Witchcraft Accusations Project

In the wake of a public lynching of an old lady on accusation of witchcraft in July in Northern Ghana and several women banished into so-called witch-camps in the Northern and North East Regions, The Sanneh Institute has launched a project to address the issue with the ultimate goal of closing down the camps and reintegrating the victims back into their communities. The Project is in three phases:

• Legislation: TSI will petition Parliament of Ghana for a Legislation to be passed and named after Akua Denteh, to criminalize the accusation and labelling of people as witches in Ghana.
• Education: TSI will undertake research and data gathering from the camps in northern Ghana. With the data, we will commission experts to produce teaching manuals on witchcraft accusations from the Christian and Islamic perspectives. These will be used for education in schools, churches and mosques.
• Reintegration: We will use the information gathered from the data gathering to advocate with traditional rulers and local government officials as well the Ministries of Gender and Chieftaincy, and to launch a “Let our Mothers Go Home” campaign towards closing down the “witch camps”.
• Research on Witchcraft: TSI has put together a team of scholars from West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa and Francophone Africa to undertake an Africa wide research project on the belief and practice of witchcraft. We are including partners from Asia, Europe and North America.

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