entry).

The more visibility their project gets the more it will highlight the plight of these unfortunate people accused and banished from their communities.