"Child witches" in Nigeria: Whose responsibility?

religion

Wow this is really scary. I’m not anti-religious, let me say that first as I know many flutherites are. But I also am not a big believer in Missionaries because they have a history of committing colonizing crimes and crimes such as this. I think we can help people from “poorer” countries by different means. I sincerely agree with your statement that If a religious group is going to send missionaries to spread their word to “the heathens” don’t they bear significant responsibility for what their converts do with their message

I don’t think we should allow this to continue since it is in our power to stop it, i mean we are the ones sending them over there. Gosh this makes me sick.

FFFUUU-

This sort of thing never would have happened if missionaries would have been sent around the world to educate the people in rational thinking, rather than to tell them it’s okay to indulge in superstition.
Thanks a lot, guys. Spreading your religion has been no help at all. You’ve only made their situation worse.

“Even churches who didn’t use to ‘find’ child witches are being forced into it by the competition,” said Itauma. “They are seen as spiritually powerful because they can detect witchcraft and the parents may even pay them money for an exorcism.”
What the f*ck? This vermin would really rather deliberately lie and expose children to torture and murder by doing so, than become less powerful than the competition? That is the most despicable thing I have heard in YEARS.

Damn, this pisses me off.

It’s ignorant and stupid to blame this entirly on missionairies. There are still vodoo and tribal beliefs held by many people in Africa that involve such things as the harvesting and selling of body parts. Im trying to find the article that talks about the shocking number of body parts being sold in Lagos markets. Now, keep in mind Im against people “enlightening the heathens” as it has been put, but lets try and remember that some people have wacked out beliefs without the influence of Christianity, and not everything people do is the fault/responsability of western influence.

@hookecho This argument isn’t whether or not the people of the country have “whacked out beliefs” but rather what is an appropriate way to respond to those beliefs. Even if the children act like witches should they be beat for doing so?

@RedPowerLady no, thats not what im saying at all. All im saying is this can’t be blamed entirley on missionaries or “the west”.

@hookecho But the missionaries are doing the beating.

On a more positive note, I’m amazed how well these children handle their respective tragedies. They’ve been trepanned, doused with acid, had nails hammered into their skulls, have been starved, beaten, buried alive or set on fire, all by their own parents and other people they trusted. But they still have such a cheerful demeanour.
In the poorest and most miserable places on earth, you find the most strong-minded people.

“For their part, the families are often extremely poor, and sometimes even relieved to have one less mouth to feed. Poverty, conflict and poor education lay the foundation for accusations”.

Big surprise. It’s amazing what poverty does to people.

I agree that part of what is going on in Nigeria is rooted in their underlying culture. And missionary work certainly goes back hundreds maybe thousands of years, including during the colonization of the US. Heck, I grew up in the Catholic school system, and I remember well collecting pennies to “baptize pagan babies” the nuns let us suggest names for the poor things, luckily they could rein in our baser instincts by insisting on using saint’s names only .

But doesn’t you break it you bought it apply here? How does it work with the christian ethic to disclaim responsibility for such a horror on the grounds of “we lost touch”? It’s OK for the parent organization to found churches in third world countries and then turn them loose to figure the rest out on their own?

If I go over to my neighbours house, and show him how to put someone in an armbar, and after I leave, he starts using it to break peoples arms, am I responsible for his actions?

@RedPowerLady I think at this point, it’s native pastors who are working the witch concession.

Has anyone else ever heard of Nollywood? Apparently, Nigerian cinema has exploded over the last 10–20 years into the second largest film industry in the world in terms of numbers of films, after Bollywood and ahead of Hollywood. A lot of the films promote christianity or islam and some are overtly evangelical. One of the Nollywood blockbusters is called End of the Wicked and it’s a rabble rouser about child witches who eat the flesh of their victims.
Here is a link to a BBC documentary that came out about this issue about a year ago. At the end of the blog is a link to a 9 minute clip from End of the Wicked.

@hookecho how about if you anoint the neighbor as a holy policeman before you leave?

“The Nigerian witch trials”. Sounds like the parents need to be strung up alongside the pastors! I wouldn’t do anything to harm either of my children just because some loon told me they were witches or even demons!

@hookecho Okay after reading @magsrags response I understand what you are saying now. And it certainly makes more sense to me now. However I respectfully disagree to a point. If you go to your neighbors house and teach him how to put someone in an armbar but forget to teach him about safety precautions then you would be responsible to a point. Also lets say you give a young man a gun, he goes out and shoots someone with it. You didn’t do a background check or anything like that then you are somewhat responsible. Well that is what the law says as retail gun owners get in trouble for that. Or I also like @MagsRags example.

Of course now I will agree that the community is responsible to a degree. But we also have to understand how colonization works, it works at a level of brainwashing. So that does again make the church responsible on another level.

@MagsRags thank you for clarifying, makes a bit more sense what the argument was now

@hookecho
That’s not exactly a perfect analogy.

This behaviour is the darkest side imaginable of a bad habit the missionaries explicitly supported – superstition. Perhaps if the missionaries had stayed at home, something like this still would have happened. But if they would have taught the natives to be reasonable rather than trying to replace the native arbitrary beliefs with their own, this definitely wouldn’t have happened.
They could have brought the fruits and lessons of the West’s rich scientific history to Africa. Who knows what level of prosperity these nations could have attained by now if the missionaries had done that instead? But instead of sharing the best aspects of our culture, they shared the worst.

It’s not our responsability to help anyone. The only people willing to go over there and help were missionairies. Yes, they have done a lot of bad, but they have also done a lot of good in terms of building wells, schools, ect. Im an athiest myself, but I don’t see many athiests willing to go to Nigeria and work digging wells for a year. Yes they have caused some evil with their backwards religious thinking, but again, they were the ones who were willing to go over there and try and help people in the first place.

@Fyrius Good well worded response.

@hookecho That is a good point. I would like to see more programs aimed at international help that do not involve missionary work. Of course these are grown adults who should no better than teaching such horrible values.

@hookecho
Right. Good intentions, misguided approach.
That sums up most of what religion ever does.

@MagsRags
“At the end of the blog is a link to a 9 minute clip from End of the Wicked.”
I watched this clip. Some observations.
The first thing I noticed is that this is a really bad film, about the level of not particularly successful American films from the sixties. The second thing I noticed is that what is presented in it seems like something that a Western twelve year old would feel silly about believing. The constant “wooo” noises are the icing on the cake.

If this managed to become a blockbuster there, I wonder what would happen to Nollywood if I would start exporting American, European and Asian films to Nigeria.

I would start with educational science documentaries like Carl Sagan’s Cosmos.

@hookecho it seems to me that the playing field has been stacked against non-religious aid organizations by our government’s insistence on bringing evangelical christian principals into the decisions on what organizations get funding.

@MagsRags good point

I’m uncomfortable with the the idea that “we” have to “teach the natives” anything. It smacks of Rudyard Kipling and the White Man’s Burden and all that. But how far do we go in letting people determine their own beliefs and values, though, if they’re killing innocent people? It’s a problem. Where does the nose end and the other’s fist begin?

I believe it’s ultimately the responsibility of those pastors who took it upon themselves to accuse and murder children. These aren’t stupid people by any stretch. They must be held accountable for their actions, regardless of the belief system they follow. And it seems like they’re doing this as much, if not more, for the financial as spiritual aspect.

How do you stop the killings without getting self-righteous about belief systems?

@aprilsimnel I’m uncomfortable with the the idea that “we” have to “teach the natives” anything I completely agree with this sentiment. Although when resources have been taken away from the ‘natives’ because of colonization I am in favor of re-supplying them.

Sort of like fortifying bleached flour with a handful of vitamins and minerals?

OMG. The ignorance…..

@aprilsimnel
“Where does the nose end and the other’s fist begin?”
You deserve +1 lurve points just for that formulation.

this is not a new thing at all . the lies about witchcraft by the “church” , and the social programing and faith “cola wars” . have been going on since christianity was invented . it still goes on today in your hometown . if you think witchcraft is “evil” instead of knowing that it is a nature loving , hearbal healing , caring practice that was bashed by the church with smear campaigns etc… just the result of a onesided faith war… ..getting bad ??? .... look how bad it was….http://www.evilbible.com/Murder.htm link

@The_Anonymous_Witch
I’m convinced witch hunts were there long before Christianity came around, too.
But that doesn’t make it less horrifying, disappointing and embarrassing to us as a species that people still persecute people for impossible crimes, one decade into the third millennium.

I’m also pretty sure the “witchcraft” these children are tortured for is separate from the tradition you associate with, by the way.

the form or “witchcraft” is different….... but the fear driven social programing to combat it for someone elses gain is the same . ...............by the way .

@The_Anonymous_Witch
I’m not even sure there was any deliberate social programming involved. I think magical thinking and scapegoat psychology are matters of basic human instinct. People are miserable, they don’t know what to do about it, they don’t want to feel powerless, they make shit up. The more powerless they feel, the more strongly they will believe in the shit they made up, the more violently they will punish the innocent.

But yeah, other than that, it’s pretty much the same load of dung.

if there wasen’t any deliberate social programming involved.. it would have been one person killing one “witch” and it would be called murder. in africa christianity is more popular than many think .. many places have only the O.T to go by . what do you think put the idea in their head ?