From the Observer:
The rainy season is over and the Niger Delta is lush and humid. This southern edge of West Africa, where Nigeria's wealth pumps out of oil and gas fields to bypass millions of its poorest people, is a restless place. In the small delta state of Akwa Ibom, the tension and the poverty has delivered an opportunity for a new and terrible
phenomenon that is leading to the abuse and the murder of hundreds, perhaps
thousands, of children. And it is being done in the name of Christianity.
....
But an exploitative situation has now grown into something much more sinister as preachers are turning their attentions to children - naming them as witches. In a maddened state of terror, parents and whole villages turn on the child. They are burnt, poisoned, slashed, chained to trees, buried alive or simply beaten and chased off into the bush.
Sam Ikpe-Itauma is one of the few who does not believe the stories of the children being witches. He began taking in the abandoned, abused children and now has 131. The children are packed onto a concrete hut, three to a bed. The stories that the children tell are horrifying. I can tell you that I could hardly read to the end of the article.
In some areas every fourth building is a church, so competition among the "pastors" is fierce. The names on the churches are New Testament Assembly, Church of God Mission, Mount Zion Gospel, Glory of God, Brotherhood of the Cross, Redeemed, Apostalistic. The "pastors" get most of their income from "deliverances". Even if the parents abandon or even kill the child who is thought to be a witch, the "pastors" must do a "deliverance" on them because a spell has been cast. The exercise sometimes costs three or four months salary for the family. The first "deliverance" is not guaranteed to work, and a second may be required.
Ikpe-Itauma says that children disappear, but no one turns in reports.
There is a video at the site, but I could not finish watching.
By the end of the story, Sam Ikpe-Itauma has 133 children living in the hut, with the addition of five year old twin boys, whom their mother and their whole village have declared to be witches.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Who taught these people that Christianity is a defensive faith built on fear and hatred and shown forth in violence?
ReplyDeleteAnd why, why, why?
Nina, I have no words. My heart is broken by these stories. And this cruelty is done in the name of the Lord. That's blasphemy.
ReplyDeletejust awful. so sad.
ReplyDeletesounds like not only fear, but exploiting the families for money as well...
ReplyDeleteDiane, the "pastors" seem to be in it for the money, and, of course, to get the money, they have to make people afraid - in these cases, afraid of their own children! This is despicable.
ReplyDeleteGrandmère, A passage from my childhood bible study comes to mind, Matthew 18:6 "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." That is KJV, because that was how I learned it in my youth. One might think that these so-called pastors might be familiar enough with the scriptures to have at least read that verse. With all of that going on in Nigeria, one would also suppose that "Big Pete" should have better things to do than to worry about who is sleeping with whom and marriage rites in the American Church.
ReplyDeleteOn my trip to Sierra Leone, I found that this was common. One of the children our mission leader adopted has epilepsy, and he was cast out of the village at an early age as being demon possessed. Children are also often given drugs (cocaine, or worse) and then called witches when the physical reactions to the drugs occur.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this is all caused by "Christian" pastors, local witch doctors, or a combination of fundamentalist Christian punishment/fear based theology and local practices.
It is heart breaking, to say the least. And I'm afraid we are nearly powerless to stop it. Just as these folks won't listen to reason regarding homosexuality, they won't listen to reason regarding this, either.
Education is the key. Increase education in Africa, make the continent literate, create jobs and improve economies, and change may occur.
It's probably the warped new religion laid over the old beliefs in witches and witch doctors that make it easy for the "pastors" to frighten the people and line their own pockets.
ReplyDeleteEducation is the key.
"Who taught these people...?" Partly, obviously, indigenous superstition, coated with a veneer of Christianity. In addition, the British colonies in Central and West Africa were principally evangelized by Evengelical missionaries, with their rigid, sin-oriented God. It is these folk who the lovely Martyn Minns and Chris Sugden, his British counterpart and co-conspirator, are using as cat's-paws in the intended Anglican Communion putsch.
ReplyDeleteA Victorian nonsense rhyme keeps running through my head:
"If I were a Cassowary,
On the plains of Timbuctu,
I would eat a missionary,
Cassock, bands, and hymn-book too."
A cassowary is a large, attractive, flight-less bird found in New Guinea and NE Australia, but whatever. Timbuktu is in W Africa, tho'
Boocat, Matthew in the KJV has the word.
ReplyDeleteBig Pete could sneak a peek at the mess in his own back yard before he sets out to clean up other folks' places.
Lapin, maybe we could get a cassowary or two or three on a freighter to Nigeria and give them a nice meal.
This is so dreadful that I have no words. You ended the piece very appropriately:
ReplyDeleteLord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Wish we could get those kids away from there.
ReplyDeleteJan, I'm struck nearly dumb, too.
ReplyDeleteNina, that was my thought, too.
This strikes me as the critical observation in the Guardian article: Although old tribal beliefs in witch doctors are not so deeply buried in people's memories, and although there had been indigenous Christians in Nigeria since the 19th century, it is American and Scottish Pentecostal and evangelical missionaries of the past 50 years who have shaped these fanatical beliefs.
ReplyDeleteThis horror is what happens when one culture is broken by violence and another culture (also broken) is superimposed. That is, we are looking at: conquest and rapid change forming a toxic mix. Brings to mind Karen Armstrong's demonstration that fundamentalism is a modern response to modern life.
More familiar societies, our own at times, have behaved similarly. We exorcise to try to control the uncontrollable. We don't live gracefully with being out of control.
Lord have mercy.
I watched the whole video and am weeping deeply. Oh my, oh my.
ReplyDeleteNow I did send it to my friend who is a news executive, but I know the establishment around us will not show this story.
Why? Because they seek ratings. What gets ratings? Mall shootings and Brittany's private parts.
I am disgusted to think that, but it seems to be true.
My heart cries and prays for these little ones. We see that evil is alive and well in this video.
Lord have mercy is right.
We don't live gracefully with being out of control.
ReplyDeleteJan, that is so very true. When things seem to be getting out of control, we search for a scapegoat and then proceed to attack.
Fran, thanks for trying. American corporations do business with the government of Nigeria, and one would hope that they would exercise pressure to improve conditions in the country, but that seems a vain hope, too. And as for the US government, well....
Very little of the country's wealth trickles down to the people of the country.
We've had this in the weekend newspapers here too. It defies belief and I know that at some stage someone will talk to me about this and say: "So you're a Christian too."
ReplyDeleteTake note. This is the same brand of Christianity as Akinola comes from. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
DP, it boggles this old mind that folks in any part of the Episcopal Church or the Anglican Communion would choose to align themselves with Abp. Akinola.
ReplyDeleteLord have mercy, indeed. I heard about this last week, but this is the first actual report I've seen. Heaven help those children. I wish I could.
ReplyDelete(Are these the evolved Christians that MadPriest was referring to as compared to brutal Islam?)
Yes LJ, I was thinking that too.
ReplyDeleteNo religion is inherently evil. Religion is a tool, like a hammer. You can use it to build a house or to smash someone's skull.
Grandmère Mimi, thanks for posting this story. I read zillions of political and news blogs but this is the first I've heard of it.
So has Akinola ever weighed in on this issue? Or is something evil only if it's gay?
LJ, I don't know the answer to your question. The churches seem to be pentecostal in their worship style and are not Anglican churches.
ReplyDeleteI know that Abp. Akinola rules the Anglican Church of Nigeria like an autocrat and is hostile to gays and lesbians to the point of supporting imprisonment for them and those in sympathy with them.
PJ, I don't know whether Akinola has talked about this, but someone should ask him to intervene on behalf of the children. He might not do it, but someone should put him on the spot.
And yet, echoes of the theologies behind such "deliverances" can be found within various more Pentecostal strands of Christianity accross the world, and not just within African churches or cultures. I've seen this happen in the UK.
ReplyDeleteGrace, welcome. "Deliverances" are still done here in the US, too, and they're sometimes taken to extremes of actually doing harm to the children.
ReplyDeleteThe article makes the point that it's always defenseless children and not adults who are the victims of the horrors.
Thanks for visiting.
Mimi, I have emailed the Guardian asking for contact information so that donations can be made to the people sheltering the children; if I hear back, I will let you know.
ReplyDeleteNina, thank you. Please let me know. I would so much like to help the folks who give the children shelter.
ReplyDeleteMy heart prayers go out to these children and their parents. If you would like to help you could sign three petitions I've created.
ReplyDeleteIf you would like to learn more about the children please visit here:
http://childwitches.blogspot.com/
If you would like to read and sign the petitions please visit here:
http://childwitches.blogspot.com/2008/01/petitions.html
Thank you for speading the word.
God bless you,
Kelli
Kelli, I'd like to help, but the dark gray text on the black page of the blog that you linked to is unreadable.
ReplyDeleteI apologize for the inconvenience. The text has been fixed, you are welcome to come back.
ReplyDeleteEducation is NOT the key.
ReplyDeleteOr at least not in the way many people seem to think it is.
In Europe, the Great European Witch Hunt took place on the cusp of modernity, and now something similar is happening in Africa as it enters modernity. See Christian Responses to Witchcraft and Sorcery