After talking about politics and witchcraft in class, I became interested in finding if any kinds or what kind is still going on and how modern day governments deal with it.
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2011/witchcraft-accusations-and-politics-in-akwa-ibom-state/
I found this article about Akwa Ibom and the child witch hunting that is currently occuring. The article talks about how the government, at first, chose to ignore the seriousness, thinking of it as just a superstition, followed by soon after beginning to take drastic measures to stop the child hunting, and also trying to pass all accusations off as fabrications. If you read through it, how do you think the government handled it? In comparison to old governments that we have learned about, have they handled it better?
-Jessica Petrus
After reading through this article, I was horrified to learn how long the abuse of the so called "child witches" had gone on before government intervention. Although from a political standpoint, witchcraft may be seen as a superstition, the abuse of the accused children is not something to be ignored.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-killing-of-children-in-akwa-ibom-state-in-nigeria
This website lists a few documented cases of abuse, which range from children being doused in acid and boiling water to nails being drilled into their skulls. These methods and many more were used to exorcize the spirits from children and rid them of their magic. What shocked me most was that these tortures were inflicted on children as young as 2 years old. Based on this information, I believe the government is handling the situation worse than those that we learned about in class because of the mere fact that this is happening entirely to young children. Despite the fact that the government is now acting to put a stop to the abuse, it is unbelievable that it was allowed to go on for so long in the first place.
-Taylor Piersante