Research Rabbit Hole: Ghana’s Witch Camps

As a writer, you read about some weird stuff. It’s all about where the research rabbit holes take you. For me, those rabbit holes can provide a plethora of writing and plotting gold. The deeper you go into the internet, the more incredible the results. This week, I am going to take a moment to share with you one of the most disturbing facts I have learned about this week from my rampant and wanton internet search rabbit hole: Ghana’s Witch Camps.

Now I haven’t done a whole lot of research into this, but it is enough to catch my attention and give me an unsettled feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Ghana is a country in West Africa and it is the home to six Witch Camps (or has been- I am not 100% sure of the current status of these places as the most recent reporting I can find is from 2016). These places aren’t some twist on Hogwarts- they aren’t a magical summer retreat for African kids. No, think of them more of a cross between refugee camps and internment camps.

There is a lot of superstition and beliefs surrounding the concept of witches in the African continent. Depending on where you are, they can range from powerful religious leaders such as the Isangoma of the Zulu peoples, to innocent children labeled as witches to be ostracized and shunned by their communities as a scapegoat for whatever ill befalls someone (common practice in Nigeria). It broke my heart to learn that the accused are children are different- either mentally or physically- and left to essentially fend for themselves or die as a scapegoat and labeled as a witch. This is another rabbit hole to go down as the situation with the church and witch doctors can exacerbate this particular issue. But back to the original topic. In Sierra Leone, the elderly are typically accused of witchcraft. As per tradition, they are gathered together and taken care of so that their life as a witch is often times more comfortable and happier than if they were not accused. It’s an odd form of senior care.

It’s important to note that often times being accused of witchcraft has nothing to do with magic at all. Instead one could be accused of black magic by having a successful crop while your neighbor does not, or if you are not protected by a male figure (family, husband, etc), or if you are deemed mentally unfit or undesirable to have around the village, then you are considered weak and a good candidate for witchcraft accusations.

In Ghana, if you are accused of witchcraft, your community will turn against you, you will be shunned and you will suffer greatly for many years. You’ll probably be banished or have the ever present threat of violence against you via mob justice. Many banished women go to one of the six Witch Camps open in Ghana, which, from their perspective, is the only life-saving choice.

Witch Camps are run by local chieftains. The women who flee to them are given meager rations, small, under ventilated huts, and jobs working the land or doing menial labor. Depending on which camp, there could be dozens to hundreds of women in the same situation. Food is scarce, health care isn’t an option, and while there are many outside aid/relief charities, the number of women fleeing to the camps is growing.

 At the Gambaga camp, the Gambarana (Chief) has an ancestral talent for determining if you are actually the witch you are accused of being. If you are cleared, then that could be your way to go back to your family and your community with a clean slate. There’s some sort of ritual involved, but I am not sure what precisely it is.

However, reintegration with one’s family and community is often difficult and still incredibly dangerous. Once there are suspicions of witchcraft thrown about, it’s hard to get back to a normal way of life and many end up dead after trying to go back. Many women therefore opt to stay in the camps despite the harsh and difficult life they provide.

The Ghana government is in the process of shutting down these camps as they are seen to be a human rights violation. The women who are there are being re-integrated into their communities with limited success. This tends to be problematic as while the camps aren’t exactly the best place, they are better than the situations these women have fled from.

This is definitely a topic I intend on researching a bit more, but I wanted to share what my rabbit hole research has uncovered.

Smiles,

Kira

Where has Kira been?

It’s been awhile since I contributed to this blogsphere. In my defense, my life has been a veritable whirlwind of activity.

What’s been going on, you may wonder? Well? I’ve just finished a very personal project that’s taken almost a decade from conception to completion. Many of you have probably seen my posts about Fair to Middling- a book I began working on along with my grandpa. As of the writing of this blog, I’m waiting for the first print run to be delivered. I’ll talk about this specific project in a later blog as it’s vastly different than what I usually like to create.

Some of you may be familiar with Azra’s parenting blogs. Well, based on the relative success of those, he effectively Patrick Swayze’d me into getting an illustrated parenting guide into production.  (Yes he kept me up during all hours of the night. No, it wasn’t just the song Henry the 8th. It was so much worse...) I’m working very closely with a new talented artist and anticipate this comic-like publication to come in the next year or so. Stay tuned for more details!

I’ve also begun a new, unrelated project that is sending me down so many research rabbit holes. I absolutely love this part of creating a new story, but it has eaten up a crazy amount of time. I’ll go more into this in a separate blog post.

Then there’s been the madness of my day job and the constant struggle of maintaining some semblance of sanity. It’s not leaving a lot of time for blog updates.

But all this is about to change! Fall has arrived and I don’t know about you, but when things start to cool off in the desert, there’s a definite sense of renewal. It’s October- our favorite time of year and I’m even more energized to make sure my blogs are up to date and to get all of these projects that are floating around out there into production and ready for you.

There’s so much we have planned in the upcoming months. I can’t wait to share it all with you.

Also, Azra can’t wait to get back to dispensing his fabulous (read- horrible) advice.

Thanks for bearing with me!

Smiles,

Kira

How To Stop Online Dystopian Politics From Killing America

Politics was never the center of my life. I’m not an avid news consumer. In fact, the only reason I’ve picked up the political awareness is that I am working on a story where one of the characters is supposed to save the world. For research purposes, I lifted my head and started paying attention to what was happening in my country.

That’s when I fell down the rabbit hole.

I now completely understand the old adage “never discuss politics or religion”.

Being a reasonably intelligent person, this sudden descent into the cut-throat arena of American politics has been... well, the best way to put it is that it’s an experience I will never forget. This is probably because our entire culture has been saturated in extreme politics. There’s simply no escaping it because it is everywhere; social media, biased news reports, protests, work places, schools, the list goes on and on. There is no middle ground in this arena; there is only right or wrong and you are on one side or the other. This extremism is ripping this country apart.

The question is are we, as a society, already too far down the afore mentioned rabbit hole? Have we come too far down this twisted path of fake news, corrupt government, and pretenses of social justice? I’d be lying if my rage at the sheer lack of common human decency we display didn’t make me wish for some sort of apocalypse. Yeah. It’s pretty messed up when it seems that the only way to fix how broken we’ve become is to nuke it all and start over.

However, despite these nihilistic thoughts, I believe there’s still a kernel of hope for us. There is a way for us to back away from this brink.

You see, what is missing from all of the online screaming and frantic keyboard warriors is the calm voice of someone who strives to understand all sides of an issue. Someone who is not extreme. Someone who understands that nothing is black and white in this world of ours. The very things that make us human- our emotions, our intelligence, our rationality, and our compassion all have a place in our dialogues. The divisiveness we are all experiencing is the direct result of no longer having the ability to balance these things. A lack of moderation. We need to put aside all of this partisan bullshit and work together towards common goals. We are sorely deficient in rational, yet empathetic voices of the average, non-politically charged American.

I am not that person yet, but I am trying to be.

What’s more, I believe that you have it in you to be one too. In fact, if we, as Americans, are going to survive this explosion of extremism, our country desperately needs everyone to be rational adults about things.  We all need to change. We all need to be better.

Here’s how we can start.

1.       Listen to each other respectfully and with the intent to understand. We are so caught up in the echo chambers of our own points of view that it’s easy to alienate and vilify those that don’t think like us. Stop it. Make a point to understand different opinions. Ask questions to understand. Empathize. If you don’t agree, then say politely that you disagree. That is okay. I promise, disagreeing with someone, when done in a mature fashion, does not end a relationship. Have mature, adult conversations.

2.       Understand that most things on the internet and social media (especially memes and “info” graphics) are not true. Did you know anyone can put anything on the internet? As a result, it’s full of inaccuracies, opinions, and it’s a breeding ground for fake news and rumors. A good practice is to treat anything you read on social media as entertainment. Do not take it seriously. Social media is a place for fun and connecting with people. It is not a platform for social justice or divisiveness.

3.       If, for some reason, you fall for that incredibly poignant political post (and believe me, I’ve been there), please oh please research it. Look the topic up in different sources. Verify all the information in it is correct. Recognize whether it is an opinion or if it is a fact. Now, this process can be very problematic. Like I said before, we are inundated with incredible amounts of biased information. Fact-checking is no longer a simple process. A good rule of thumb is to find at least 3 independent sources to corroborate the information. The more sources the better, but shoot for at least 3. Be sure to understand the sources- ask yourself is the source reputable? Does it show any bias?

4.       When you feel the need to share or repost something of a controversial nature, stop. Think twice and consider the following criteria:

                   a.       Is it fact or opinion?

                   b.       Is it intentionally hurtful? (Examples: “stupid snowflakes”, “Nazi alt-right” “Lazy millennials”, etc.). Typically, if there’s name calling, it’s a bad idea. We are better than that, so let’s act like it.

                   c.       Will posting this start or propel forward a meaningful conversation?

5.       It’s alright to say you don’t know something and it’s not going to be the end of the world if you change your mind. These points were brought up at a recent Frank Turner show I went to. They stuck with me because it’s absolutely true. We are intelligent beings, but there is no way we can know everything about every topic. It’s human to admit that you don’t know something, but it takes real integrity to start asking questions and learning about what you don’t understand. If we don’t allow ourselves to learn, to change, to adapt with all of this new information, we will never grow beyond this point.

If everyone in America can embrace and consistently practice these 5 things, I truly believe we can turn our society around. We can stop dystopian politics in their tracks. We can stop the fake news cycles by not participating in them any longer. We can create the kind of America that we’ve always wanted, the one we’ve dreamed about.

We just have to do this together.

United We Stand,

Kira