Witchcraft in Northern Ghana

I think witchcraft is one of the most confusing and interesting aspects of Ghanaian culture, or even African culture for that matter. Although I think that each country has its own unique experience with witchcraft and Ghana is no exception. My introduction to Ghanaian witchcraft came from Help the Aged Canada, where I learned that HTAC was going to be facilitating a CIDA-funded project in one of the witch settlements in northern Ghana. When we arrived in Ghana, Jody and I realized that the proposal had not actually been approved and we wouldn’t actually be working with this marginalized group of older women. The situation as we learned it was that when someone fell sick in a village, an older woman would be accused of inflicting witchcraft on that individual. The accusation could even be made if someone experienced what we would think as bad luck but what Ghanaians see as some form of spiritual intervention, similar to a karmic vendetta. One such example was of an old woman who was begging a farmer for money. He refused her twice and then got bit by a snake on his farm later that day. She was accused of which craft because of this incident. Once a woman is accused she is sent from her village to a camp, which is mainly a settlement of other witches in a village that has taken these women under their wing.

So in order to learn more about the situation, Jody and I were compelled to visit the camps when we went to the north to listen to the stories of these women. Before leaving, I made contact with a Canadian whose number was left behind by last year’s HelpAge Ghana intern. He directed to a Ghanaian man working the CIFS office – funded by CIDA. When I arrived in the north I met with him, Charles Atia and he offered to bring me to a settlement of witches in Gushiegu later that week. The settlement was being supported by a Canadian who was helping fund a housing project for the women. We were interested in getting a range of perspectives about this interesting issue so we decided to visit the Gambaga settlement on Friday of that week and then I would go to Gushiegu with Charles on Saturday.

On Friday we set out to the Gambaga settlement, a bus ride from Wale Wale that took longer than expected down a very bumpy and dusty road. We arrived in Gambaga around 3:30 pm. The bus that dropped was heading to the next village and then would turn around and head back to Wale Wale, leaving us with 30-45 minutes maximum to get the information we wanted from the women. We were led to the chief’s son in the village who was the first to be able to speak English to us. He brought us to his father who were told would accept a libation from us in order to grant our permission into the camp. Once we paid our respects to the chief we were escorted to the camp and were able to speak with the leader. We ended up leaving with more questions than when we came. We were told a whole manner of things that confused us, like the women believed they were witches, some still practiced witchcraft, that as soon as they arrived at the settlement they were given an herbal remedy to cure them, that they couldn’t tell us how they came to the camp because it would reveal their secrets, etc. We were so turned around by conflicting narratives and what we believed were fabricated translations from the chief’s son. The two of us were exhausted by our late return to Tamale, but I was anxious to set out on the road the next morning to seek more answers in Gushiegu.

Jody left Saturday morning for Accra, so it was just Charles and I that headed out to Gushiegu at 6 am on Saturday morning. After getting lost in a thick brush and maze of thatch roofed villages, we arrived in Gushiegu three hours later. We were welcomed by a man, named Abukare who has been caring for the women and I guess acting as a contact for them to Charles. Immediately, I could sense that I would learn a lot more from these two men that I could from the chief’s son a day earlier. Abukare and I immediately started talking about the fate of the older women in the village, the social and cultural norms that precipitate their accusations and abandonment and a number of other issues related to the rights of rural women in general. I should also mention that this conversation was had over a nice groundnut soup with guinea fowl and rice. After we ate and chatted, I was brought to the women who had all congregated to speak with me. None of them could speak English so I started to ask questions through Charles and Abukare. The women were eager to show me their daily activity of separating grain from rocks that they had swept up from the marketplace. The technique was primitive and the grain they were actually able to keep was meager, but they were determined and hard-working. When I asked if any would share their stories, one piped up right away, unlike our odd response from the chief’s son in Gambaga. The vocal woman shared that she had been accused of witchcraft because someone in her village fell ill (who coincidentally happens to be strong and healthy now). Even her own children would not defend her and she was forced to relocate to Gushiegu. The women seem happy to be here however, because they fear facing their villages and what might happen to them if they try to return. There are some accounts of the women being beat to death when they try to return to their villages. This also sparked a discussion about the role that education plays in the rights of these women. If they were educated or had money and were accused of witchcraft they would be able to defend themselves against such accusations, but the fact is that many of these older women have neither of these tools in their defense.

Then Abukare, Charles and I drove out to the housing project to see the progress that was being made there. Charles asked if I would take pictures of the construction so he could send them back to Canada. As always, I had no problem with this as I am often on the right side of the camera lens for this job. The project was impressive and coming along well. The building stood on 5 acres of land and consisted of 8 houses with three rooms each. They were in the midst of building mud urinals between each of the buildings when we arrived. This meant that there were 24 rooms at the settlement and Abukare presented the challenge he was going to have filling them because there happened to be around 90 accused women scattered around Gushiegu. This roughly means 3-4 women a room. This happens to be the current arrangement for the women, but their current structures are damp, poorly constructed and vulnerable to collapse in natural disaster or spread diseases. I will not deny the challenges that Abukare will face when it comes time to separate them. The story of me and Gushiegu does not end here so stay tuned to hear more in the near future.