We are in the exact middle of the fresh lifeless 12 months, and with all the inhale I believe instance I am inhaling sandpaper. The audience is going towards Gambaga, a small town from the Eastern Mamprusi district, where we’ll visit a notorious camp-among the many six in the region-home to up to one hundred ladies who was indeed cast out-by their families and you may organizations after being accused out-of witchcraft.
But not, the job isn’t as easy as we believe: Nobody is permitted to check out the witches without any permission out of new Gambaga Rana, nearby head. I direct toward chief’s palace, in which we hold off and you may waiting.
The guy assurances united states that the witches do not have efforts as they come into this new go camping. The chief took them all out, and even though it alive here, they can’t harm people with the miracle.
Even after getting a generally Religious and you will profoundly spiritual country-during the 2013, this new Winnings-Gallup International ‘Religion and you can Atheism Index’ has actually proclaimed Ghana because most spiritual nation globally, with 96 percent of the inhabitants claiming on their own while the religious-the combination of thinking one can possibly find the country is breathtaking. New Northern area gathers an exceptionally colourful blend of Christians, Muslims and you will Animists. Brand new spectacle from church buildings, mosques and you will sacrificial pagan altars, sometimes all in an identical brief community, is actually dizzying.
Just what all these have commonly, regardless of if, is the religion inside the witchcraft. For the Ghana, you can believe black secret behind all misfortune: death, problem, alcoholism, mental disease (a defectively realized question), a detrimental collect, or loss of animals. Ladies, from this point of look at, is actually easy goals-especially elderly ones otherwise widows who aren’t protected by guys any more, or individuals who express a similar husband.
The new witch go camping isn’t as separated away from Gambaga whenever i questioned. It’s inside the middle of the metropolis, one of many houses of your own casual populace of your village. That isn’t surrounded by a wall, nor is it safeguarded in any way. It is simply a traditional north Ghanaian town, an excellent labyrinth from bullet adobe domiciles that have thatched roofs, the casual wood hut, guinea fowl, and goats roaming 100 % free around the house.
In the end, a large boy appears and brings up themselves because the chief’s associate, and you may teaches you he might possibly be escorting you around the town
We’re nearly instantly watched of the a group of barefoot youngsters, all curious and playful. But aside from him or her, the brand new village appears blank. It will require sometime to begin with viewing the newest faces of your popular witches, at first peeking off about screen and you may mud walls, then desired you politely and you may carrying on and their everyday tasks. He could be timid however, agree to feel snap, several actually giving me a delicate smile. Many is more mature, and many provides stayed in the brand new witch go camping for over 3 decades. It abandoned its husbands and delivered kids together. Instead of many women inside Africa, they do not have any kind of men within life however the men he is raising themselves.
Therefore we go home to own check outs, however, 
we don’t are here
This new witches’ representative, the latest oldest witch regarding town and their leader, suits me that have a skeptical search, but believes to dicuss to me. Regarding her We learn that in reality he’s able to wade when they for example, but which they choose to not ever (unless of course their loved ones inquire about the go back), fearing brand new reactions of the neighborhood: “Our very own families visit us. If the our very own some body started right here, asking for us to go back household, we perform. Otherwise, i stay static in the fresh go camping. Here, we have been safer, and we is free.”