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https://reasonstobecheerful.world/in-nigeria-children-overcome-witchcraft-branding/>
"As a child in Calabar, Nigeria, David Etim had an avid interest in
electronics. He tinkered with home equipment, wanting to understand the inner
workings of machines. But despite his passion, Etim often couldn’t reassemble
what he pulled apart. When his parents asked what happened, he would lie. In
turn, Etim’s stepmother accused him of witchcraft. When he was barely 11, in
2016, she and his father took him to a pastor.
There, he endured three days of torture that included the pouring of hot candle
wax on the soles of his feet, before finally being declared a witch. He recalls
the pastor placing a big Bible on the floor, and commanding him to stand on it.
“He told my parents that since I was a witch, I won’t be able to stand on the
Bible,” Etim says. And due to the pain in his feet from the hot wax, he
couldn’t.
His inability to stand was all the evidence that was needed to convince his
parents. After another day at the church for “deliverance from the spirit
world,” he returned home, feeling like a pariah. Neighbors made snide comments,
calling him ifot, an Efik word that translates loosely to witch. At school,
students avoided “David the witch.” Eventually, he quit school and ran away
from home. He slept on street corners, surviving on the benevolence of
strangers. He joined scavengers to scout garbage trucks for scrap metal, which
they traded for paltry sums.
While there is no official database for children branded as witches in Nigeria,
more than 15,000 are estimated to have suffered from the allegation in the
country’s Cross River and Akwa Ibom states. (Such allegations have been
documented across West Africa.) Orphans, children living with disabilities and
sometimes even gifted children are particularly vulnerable. Most end up in the
streets. While national law criminalizes child witch branding, the practice
continues to swell, with sometimes fatal consequences."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
