Witchcraft accusations against children in Africa
As witches Children are referred to in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Togo, Tanzania and other African countries, where magic can be attributed with whom they are supposed to exert damage spell. So stigmatized children are often exposed, persecuted and murdered by their mothers.
"Witch children " in the Congo
Background of this relatively new phenomenon is the economic crisis in the country. Kinshasa has 10 million inhabitants, but there are only 5% of the workforce in the formal sector. A first demanded by the IMF structural adjustment program of 1977 led to the dismissal of more than 80 % of state employees to a virtual collapse of the education and health system, public transport and other facilities of public services such as garbage collection. A second structural adjustment program of 1987 provided for the complete opening of the market of the country and led to the collapse of the manufacturing industry in Kinshasa, which meant a sudden loss of more than 100,000 jobs. But the agriculture throughout Zaire could no longer compete with cheap imports. There was a hyperinflation.
Impoverished peasants marched in the following years to Kinshasa without being able to find work. The flare-up of civil war from 1996 meant that many IDPs moved into town.
Witch children and the disintegration of Congolese society
The disastrous economic situation led to the disintegration of families in the Congo. The previously widespread practices of mutual invitations, banquets, neighborhood help, there are no longer practical. More and more men left their families because they could no longer feed. It came barely marriages because the men could not pay the bride price and saw no future for themselves. Finally, since 2000 also break the mother -child connections becoming stronger: Many children were accused of witchcraft and chased away. This often happened when their mothers are unable to feed. Although the "witch children " are sometimes also attributed positive characteristics, but dominated the idea that they are jinx and would use their power to cause other people through magic damage. Often they are considered as the incarnation of evil.
This new wave of belief in witchcraft was triggered by the Harry Potter novels, or at least reinforced. For many residents of Kinshasa believe it is a description of reality. The heavily widespread in Kinshasa evangelical fundamentalist sects support this belief in witches and subdue alleged witch children sometimes painful procedures in order to rid them of their supposed obsession ( exorcism ). It should apply only in Kinshasa thirty to forty thousand children as " witches". Humanitarian organizations are trying to educate people and help for affected children.
Although the belief in witchcraft in Africa is widespread, but the specific form of child witches existed before 1990 is not practical. Therefore, they can not be attributed to traditional beliefs. He came rather as a consequence of the economic collapse in Kinshasa. " The capacity of the Congolese families and communities to ensure that primary care and protection of their children, apparently exhausted " ( Mashimbo MDOE of the organization Save the Children ). Other child rights- oriented organizations deal with the prosecution and the problematic use of so-called "witch children ", launch public awareness campaigns and provide mutilierte children medically and psychosocially (eg children's rights Afrika eV ).