This testimony urges the general assembly of Maryland to vote yes to HJ0002 and support the exoneration of alleged witches of colonial Maryland. I am a Nigerian citizen with relatives who are American citizens and residents in Maryland. I hold a doctoral degree in religious studies and wrote my doctoral thesis on witchcraft accusations in Northern Ghana. In Ghana, where I did my fieldwork, accused witches are still abused and violated as was the case in colonial Maryland.
In my thesis, I explored the dynamics and contestations of witchcraft allegations in post-colonial Africa, where witch-hunting rages and ravages the lives of many people. In 2020, I founded the Advocacy for Alleged Witches to address this problem, to work, respond, and campaign to end witch hunts in the region. As an organization, we are dedicated to ending witch hunts and ritual attacks in Africa. The British Broadcasting Corporation, South African Broadcasting Corporation and other international media channels have featured our work and campaign in their reports.
I am testifying on behalf of the Advocacy for Alleged Witches in support of exoneration for the accused witches of colonial Maryland because in many parts of Africa, Asia, and Oceania witch hunting is not a thing of the past. This miscarriage of justice continues and persists in this 21st century.
Witchcraft accusation is a form of death sentence for the accused. It is an incitement of hatred and violence. Accused persons are most often treated with indignity, without mercy and compassion. Alleged witches are humiliated and disgraced. They are denied fundamental rights and freedoms including rights to life and freedom from torture and inhuman and degrading treatment.
Alleged witches are beaten and flogged. They are tortured, stripped naked, or set ablaze. Accused persons are buried alive. They are banished and dispossessed. In Malawi, accused persons are stoned to death or lynched. In Zambia and Zimbabwe, witch hunters seize their cattle and belongings; they confiscate their houses and farm produce or set them ablaze. Accused people suffer extortion and are made to pay heavy penalties for committing no crime.
In Nigeria, alleged witches are abducted from their homes, and disappeared. They are subjected to jungle justice and trial by ordeal. In Liberia and Gambia, they are forced to drink poisonous concoctions that lead to health damage and death. Recently, some persons accused of witchcraft were charged in court in Zambia.
At the moment they are being tried in secret. In the Central African Republic, alleged witches flee to stay in prisons to avoid being killed. In Ghana, they take refuge at make-shift shelters popularly known as witch camps. Not too long ago, a young Ghanaian woman along with a female diviner beat the grandmother, Akua Denteh to death. In Nigeria, another young woman accused her mother and subsequently set her ablaze.
Witch trials take place and jungle justice is meted out on the accused with impunity. Some weeks ago an elderly woman who had dementia was accused of witchcraft and beaten to death in Nigeria. Alleged witches, mainly women, children, and people with disabilities are attacked, banished, lynched, stoned to death, buried alive, or tortured to confess to the ‘crime of witchcraft’ as was the case in colonial Maryland.
The exoneration of accused witches of colonial Maryland will be a powerful symbolic signal.
It will send a clear message of hope and light to contemporary victims of witchcraft accusations and witch persecution in Africa, and the rest of the world. It is never too late to acknowledge and correct past injustices. An act of injustice has no expiration date, especially where similar injustices are perpetrated elsewhere.
A yes vote is needed not only to exonerate accused witches in colonial Maryland but all alleged witches in the contemporary world. A yes vote aligns with the 2021 UN resolution urging states to take measures to end abuses linked to witchcraft beliefs and ritual attacks.
So I urge you to vote yes because injustice to alleged witches somewhere and at some time is injustice to alleged witches everywhere and every time.
Leo Igwe directs the Advocacy for Alleged Witches. He can be reached by email HERE.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
