Gambaga - the witch village!

hey you!

so i posted some pics of ghana on facebook, one of which was from gombaga, a "witch village" up in the northern region. i captioned the picture with the fact that i really couldnt explain the place in the small space provided for the caption, but that i was open to questions about it. well, i got a question! and the answer was too much to not share!

SO: ive heard a few stories (class, bradt guide, what ppl there told me) and have my own opinion on it - here's a mix!

i heard about it first in my "african traditional religions" class. the deal is that although christianity and islam are both infinitely more dominant than "traditional religion" in ghana, there's still a lot of the spirituality intermixed (as im sure you know). SO when someone is accused of being a witch, they are generally sent to this village in the northern region (which is where christianity is much less common, islam and traditional beliefs are more common). here, the village chief performs de-witchifying rituals and they are cured, but because the home village will not accept them back.

so they stay in the witch village. children/family and possessions are rarely brought with them, and they rarely if ever get to return to their home village (transportation difficulties is also a contributing factor here- it could easily take a day or 2 to get to the village from home). this depends on the age of the woman, children, and how upset the home village is -more on that in a sec....

different opinions on the place:
1) it is a safe place for them to go. the witch village is somewhat separate (by the main road) from the rest of the larger village, and the people of the larger village know whats going on. this is as opposed to the physical injury that can result when women are accused of being witches. someone (dont remember where its from) told me that a woman who tried to return after decades in the witch village, to her home village came back without ears. yikes.

2) it is a prison, without a judicial system to govern it, or an end to the prison sentence. apparently, humanitarian organizations have attempted to analyze it further for this reason, but obviously it it still open. its interesting tho- when my friend and i said we wanted to visit, to look at the village (as we were staying in the surrounding village with that in mind), they had no problems with pictures but made VERY sure that we just wanted to look (ie, we just wanted to tour it, we were not investigating it).

3) the living conditions of the place are inhumane. this is a really interesting point. life in the north is MUCH different than in the (more urban) south/coast. (i think i wrote a blog about this before, and much closer to when i was there, but anyway--) MUCH less developed: fewer and worse roads, more agrarian, less running water, buildings were generally rounded huts with hand-thatched roofs.

however, no urban slums. no european cars passing by large sprawls of huts with metal panels for roofs. no men in suits and ties passing cripples who nobody pays attention to. no (ok, far fewer) people yelling at each other. although im sure there is still wealth hierarchy, its much less obvious up in the north. EVERYONE lives in the same huts, gets their water from the same pump etc.

SO, people from the outside (ie our world or the south) might think that the quality of living is poor. it is. but its the same as the surrounding 50 miles.

4) observation: the 2 guys who were leading us around the witch village had a very short, specific answer to all our questions, responded in an "of course" way. this was pretty normal for guys to talk to ME (as a woman) like that, but they did it to Kurtis too. nobody was willing to talk about what happened to bring the women here, how they were "cured", how their life was similar or different, or how long they'd been there. :( no, the women there did not look happy, but i really cant make a judgement about their happiness based on a short visit. also, as i said before, things were very similar to the rest of the normal village, and there were no physical barriers separating the "witch" from the "non-witch" parts.

so, my opinion? hm. i would def have to investigate better, but considering the fact that humanitarian groups have done SOME work and its obviously not a torturous prison, i cant complain too much. obviously, i sympathize with the women, and if i could, i would think of a better way to deal with the women, but i've seen what ghanaian public opinion can do to someone.

[university students forcefully paraded a thief around campus in his underwear, throwing water at him, turning his black skin red, and singing about his theft so that EVERYONE would know what he did, and other students stopped and took note of who he was!..... a crowd of adults at a tro-tro (bus stop) beat up (to bloody) a thief who stole a friend's phone out of her pocket]

i can only imagine the problems they have encountered in their lives, and while their lives definitely took a turn for the worse (esp since they were separated from their families - SO important in society). *i also think its interesting that the people of the surrounding village are convinced that the chief's cleansing does something to "cure" them, but the home village doesnt. hmmmmm*

i cant change an entire culture's mind about witchcraft, then i'll just remember that i am an observer, and if nothing else, those womens' lives made an impact on mine.... and yours?!?!?!?!?

have a great summer - isnt it crazy to think that i started this blog almost exactly a year ago?!?!?!?!? TOTALLY blowing my mind!!!