Churches involved in torture, murder of thousands of African children denounced as witches

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Churches involved in torture, murder of thousands of African children denounced

as witches

 

KATHARINE HOURELD

Associated Press Writer

October 17, 2009 | 9:01 p.m.

 

EKET, Nigeria (AP) — The nine-year-old boy lay on a bloodstained hospital sheet

crawling with ants, staring blindly at the wall.

 

His family pastor had accused him of being a witch, and his father then tried to

force acid down his throat as an exorcism. It spilled as he struggled, burning

away his face and eyes. The emaciated boy barely had strength left to whisper

the name of the church that had denounced him — Mount Zion Lighthouse.

 

A month later, he died.

 

Nwanaokwo Edet was one of an increasing number of children in Africa accused of

witchcraft by pastors and then tortured or killed, often by family members.

Pastors were involved in half of 200 cases of " witch children " reviewed by the

AP, and 13 churches were named in the case files.

 

Some of the churches involved are renegade local branches of international

franchises. Their parishioners take literally the Biblical exhortation, " Thou

shalt not suffer a witch to live. "

 

" It is an outrage what they are allowing to take place in the name of

Christianity, " said Gary Foxcroft, head of nonprofit Stepping Stones Nigeria.

 

For their part, the families are often extremely poor, and sometimes even

relieved to have one less mouth to feed. Poverty, conflict and poor education

lay the foundation for accusations, which are then triggered by the death of a

relative, the loss of a job or the denunciation of a pastor on the make, said

Martin Dawes, a spokesman for the United Nations Children's Fund.

 

" When communities come under pressure, they look for scapegoats, " he said. " It

plays into traditional beliefs that someone is responsible for a negative change

.... and children are defenseless. "

 

The idea of witchcraft is hardly new, but it has taken on new life recently

partly because of a rapid growth in evangelical Christianity. Campaigners

against the practice say around 15,000 children have been accused in two of

Nigeria's 36 states over the past decade and around 1,000 have been murdered. In

the past month alone, three Nigerian children accused of witchcraft were killed

and another three were set on fire.

 

Nigeria is one of the heartlands of abuse, but hardly the only one: the United

Nations Children's Fund says tens of thousands of children have been targeted

throughout Africa.

 

Church signs sprout around every twist of the road snaking through the jungle

between Uyo, the capital of the southern Akwa Ibom state where Nwanaokwo lay,

and Eket, home to many more rejected " witch children. " Churches outnumber

schools, clinics and banks put together. Many promise to solve parishioner's

material worries as well as spiritual ones — eight out of ten Nigerians struggle

by on less than $2 a day.

 

" Poverty must catch fire, " insists the Born 2 Rule Crusade on one of Uyo's main

streets.

 

" Where little shots become big shots in a short time, " promises the Winner's

Chapel down the road.

 

" Pray your way to riches, " advises Embassy of Christ a few blocks away.

 

It's hard for churches to carve out a congregation with so much competition. So

some pastors establish their credentials by accusing children of witchcraft.

 

Nwanaokwo said he knew the pastor who accused him only as Pastor King. Mount

Zion Lighthouse in Nigeria at first confirmed that a Pastor King worked for

them, then denied that they knew any such person.

 

Bishop A.D. Ayakndue, the head of the church in Nigeria, said pastors were

encouraged to pray about witchcraft, but not to abuse children.

 

" We pray over that problem (of witchcraft) very powerfully, " he said. " But we

can never hurt a child. "

 

The Nigerian church is a branch of a Californian church by the same name. But

the California church says it lost touch with its Nigerian offshoots several

years ago.

 

" I had no idea, " said church elder Carrie King by phone from Tracy, Calif. " I

knew people believed in witchcraft over there but we believe in the power of

prayer, not physically harming people. "

 

The Mount Zion Lighthouse — also named by three other families as the accuser of

their children — is part of the powerful Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria. The

Fellowship's president, Ayo Oritsejafor, said the Fellowship was the

fastest-growing religious group in Nigeria, with more than 30 million members.

 

" We have grown so much in the past few years we cannot keep an eye on

everybody, " he explained.

 

But Foxcroft, the head of Stepping Stones, said if the organization was able to

collect membership fees, it could also police its members better. He had already

written to the organization twice to alert it to the abuse, he said. He

suggested the fellowship ask members to sign forms denouncing abuse or hold

meetings to educate pastors about the new child rights law in the state of Akwa

Ibom, which makes it illegal to denounce children as witches. Similar laws and

education were needed in other states, he said.

 

Sam Itauma of the Children's Rights and Rehabilitation Network said it is the

most vulnerable children — the orphaned, sick, disabled or poor — who are most

often denounced. In Nwanaokwo's case, his poor father and dead mother made him

an easy target.

 

" Even churches who didn't use to 'find' child witches are being forced into it

by the competition, " said Itauma. " They are seen as spiritually powerful because

they can detect witchcraft and the parents may even pay them money for an

exorcism. "

 

That's what Margaret Eyekang did when her 8-year-old daughter Abigail was

accused by a " prophet " from the Apostolic Church, because the girl liked to

sleep outside on hot nights — interpreted as meaning she might be flying off to

join a coven. A series of exorcisms cost Eyekang eight months' wages, or US$270.

The payments bankrupted her.

 

Neighbors also attacked her daughter.

 

" They beat her with sticks and asked me why I was bringing them a witch child, "

she said. A relative offered Eyekang floor space but Abigail was not welcome and

had to sleep in the streets.

 

Members of two other families said pastors from the Apostolic Church had accused

their children of witchcraft, but asked not to be named for fear of retaliation.

 

The Nigeria Apostolic Church refused repeated requests made by phone, e-mail and

in person for comment.

 

At first glance, there's nothing unusual about the laughing, grubby kids playing

hopscotch or reading from a tattered Dick and Jane book by the graffiti-scrawled

cinderblock house. But this is where children like Abigail end up after being

labeled witches by churches and abandoned or tortured by their families.

 

There's a scar above Jane's shy smile: her mother tried to saw off the top of

her skull after a pastor denounced her and repeated exorcisms costing a total of

$60 didn't cure her of witchcraft. Mary, 15, is just beginning to think about

boys and how they will look at the scar tissue on her face caused when her

mother doused her in caustic soda. Twelve-year-old Rachel dreamed of being a

banker but instead was chained up by her pastor, starved and beaten with sticks

repeatedly; her uncle paid him $60 for the exorcism.

 

Israel's cousin tried to bury him alive, Nwaekwa's father drove a nail through

her head, and sweet-tempered Jerry — all knees, elbows and toothy grin — was

beaten by his pastor, starved, made to eat cement and then set on fire by his

father as his pastor's wife cheered it on.

 

The children at the home run by Itauma's organization have been mutilated as

casually as the praying mantises they play with. Home officials asked for the

children's last names not to be used to protect them from retaliation.

 

The home was founded in 2003 with seven children; it now has 120 to 200 at any

given time as children are reconciled with their families and new victims

arrive.

 

Helen Ukpabio is one of the few evangelists publicly linked to the denunciation

of child witches. She heads the enormous Liberty Gospel church in Calabar, where

Nwanaokwo used to live. Ukpabio makes and distributes popular books and DVDs on

witchcraft; in one film, a group of child witches pull out a man's eyeballs. In

another book, she advises that 60 percent of the inability to bear children is

caused by witchcraft.

 

In an interview with the AP, Ukpabio is accompanied by her lawyer, church

officials and personal film crew.

 

" Witchcraft is real, " Ukpabio insisted, before denouncing the physical abuse of

children. Ukpabio says she performs non-abusive exorcisms for free and was not

aware of or responsible for any misinterpretation of her materials.

 

" I don't know about that, " she declared.

 

However, she then acknowledged that she had seen a pastor from the Apostolic

Church break a girl's jaw during an exorcism. Ukpabio said she prayed over her

that night and cast out the demon. She did not respond to questions on whether

she took the girl to hospital or complained about the injury to church

authorities.

 

After activists publicly identified Liberty Gospel as denouncing

" child witches, " armed police arrived at Itauma's home accompanied by a church

lawyer. Three children were injured in the fracas. Itauma asked that other

churches identified by children not be named to protect their victims.

 

" We cannot afford to make enemies of all the churches around here, " he said.

" But we know the vast majority of them are involved in the abuse even if their

headquarters aren't aware. "

 

Just mentioning the name of a church is enough to frighten a group of bubbly

children at the home.

 

" Please stop the pastors who hurt us, " said Jerry quietly, touching the scars on

his face. " I believe in God and God knows I am not a witch. "

 

___

 

Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this

report.

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-af-nigeria-child-witches,0,5\

276725.story

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