Dilemmas of Child “Sacrifice and Mutilation” in Uganda: Meanings, Causes, and Explanations

Abstract

This paper describes the phenomenon of child sacrifice and mutilation in some districts in Uganda, making a stride from hearsay about the vice to confessions from individuals who claim to have seen mutilated body parts, participated in mutilating children and removing body parts. The study employed an exploratory design using qualitative methods especially in-depth interviews and participatory workshops. During 2 months of fieldwork, the research team visited 25 communities in the Central, Western and Eastern Districts. The study generated 140 firsthand interviews concerning cases where bodies had been seen with body parts, blood or tissue missing or body parts, blood or tissue had been seen after being removed from a body. The study reveals that although the phenomenon of mutilation of children and removal of their body parts in many cases ending in death or disability is not part of the culture of the communities visited, interviews with study participants show that it happens and has devastating consequences for the children, their families and the community. It also reveals that there are some unscrupulous traditional healers who prescribe and encourage their clients to use children’s body parts, tissues and blood believing that this will make the treatment potent. Some parents have desperately resorted to ear pricking (piercing) and male child circumcision for prevention of child sacrifice with a belief that children who have already shed their blood are not eligible for sacrifice. These practices, while primarily used to enhance beauty and in the case of male circumcision as a rite of passage, have found new meanings, in this case protection from child sacrifice. We conclude that although sacrificing animals and offering part of the harvest from farms is part of the traditional culture in Uganda, child sacrifice and mutilation is not part of the mainstream culture in any of Uganda’s ethnic groups. This phenomenon was more of a myth but has gradually become a sub-culture for people who believe in child mutilation, removal of body parts, tissue or blood (commonly referred to as child sacrifice in Uganda). This practice is mediated by fraudulent traditional healers or “witch doctors” who thrive on manipulating their unsuspecting clients to assure them that mutilation and child sacrifice is the panacea to their misfortunes. The paper discusses the plausible theoretical explanatory models of this phenomenon and the policy and programming implications.