Archives for November 2010

I,m writing in the Kinshasa offices of Save the Children on a French keyboard that,s driving me out of my mind. Can,t find the apostrophe at all. Horrid. But here goes anyway.

Another facinating day yesterday; beginning with meeting the religious leaders. They were a charming group of men, full of laughs, who regarded their work as being equally that of social workers as religious men. There were pastors, prophets, evangelists, doctors and apostles there, and they explained to me what each one was – but that’s for another time. Almost everyone here belongs to one church or another, and these are people who carry a great deal of weight.

One of these men, a prophet, explained to me the nature of witchcraft. There are two domains, this physical one and spiritual domains. It seems that most of the accusations of witchcraft against children are either from ignorance or from malice. Or to give it another name – fear;

Fear has it,s roots in a far more difficult problem – poverty. When a couple separate, the children, if they are over the age of five, go with the father, who then remarries. The new wife has many reasons to dislike her step children – resources and inheritance for example. Her baby falls ill, she does not know why … the children from the previous marriqge qre qcting oddly … It does not take a very difficult child to attract the blame, here as in the world over.

Many people do not understand the nature of many of the problems and ailments of childhood. This is why such things as bed wetting, skin disease, talking in the sleep, or the unexplained deaths of family members are often at the root of such accusations. Once there is a scientific explanation, the idea of witchcraft is dropped.

And this is the root of the good work Save the Children is doing over here. In a country with so much misfortune, so few resources and so little education, people find themselves struck with troubles from all sides that they have no explanation for. Educating the pastors or the parents in the physical explanation, quickly illiminates the root of the explanation. This is not hard, and not expensive, which is why these programmes have such a high success rate – up to 80 per cent from a single meeting.

Of course, the belife in witchcraft persist, and the accusations will continue for a long time. The religious leaders told me one or two stories that had in their view no explanation in this realm. But the good news is that such cases are rare, and that the current epidemic of accusations against children can be wiped out quickly. With a bit of luck? The child witches of Kinshasa can be all but gone in a short while. This frightening and apparently incomprehensible phenomonen is the bastard child of the usual suspects – poverty and ignorance. But unlike some of it,s brothers and sisters, it is possible to wipe it out simply with talking.

So – my wish for the next decade; to see the child witches wiped utterly out, and witchcraft, which destroys families and casts little children out onto the street, retreat back to the few isolated cases that it once was.

Finally – another matter. Anyone who know,s me know, how much I love stories, and I,ve already mentioned collecting some while I,m here. Yesterday afternoon we went to an open center for street kids, a drop in place to for children with no home to wash, eat, get medical attention and so on. After their lunch, I told them … the three little pigs. It,s a good one, because all the huffing and puffing crosses any language barrier – although I had an interpreter of course. And it,s a good one – the children of all ages loved it. The result – a barrage of stories off all kinds; They,re all written down – and they are for another ti,e as well. If possible I,d love to publish a collection of them for Save the Children. Anyone interested out there? I have a load already. I,m hoping to get more next week on the next part of my trip.

Oh – and a piece of good news from home. My TV and online piece The Well won the Royal TV Award for best Children,s programme. How bout that? Fingers crossed for the Bafta,s next week.

That,s all from me for now. Tomorrow morning, I,m off up the Congo river with Gocongo, a travel company specialising in traveling to pygmy villages. I,m hoping to collect more stories there. I shall be offline for a week. I,ll report more when I get back;

A mixture of a day today. We spent the morning visiting the OCPR, one of the main partners of Save the Children here in Kinshasa. They operate five centres around the town, all dealing with the street kids – some of the m open centres for children to drop by, some of them residential to look after children and to try to reunite them with their families. They say that around 70% of street children are out of their homes because of witch craft allegations.
I asked the heads of the centres to tell me stories about children that had particularly affected them and we heard several, including what must be the worst case so far. A little boy, aged about 8, whose hands and feet had been burned with hot iron by his aunt, until he was barely able to walk or use his hands at all. His mother had left the boy with his aunt to look after him while she was away on business. The centre took care of him. When his mother returned, she fainted to see the terrible damage that had been done to her boy.
This boy’s story was so all the sadder, because he seemed to have such a very loving nature. He had been convinced by his aunt that he was indeed a witch – she hated him so much, he explained, that was why he believed it himself. No one who loved a witch like him could be anything but a witch themselves.
The social worked asked him, Well, but what about me? I like you. Am I a witch too? Ah, no, replied the boy. When you pray for me, it makes me feel safe.
Sadly the boy died of his injuries after his parents took him away.
Fiona from Save the Children, asked how they deal with children who believe themselves to be witches? How do they approach this. The secret it seems, is to treat the children with love. Then after a while, the belief that they are witches simply falls away …
Love; always the best treatment for any child, witch or not.
After we went to visit one of the residential centres, for girls. We found a row of little girls, aged about 7 to 12, who insisted on putting on their best dresses for us. We had a story telling session; I told them stories, through the interpreter, and they told me some of their’s. I told them Red Riding Hood, the Sleeping Beauty and the Three Little Pigs. They told me three in exchange – a fair swop! One story about a woman who went to get meat from the pygmies, who then tried to eat her; another, a lovely Congolese version of Cinderella, Sandra and Sandrine; but in this version, the fairy godmother was the girls’ dead mother – and she was not always a pleasant person! And finally, the story of Pipi Danga, who didn’t listen to her mother and got trapped in a drum and was made to sing when the drum was beaten. The girl who told the story sang the song and danced the dance … Pipi Danga, oh, Pipi Danga. We recorded it. Maybe, later on, if I put some of these stories up on my website, you can hear it, too.

These are the signs by which you may recognise if your child is a witch.
1 Epilepsy.
2 Talking when asleep.
3 Wetting the bed.
4 Skin disease of any kind.
5 Bad body development. A child who is too small, too tall or mis-proportioned is likely to be a witch.
6 Destructiveness. A child who takes pleasure in breaking things is a witch.
7 A child who talks back is a witch.
8 Too clever. Mistrust a clever child.
9 Greed.
These are called the mysterious diseases, and any or all may signify that your child is a witch. If you suspect you can easily find out. Take the child to a local church, where the pastor or prophet will tell you one way or the other. If your suspicions are confirmed, they will cure the child easily with spiritual medications for a very reasonable price. It may be necessary to burn off their wings. Though these wings exist in the spiritual plane and you cannot see them, they still exist. Your pastor or prophet will do this for you. But for this to work the child has to confess. If the witchcraft is strong within the child, it is hard to work a cure and little can be done for a child who will not admit this sin, except, perhaps, beating a confession out of them, which is for their own good
Another solution, of course, is to take the child to the hospital and get some expert advice, either physical or psychological, for each problem.
By my own count, I was a child witch on at least four counts – five when I was a teenager and thought myself hideous. I’d like to invite my readers to try these tests on themselves or their own children. It may be of interest to try and find someone who isn’t a witch. There can’t be many of us left.
On the up side, of the women who told of these signs, 80% will typically abandon their belief in witchcraft once other explanations for such illnesses or behaviour are given. And we also spoke to a two families who had welcomed witch children back. One, an older brother, who rescued his two younger half brothers into his house. His own grandmother was a witch, but his bothers, he believed , were wrongly accused. Another, a mother who had suffered several tragic deaths of those close to her, and whose son clearly blamed himself for these misfortunes, as he confessed that he caused the deaths, as a witch.
Congratulations to the Provenda Center and Save the Children for helping to facilitate these children back into safe homes. Happy endings – I don’t always like them in books, but you want them in real life, of course. I’m keeping my fingers firmly crossed for Nadine, who was so happy to have her son back, and kept her faith in him even when she believed herself that he was a witch, even though it cost her her marriage – even though she believed for a while at least that it cost her her sister and mother. Now that’s having faith in you son! I hope she manages to find somewhere secure to live in the next few weeks. All these misfortunes always accompany poverty.

Day 1 – Kinsasha. Meeting the Child Witches

Spent the afternoon today visiting the Bana ya Poveda center in Kinshasa. Their work is to try to reunite street children back into their families. Some have run away, some have been thrown out. About 80% of them have been accused of witchcraft.
I spoke to four kids today, with the help of Pascal, my interpreter. Three of them had been accused of witchcraft – of creeping out at night and doing harm. One boy, whos name in two languages means heart of God (he needs it) was accused of witchcraft because his eyes are so dark, and because he talks in his sleep. Another boy was accused because he wet the bed. I’d have been a witch myself if that last one was true.
The worst thing about being a witch, it seems, is the cure. One boy, who had suffered the misfortune of having his mother go insane, was accused of witchcraft by his father’s new wife, after he appeared in her dreams trying to kill her. His father was furious him, needless to say, and beat him with an electric flex – you can see the scars on his legs, and that must have been one terrible beating. When that didn’t work, he was taken to the pastor, who confirmed he wasa witch. The cure? He had hot wax dripped on his back to rid him of the wings he used to fly at night. Then, he was incarcerated in a room with no light, starved, and made to drink water with dust in it, to attack and destroy his witchcraft.
Another bos was starved half to death, in a darkened room for many days. They took him out to pray over him for time to time, and threw peppers on his body, but forbade him to eat them.
Both boys ran away.
So there it is, in the end, a really good, old fashioned story, and one we’ve all heard before; the wicked step mother – or sometimes step father. Out of three hundred cases, only three children have been accused of witchcraft when living with both parents. But over 70% had one parent living with them. The wicked step parents – or perhaps also Hansel and Gretel, because one thing all these kids have in common – they are very, very poor. It is one less mouth to feed for a parent wanting to make sure their own children get enough to eat …
Not witches at all – just poor and powerless, like the old women who used to be burned in Europe for the same crime. Witches all over the world, I think, although they are feared so much, are always the weak and helpless.
The good news at the end is, that from this centre about 45% of children are reunited with their families. Pretty good score. It’s not so much that have been cured of being witches, but that their families are cured of believing that they are.
Tomorrow – meeting the pastors who have conducted the cures.

This is the story of how you become a witch in the Democratic republic of Congo and also Angola.

Firstly you must understand, you are not born a witch. You become one, often against your own will. It begins when you are approached by a master witch. This will usually be in the night-world, while you dream, but also it can also happen during the day. This person, who may be known to you or even a complete stranger, will be kind and generous to you, and will offer you food. This food you must refuse. But – if you are young, impressionable, or just plain hungry, you may well say yes.

My readers may remember Persephone. They will be aware that this is a bad mistake.

You will soon become aware of how great a mistake it is, when the master witch visits you again, this time in the night-word, the world of dreams. Your career as a witch has just begun.

That first night – what a thrill it must be! What a vista opens up in front of you. You, who have never been anywhere beyond the few miles where you were born, will travel to places that you never dreamed of visiting – one of the great African cities, Jo’burg, Nairobi, perhaps, or beyond to Europe, or China or even American. Los Angeles! New York! Your vehicle maybe something simple, such as a sardine can or a shoe box; it may he something far more sophisticated, such a jet plane. Then, when you arrive at your destination, a whole new life opens up for you for you – markets, shops, cafes restaurants – all the good things you never had. But … well; you owe a meal. That’s not much to ask for all these riches, surely? But, of course, here comes the rub. Because, you see, that while vehicles in the day world are powered by petrol, in the night world, it is a different fuel they use; human blood. And while during the day you are happy to eat beans or goat, at night, you need to devour human flesh.

These things you now must provide. And the blood and the flesh that the master witch demands, is not just any old blood or any old flesh – it is the flesh and blood of those you love – your mother, your brothers and sisters, your father. You must claim them in the night by strangling them in their dreams. Having been murdered in the night world, during the day, evils will then befall them. They will fall ill. Nothing will go right for them, because at night, they are being murdered, and drained of blood, and their flesh consumed.

This is your life as a witch, then. Even the poorest can live a fantastic life. You can become powerful, rich, wand famous in the night world, while during the day you struggle to make ends meet. The weak can become powerful. Boys and girls can become men and women. And the cost? – the well being of those you love. Or, perhaps, those you don’t love …

It’s a powerful story, and a more familiar one than it seems at first sight. The eating of food is a common theme. The beans ring bells to me as well. One of the sad things about this story is, that if the food is repaid to the master witch during the day, his hold over you is lost. It is easy, therefore, to cure a witch- if you can locate them during the day. The cure can be as little as a plate of beans.

Those of you were at the recent Arvon course I tutored with Gillian Cross in Devon maybe reminded of the bean man in Jack and the Beanstalk. Simple food can cost so very much …

In England, this story would be a folk tale to us. It does read very much like on – all the way up to that sudden change of motif; human blood, human flesh; murder. In the DRC it is much more. It’s a myth, and a very potent one. Unlike our own folk tales, or even many of our own myths, out of the bible, it is real living thing in people’s day to day lives.

In a place like the DRC, where so many terrible things have befallen people, and in such a random way, it may seem logical to wonder if something supernatural is behind it. I thin in this country too, when times are bad, such stories proliferate. What I find so strange about it is though – why has this myth turned against the children? How can people believe that their young ones are devouring their flesh at night while they sleep? If we came to believe such things, , how would we chose to deal with it, I wonder?

That’s all for not. Good night – and I hope you enjoy your supper; and I hope you know who it was that bought it for you …

I’m counting down to my trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Excited isn’t the word – this is a part of the world I’ve always wanted to visit. But this isn’t a tourist trip. I’m going with Save the Children, to investigate the child witches in Kinshasa.

Child Witches – what a concept. It seems so strange, so alien – so dangerous. The Congo is a part of the world we all feel scared and ignorant about. It’s Heart of Darkness country. War, rain forest, child soldiers, witch doctors. And now child witches. What does it mean?

We have heard a little bit about it in the UK, through the papers. We know that young lives have been devastated by accusations of witchcraft, just as people in Europe were devastated in our own past. It’s part of the important work Save the Children do in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to try and help the witches – to rehabilitate them, often back into their own families.

I don’t believe in witches myself, although the heart of Africa is the one place you might find them if you did. So what does this African witchcraft entail? Why should children be accused of such a thing? And what effect do such accusations have on their lives?

I’ll be blogging about all this over the next week. I know this much already – that those accused often believe it themselves. They are witches, no doubt about it in their minds. The existence of witches is as real to people over there, as the belief in God is to many in our own country. And I know this; the witchcraft is something that happens at night, while you sleep and dream. You may be anything in the day world – poor or rich, young or old. But in the night world, the world we all visit when we dream, you could be something completely different.