BRANDING A CHILD A WITCH

•Urgent steps must be taken to curb the menace in Bayelsa state

6/9/2016

– By Aluzu Ebikebuna Augustine



There was once a girl named Tamarapreye (herein referred to as Preye), she was 9 years of age, dark in complexion. Not brainy but she was zestful. She lived with her father’s nephew who was married and they lived not very far from us. She was not the ideal kid as she was most of the time left unkempt, but Tamarapreye was not in any way reclusive.

Her father’s nephew and his wife were not sit at home parents, they were gendarmes. And so, Preye was more of a caretaker who helped her aunt look after the baby. Yes, the husband and wife have a son and so Preye was beckoned on to come live with her relatives in order to help with some house chores. Her biological father’s impecuniousity also necessitated her arrival at the home. She had lived with them for more than a year before trouble brewed.

Her Aunty’s brother came to reside with them. That was some years ago, I was fairly young but I can specifically recount everything like it just happened. Six months after the arrival of the new member of the house, ebullient Preye became melancholic. She was seen most of the time crying and cursing. The Aunt was oblivious of the girl’s pain, she seemed unperturbed. And her uncle (her father’s nephew) had gone on transfer to another state leaving young Preye in the care of his wife. Preye’s pain was mostly felt on the viscus. It was more visceral than it can be mechanically noticed. We all wondered at the new crestfallen face she now wears. Neighbors had to prevail on her Aunt to take an interest in Preye.

Preye disclosed to her that there was a devourer in the house, who would come in the cool of the night to take advantage of her. Sometimes, she would be taken advantage of in the day when no one is around and now, Preye can no longer endure the concomitant pains of the act. She was not herself.

The alleged devourer was remonstrated verbally by his sister and nothing more. When Preye father’s nephew returned, he started seeing some signs and noticing some changes in the poor girl. The girl was started suffering from fistula incontinent when obnoxious smell began to ooze out from her. On inquiry, he too came to the knowledge of the incestuous relationship between young Preye’s and his inlaw. He was enraged. He looked for his inlaw to confront him, but it was too late. The egregious fellow had surreptitiously left the house. He had gone back to his state. Nothing was to be heard from him thereafter.

The husband’s credulity was soon taken advantage of by his wife. He was told by a Clergyman of a renowned Church in Yenagoa who the wife had invited to the house that Preye is a witch and that she had used witchcraft powers to lure his in-laws to have sex with her. The Clergyman also claimed that Preye was responsible for the stagnation of her father’s nephew in his place of work and that she has also passed the witchcraft to their son. The branding of witchcraft did not stop at Preye. Preye’s mother who had deserted her father a long time ago was accused of giving Preye the witch and so was other members of her maternal family accused of being witches and wizards. At this point, there was no misgivings as to the gullibility of her uncle as he took every word of the Clergyman hook, line and sinker. Young Preye who was in dire need of serious medical attention was soon sent packing from the house.

She was taken to her grandmother at Ogbopuluama as her own biological father was not willing to accept the child back. His new wife was not comfortable with having a witch live under thesame roof with her children. I travelled to Ogbopuluama in search of the girl Preye 3 years later. Nobody knows of the girl’s whereabout. No one can give a good account of what happened to her thereafter. Not even the family she lived with. To them, it was good riddance.

This story is not in any way a fiction, it is a true life story. Recent happenings in Yenagoa has informed my writing it. There is need for us to stop this habit of witch branding that has gone unabated over the years or risk having our own Scolombo boys in Bayelsa state.

Scolombo boys is a children cult formed by Area Boys. They are dangerous and mindless gang of homeless children that roam the streets without any guidance. They are a group many see as coming straight from perdition to take vengeance on a society which condemned them. They are the children branded as witchcraft. Neglected by society, they have now turned out to be miscreants and serious pain in the flesh.

They started as harmless kids initially, innocuously appealing to our sense of humanity and love. Unrighteously neglected, they constitute themselves as street urchins as could be seen in clustering arears like IBB, Ekong Ita, Murtala Mohammed Highway by Flour Mills, Marian, Calabar road and others in Cross River state. Abandoned and condemned to death by members of their immediate family, the kids learnt survival like they took tuition from the Devil himself. And now, that which society rejected had come back to haunt it.

Tales of these children’s cult has left an indelible scar in the minds of many, especially in Cross River state, Nigeria. Such, is the 2014 filling station robbery by over 30 street boys and girls in Calabar South and the murder of Emilia Etim by members of the Scolombo sect.

Popularly called Nne, the 33-year-old Emilia Etim lived along Edgerly Street, Calabar South Local Government Area and was heavily pregnant at the time her assailants deprived her of her existence. She was stabbed by a member of the sect, a boy alleged not to be more than 10 years old at the time of the incident. She had refused to surrender her valuables on demand by a group of boys numbering up to eight.

What happened in Cross River is not very much a far cry from what Bayelsa state is currently breeding as the major cause of Scolombo boys can be traced to poverty, failure of the family and religious institutions.

In many homes, very often than not, children are branded witches and wizards by pronouncement of Clergy men and spiritualist. As a result, the children are subjected to all manner of dehumanizing and degrading treatment by members of their family, peer groups and community even the Devil himself cannot envisage and are subsequently thrown out of the house (those who survive the ordeal). Not forgetting the concomitant abuses suffered by them in the hands of strangers. They get raped and tortured. These children in order to survive turn against society and engage in criminality. They are now serious criminals attacking members of the society. They invariably can turn recruit for senior criminals, who knows if they are not members of the Niger Delta militant.

There is a need for us to stare at our moral consciousness in the mirror as a people. What has happened to our values as a society? What has happened to our sense of humanity as a people? How can we discard our children who are products of love? How does cutting off a child from its family stop the child from being a witch if such thing ever exist. This is an insult to intellect. How hath folly replaced reason. How deep hath ignorance feasted on our cerebral. With the daily occurrence of children being branded witch in Akwa Ibom state, it is only a matter of time before we are faced with our own Scolombo boys.

This problem has hilighted how educationally backward we still are as a people. It has also hilighted the breakdown of our family and religious institutions. There is need for us to secure our state and take proactive measures. Vices like this must be addressed holistically by all stakeholders. NGO’s should rise. Religious leaders should rise, government should do more to save and protect the state and its citizens. We can no longer be adopting reactive measures to tackle criminality. We have to be proactive. Government should not only empower relevant authorities to act when it is too late. We should learn to treat every issue putting on a stern look. What a thousand naira should solve initially, millions must not be spent on it.

There is need for proper sensitization and stiffer punishments for those perpetuating the act. Those branding children as witches and wizards should be arrested, prosecuted and punished accordingly.

Children are wonderfully and perfectly made, they are a gift from God and should never be blamed, as innocent as they are, for our own misfortune.

We must all rise as a people to secure the future of our children in Bayelsa state and beyond. Let us rouse our people to put an end to this menace. Let us focus on the objective of a crime free society. No effort is too much to rid ourselves of the dangers branding children witches poses in our society.

Aluzu Ebikebuna Augustine is a Rights Activist from the University of Uyo and can be reached via ebisko19@gmail.com

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