Child witches of Nigeria

© Toby Binder - Image from the Child witches of Nigeria photography project © Toby Binder - Uwe lives alone with his father. The rest of the family left the two because they believed, Uwe was bewitched by a neighbor. © Toby Binder - Two girls who are said to be bewitched sleeping on a covered billiard table in the children's home of CRARN. View all images ↓
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  • Dates
    2012 - Ongoing
  • Author
  • Topics Daily Life, Social Issues, Documentary

About 160 children stigmatized as witches live in the Centre of the „Child‘s Right And Rehabilitation Network“ (CRARN) in Eket, Southeastern Nigeria.

About 160 children stigmatized as witches live in the Centre of the „Child‘s Right And Rehabilitation Network“ (CRARN) in Eket, Southeastern Nigeria. The NGO

takes care of girls and boys from four to sixteen years old who have been abandoned or abused after being accused of being witches. Evangelical pastors are helping to create a terrible new campaign of violence against young Nigerians. Children branded as evil are being abused, abandoned

and even murdered while the preachers make money out of the fear of their

parents and their communities. „So many people here believe that children can be possessed by demons that there is rarely any action taken against those who claim to deliver the children in violent exorcisms,“ says Sam Itauma, of the Child‘s Right and Rehabilitation Network.

Ostracised, vulnerable and frightened, she wandered the streets in south-eastern Nigeria, sleeping rough, struggling to stay alive. Stella was found by Jehu Tom, a rescue officer from CRARN and today lives at the Centre with 160 other children who have been branded witches, blamed for all their family‘s woes, and abandoned.

Before being pushed out of their homes many were beaten or slashed with knives, thrown onto fires, or had acid poured over them as a punishment or in an attempt to make them „confess“ to being possessed. In one horrific case, a young girl called

Uma had a three-inch nail driven into her skull. The devil‘s children are „identified“ by powerful religious leaders at extremist churches where Christianity and traditional beliefs have combined to produce a deep-rooted belief in, and fear of, witchcraft. The priests spread the message that child-witches bring destruction, disease and death to their families. And they say

that, once possessed, children can cast spells and contaminate others. The religious leaders offer help to the families whose children are named as witches, but at a price. The churches run exorcism, or „deliverance“, evenings where the pastors attempt to drive out the evil spirits. Only they have the power to cleanse the child

of evil spirits, they say. The exorcism costs the families up to a year‘s income.