Ending deadly superstition ''Law against witchcraft accusations, journey, lessons''

Belief in witchcraft is one of the oldest conspiracy theories used to perpetuate gender-based violence against women. 

The Sanneh Institute (TSI) and other partners who led a three-year campaign to criminalise witchcraft accusations in Ghana are ecstatic that Parliament has passed the law.

Akua Denteh was not the first to be lynched in Ghana on account of witchcraft accusations.

In November 2010, a 72-year-old lady, Ama Hemmah, was burned to death in Tema on suspicion of being a witch.

This dastardly act was led by a so-called pastor, Samuel Fletcher Sagoe.

Ghanaians expressed outrage and revulsion at the act.

The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) described the act as an “atrocious crime” and “barbaric”.

Then, everybody simply moved on with business as usual.

Same

When Akua Denteh was publicly lynched on July 23, 2020, the same outpouring of passionate condemnations and revulsion came from many, including the President.

The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection (MGCSP) at the time organised a high-powered meeting of chiefs and queenmothers at Kempinski Hotel in Accra on August 7, and a visit to the alleged witch camps.

Parliamentary team and some victims at the Kpatinga Camp

Then, again, it was business as usual!

That was when it dawned upon some of us that something needed to be done.

The Sanneh Institute sent a petition to the then Speaker of Parliament, Mike Oquaye, calling for a law to be passed, criminalising witchcraft accusations.

We followed up with petitions to CHRAJ, MGCSP, the Office of the Attorney General and others.

We embarked on a relentless crusade!

Campaign

The Institute reached out to ActionAid Ghana and other partners and conducted research into the camps, visited the victims and engaged the chiefs and Tindanas managing the camps.

After the 2020 elections, we got in touch with Francis Xavier Sosu, whom we heard had expressed interest in sponsoring the bill.

In partnership with ActionAid Ghana, we engaged the parliamentary sponsors of the bill.

As the bill was a private member’s bill, The Sanneh Institute and ActionAid had to sponsor meetings and trips to the camps by the parliamentary team and support the work of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee which considered the bill.

As a result of the numerous engagements and persistence, the bipartisan parliamentary Committee, at its meeting in Koforidua in May 2023, adopted the bill.

The bill was then laid in Parliament and finally passed unanimously on July 27, 2023! 

Lesson

A key lesson in all of this is that outrage and emotions by themselves don’t bring about change.

These must be backed by sustained effort and commitment to the cause.

Another lesson is that the law is an eloquent testament to what Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) can do in partnership with government institutions in the governance of our country.

The Eighth Parliament and its Speaker, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, must be commended for this landmark legislation. 

Three years

It took three arduous years, from July 2020, when Akua Denteh was lynched, to July 2023, when the bill was passed by Parliament.

We had to, first of all, work on changing the narrative that the alleged witch camps served as safe havens.

A former Minister for Gender had even talked about upgrading the facilities to improve the living conditions in the camps.

This, we felt, was going to feed into witchcraft accusations and perpetuate the existence of the camps.

In our view, the camps are crime scenes because it is at the camps that Trial by Ordeal, which is proscribed by our laws, is carried out as a form of witch-hunting.

Upgrading such places will amount to endorsing an illegal activity.

We also argued that upgrading the facilities would make witch-hunting more lucrative and add to the exploitation of the victims by the camp owners.

Others argued that we did not need a law on witchcraft accusations because there were enough laws in the books.

Consultation with Nayiri

The argument was further made that a law would not stop the practice, but would only drive it underground.

Our response has been that accusations are the root cause of all the dangers associated with witchcraft belief.

The camps would not exist without accusations.

The brutal attacks and lynchings would not happen without accusations.

Witchcraft accusation is a life sentence for the accused who live with the stigma as outcasts for the rest of their lives.

Witchcraft accusation is, in fact, a generational sentence, as it is passed from mothers to daughters.

Our response to the argument that a law will not stop the practice is that laws are not meant to stop crime but to punish crime.

We have laws in the books against murder, but murder continues!

A law against accusations will gradually stem the flow into the camps.

 Law: Atonement for national sin

The law has a very solid constitutional basis.

Article 26(2) of the 1992 Constitution stipulates that “All customary practices which dehumanise or are injurious to the physical and mental well-being of a person are prohibited.”

37(2b) requires the state to enact laws for “the protection and promotion of all other basic human rights and freedoms, including the rights of the disabled, the aged, children and other vulnerable groups.”

Despite these clear constitutional injunctions, successive governments have turned a blind eye towards the plight of countless vulnerable, old, and defenceless women for decades.

Consultation with the Gnani Camp Tindana

This is an unpardonable national sin!

With the passing of the bill, Ghana has finally atoned for its decade-old sins of omission.

The Veteran Lawyer Ibrahim Mahama, who has campaigned for years against witchcraft accusations in the Dagomba area, said something profound to me when I called to break the news of the passage of the bill to him.

“Prof., this law will do two things,” he said.

“First, it will protect the lives and livelihoods of many innocent, vulnerable and defenceless women in the coming years.

Second, it will prevent even many more people from going to hell!” he said.

He explained that those who have, over the years, brought untold misery and death to innocent people on account of witchcraft accusations will all go to hell.

And if the law stops them from committing such acts, it will save many from hellfire!

Religious leaders, who may not be happy with the passage of the law, should reflect carefully on Lawyer Mahama’s words.

Britain passed laws against witchcraft accusations as far back as 1735.

Ghana is nearly 300 years behind!

But as the saying goes, better late than never.

Hence, while we are celebrating the passage of this law, and rightly so, we should all commit to making sure this deadly superstition is eradicated from Ghanaian society.

And for the President to assent to the bill to make a law for the human dumpsters in the Northern and Northeast regions that we call camps to be cleared from the conscience of the nation. 

The writer is Executive Director,
The Sanneh Institute, 
Legon-Accra.