Witchcraft in Nigeria: Di man wey dey fights ‘witch hunters’

Activist Leo Igwe is at the forefront of efforts to help accuse pipo of witchcraft in Nigeria as it could destroy their lives and could even get them lynched.

“I’m not in a position to take it anymore. You know, just to stay and watch pipo get killed at random,” Dr Igwe told the BBC.

After completing my PhD in religious studies by 2017, they are restless. I don’t write well about witchcraft and, frustrated, they say that the academy does not allow me to seriously address this practice.

The BBC sees no evidence of Nigerian Pentecostal pastors holding services to attack suspected witches, a practice Dr Igwe says is normal for Kontri as many believe in the supernatural.

Warning: This article contains details that may bother some readers.

So Dr. Igwe created Advocacy For Alleged Witches, an organization that focuses on “the use of compassion, reason and science to save the lives of two people affected by superstition.”

Dr. Igwe’s prevention work extends to Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe and beyond.

One of the members of the organization helping in Nigeria is Jude, 33 years old. By August, dem bin intervened when e bin chop accused and were beaten in Benue state.

Jude, a glazier, also working part-time for the bank, says he was on his way to work one morning when he ran into a boy carrying two heavy flasks of water and made me comment on the boy’s physical agility. .

The boy does not take kindly to the comments, but continues on his way.

Later, a mob of about 15 pipo bin followed Jude and threw stones at him. Among the dem na di boy wey e bin we greeted before.

“The young people may also start fighting with me, they will try to set me on fire,” Jude said.

They accuse me of having made the boy’s penis disappear through witchcraft, they accuse me of shock and it is not true.

Reports of men missing are common in some parts of West Africa.

It is claimed to be unrelated to Koro syndrome, a mental illness known as disappearance hysteria or genital retraction.

A psychiatric disorder marked by a severe and irrational fear says that some genital organs fail or retract into the victim’s body.

Dr Igwe said Jude lost his banking job because of the stigma surrounding the allegation.

A video of a violent gbas-gbos witch hunt also started circulating on Facebook, when Dr. Igwe and my team took notice and started investigating.

“They took me (Jude) out naked, you know, brutalized,” Dr. Igwe said. “First, we find out how they are carried out.”

On WhatsApp, Dr. Igwe is an influencer of sorts.

Over the past few years, we have created and curated WhatsApp groups for different states in Nigeria.

These groups are filled with dozens of concerned citizens they call “advocates.” They share viral videos and photos of witch accusations and try to intervene when the fish make accusations against Dia Patch.

“We can communicate with am (Jude). We can send me some money to take care of my wounds. We rehabilitate ourselves socially,” Dr Igwe said.

The group also agrees to pay Jude’s college fees, in the hope of starting over.

Many of Africa’s most populous Kontri believe in and live in fear of witches and the diabolical powers they supposedly possess.

Financial problems, illness or infertility are often attributed to witchcraft.

Those who are accused are often vulnerable. Most of the time they are very young or very old, sometimes they have physical or mental disabilities, and they often live in poverty.

According to Nigeria Watch, a website that monitors violence in the country through media reports, eight deaths stemming directly from witchcraft accusations by 2024.

The BBC never independently verifies these figures, but has previously reported on assaults and murders of pipo wey accused of witchcraft in Nigeria and beyond.

Advocacy For Suspected Witches organizes public seminars in August to mark World Day Against Witch Hunts.

“Belief in witchcraft or the (di)supernatural in Nigeria is cultural,” said Dr Olaleye Kayode, Senior Lecturer in African Indigenous Religions at the University of Ibadan.

“Belief says that witches are supernatural beings that God created to stir up the affairs of the Earth,” he adds, while the state says that ignorance causes pipo to promote witch hunts.

We blame the witch hunt in Nigeria primarily on the preaching of “foreign religions” such as Christianity and Islam, but we recognize that traditional religions also “wage war” against witches.

Dr Igwe said some of the testimonies of many influential Pentecostal Christian pastors reinforce superstitions about witchcraft, saying that “any alleged witch is dangerous to society, does not deserve mercy and we assume they will be killed.”

While some of this church’s events were marketed as deliverance services, in August one of them was advertised with the theme “Say the Witch Must Die.”

The church behind the bin trail event has 20,000 followers on social media.

When Dr Igwe saw an Imo State billboard advertising it, he wrote several petitions to the local authorities, as well as some articles to the local media, to try to get it canceled.

E bin goes ahead anyway, although Advocacy For Alleged Witches bin observers and continues to lobby against similar events.

Church officials never responded to the BBC’s request for comment.

No one was killed by the Imo State event, but the “witch must die” rhetoric coming from churches can lead to hatred and violence, Dr Igwe said.

And many Nigerian churches oppose that kind attitude.

“Casting out demons and not killing those who are possessed by demons based on what we know from the ministry of Jesus,” said Julius Osimen, senior pastor of Global Citizens Church in Lagos.

Oga Osimen bin describes any preaching that encourages witch hunts as a misinterpretation of Bible verses.

“When Jesus comes, he will come with better understanding. “You are not going to kill pipo wey who are possessed or oppressed by demons, you are simply going to expel the demons,” he says.

Dr. Igwe’s work comes at a personal cost. He says he was not beaten three times to intervene on behalf of those they accuse of being witches and acknowledges that my wife and children express no concern for my safety.

But the activist says there is nothing that can slow or stop him from intervening: “I have realized that I need to step forward and try to provide leadership.”

In Nigeria, it is not a crime to accuse or threaten to accuse anyone who says they are a witch or have the power of witchcraft.

And it carries a maximum prison sentence of two years. However, prosecutions and convictions are not common.

In 2021, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution condemning human rights violations associated with witchcraft; However, such accusations continue in much of Africa, as well as in other places, such as India and Papua New Guinea.

“Trying to end the witch hunt is a challenge and we’re not supposed to romanticize it in any way by trying to say, ‘Oh, it’s not part of our culture,’” Dr. Igwe said.

“Don’t be part of our culture of killing our parents. Don’t be part of our culture of killing innocent pipo.”