Child Witches Research Articles

The Child Witches of Lucerne and Buchau: A Translation of Eveline Hasler's Novel by Eveline Hasler (review)

The Child Witches of Lucerne and Buchau: A Translation of Eveline Hasler's Novel by Eveline Hasler (review)

Children as Mischievous Spirits: Legitimizing Violence and Filicide in Contemporary Africa

The belief that certain humans are spiritual entities and the belief that some people are spiritually possessed can be found across histories and cultures. While these individuals are not always viewed in the negative or treated inhumanely, cases abound whereby degrading and inhumane treatments are meted out to some of them. In the African continent, certain groups of people, particularly children are linked to certain mischievous spirits due to their unusual appearance, aberrant behavior, disability, chronic illness, psychopathology or exceptional ability. Some are also suspected and consequently mistreated due to events surrounding their birth. Such children are known by different names in different parts of Africa. In this article, three groups of children (ogbanje, abiku and spirit children) considered as partly spirits and one group (child witch) considered as spiritually possessed, were explored. Each of these groups was described based on the traditional lore of the particular society where they are so labeled. The abuses, neglect and in some cases homicide against the children connected to the belief, were critically discussed. The article explored how the children are abused, neglected or killed due to the genuine belief that they pose a spiritual threat to their parents or carers and in some cases, the entire community. However, the article also provided insights into how such belief also serves as justification for parents with children present with any of the aforementioned characteristics to eliminate such a child through filicide for altruistic purposes. The article also explored how some parents and guardians exploit the belief to eliminate children seen as a burden. The cases of adult relatives who exploit the belief to eliminate orphans in their care for the purposes of inheriting properties belonging to the orphans’ parents were also explored. Recommendations were made on how to address these social problems.

"Child Witches": Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of Homeless Girls in South-Southern Nigeria

Sexual exploitation and abuse of girls is one of the endemic social problems in Nigeria. Although this problem has attracted much research attention in recent times, some newly emerged factors contributing to the problem have been mostly ignored. This study explored how the abandonment of children following their stigmatization as witches contributes to sexual exploitation and abuse of the girls in the Akwa Ibom and Cross River states of Nigeria. The study was based on the qualitative research paradigm. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews of three senior staff members of the Child’s Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN)—a children’s charity that manages a shelter for children abandoned as witches. Thematic analysis was conducted and five principal themes were developed from the data, which are (1) vulnerable to statutory rape; (2) living with sexual addiction; (3) targeted for human trafficking; (4) vulnerable to infections and pregnancy; and (5) exposed to intergenerational abuse. Theme (1) is concerned with how the girls are frequently raped by different groups of men due to the girls’ presence on the street. Theme (2) shows how the girls struggle with sexual addiction following frequent exposure to sexual activities since the early years of their lives. Theme (3) details how human traffickers target the girls for the sex trade, labor and other purposes. Theme (4) shows how the girls struggle with sexually transmitted infections and sometimes, pregnancy. Theme (5) details how the stigmatization and the consequent abuse of the stigmatized girls on the street also extend to their children, who are automatically regarded as the children of witches. Recommendations were made on how to address this social problem.

Christian Pastors and Alleged Child Witches in Kinshasa, DRC

Against earlier predictions, witch accusations are proliferating and flourishing in many modern, urban, and Christian environments. And they are taking new forms. One dramatic change involves who is accused, with children now often the prime suspects when misfortunes occur. Another dramatic change relates to who is consulted when witch suspicions are present. Rather than non-Christian diviners or traditional healers, many now consult Christian pastors and prophets for help in identifying witches and dealing with them. Based on a survey of 713 pastoral leaders in Kinshasa from all major church traditions, and on supplemental qualitative research, this report 1) explores the profile of accused children, 2) identifies what these children are accused of, 3) identifies what sorts of evidence are used to establish the guilt of the accused child, and 4) considers the consequences to the child of being labeled a witch. Furthermore, this report explores what it is that church leaders believe, teach, and practice in relationship to child-witch allegations—considering the role of church tradition and theological education on their patterns of understanding and engagement. Specifically, we identify and examine two broad paradigms widely present in Kinshasa churches—a “witch diagnosis and deliverance paradigm” and a “child protection paradigm.” We consider some grassroots strategies of transformative engagement engaged in by l’Équipe Pastorale auprès des Enfants en Détresse [EPED] leaders, and end by inviting African theological and pastoral leaders into a conversation about the impact of theological understandings, congregational discourses, spiritual disciplines, and pastoral practices on the well-being and flourishing of vulnerable children.

29. Comment on the Article “Christian Pastors and Child Witches in Kinshasa, DRC" by Robert J. Priest, Abel Ngolo and Timothy Stabell

29. Comment on the Article “Christian Pastors and Child Witches in Kinshasa, DRC" by Robert J. Priest, Abel Ngolo and Timothy Stabell

4. A Biblical Scholar’s Response to Issues in 'Christian Pastors and Alleged Child Witches in Kinshasa, DRC'

4. A Biblical Scholar’s Response to Issues in 'Christian Pastors and Alleged Child Witches in Kinshasa, DRC'

14. Witchcraft Accusations in Comparative Contexts: The Early Modern European Witch-hunts and Alleged Child Witches in the Democratic Republic of Congo

14. Witchcraft Accusations in Comparative Contexts: The Early Modern European Witch-hunts and Alleged Child Witches in the Democratic Republic of Congo

8. Reframing Thinking and Action: A Way Forward in Responding to Child Witch Accusations through Contextualized Participatory Engagement

8. Reframing Thinking and Action: A Way Forward in Responding to Child Witch Accusations through Contextualized Participatory Engagement

"Seeds of time": Women, children, and the nation in Kurzel's Macbeth (2015)

"Seeds of time":Women, children, and the nation in Kurzel's Macbeth (2015) Edel Semple From the outset, Justin Kurzel's Macbeth (2015) foregrounds the family, presenting it as the building block of civilized society. While Duncan and his son Malcolm are obviously central to the state, the Macbeths, the Macduffs, and Banquo all have progeny, and in this film even the witches and the Scottish army have children among them. In its opening images, the film presents women as mothers, implying that they are primarily biological and social reproducers. We see the witches on a hillside with two children, and Lady Macbeth gazes grief-stricken at the corpse of her son on a funeral pyre. Multiple boy soldiers are slaughtered in the opening battle and, later, Macbeth personally murders Lady Macduff and her three children. Children, then, are highly valued—Fleance is a beloved son and of course he will be the progenitor of kings, the Macbeths never recover from their child's death—but they are endangered subjects. Indeed, Hanh Bui's remark on Banquo's son can be applied to almost all of the children in the film: "[f]rom the moment he appears on screen, Fleance bears constant witness to life's hardship, insecurity, and death" (Bui). In this essay, I argue that in Kurzel's Macbeth the only hope for the future of the nation is its children, but they are a finite resource threatened by a militaristic and power-hungry patriarchal culture. I contend too that women are shown to be the victims of the state; as men compete and strive to shape the nation in their image, women are often collateral damage. However, women, in the form of the witches, are also revealed to be the best guardians of the state. While the film implies that the only safe place for a woman is on the margins, and the only safe role that of observer, this paradoxically is how the women can actively protect their interests and shape the nation's future. Ultimately, Kurzel's Macbeth [End Page 615] presents the viewer with the birth of a nation; yet, with its mothers and its children endangered, it is a parturition fraught with grave difficulties. ________ Considering Macbeth's subject matter and the popularity of the horror film, Kurzel could have used horror conventions in his portrayal of the witches and children. Two recent film adaptations of the play successfully draw on horror to present their witches as infernal bloodthirsty nurses (Goold, 2010) and disturbingly sexualized teenage goths (Wright, 2006) (Kapitaniak), while several stage productions have presented the witches as uncanny children. Moreover, in the earlier 1996 TV film Macbeth on the Estate, children were everywhere, and the witches were delinquent pre-teens, just as violent as their adult peers. By contrast, the children in Kurzel's Macbeth are not figures of fear or suspicion; they are unambiguously human and are unmistakably vital, loved members of the family. The value of children is clear from the film's opening images: an overhead shot shows a toddler's corpse atop an unlit pyre. The child's parents, the Macbeths (Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard), step forward to perform their goodbyes and funeral rituals. Lady Macbeth weeps as she places flowers in the boy's cold hand, while a stoic Macbeth puts stones on his eyes and crumbles earth onto his chest. As Louise D'Arcens observes, the funeral stages not only parental grief, as the whole village has gathered to grieve: "Here the death of a child is cause for public, communal mourning that is as much concerned with loss of lineage as it is with emotional anguish" (D'Arcens). Amongst the mourners, Banquo clutches young Fleance to him. From a distance, the witches look on and, notably, there are five members in this multigenerational family. The Older Witch holds a Child Witch in front of her, the Younger Witch cradles a baby, and the Middle Witch stands to the side.1 The blocking of these characters illustrates the importance and integration of the children in their family, and it is repeated later in the film. Children are foregrounded once again at the Battle of...

La fabrique institutionnelle des enfants-sorciers à Lubumbashi (République démocratique du Congo)

Cet article propose d’examiner la fabrication des « enfants sorciers » a Lumbumbashi en Republique democratique du Congo. A partir de cas ethnographiques, je propose ensuite de deplacer l’attention de l’analyse de la crise economique qui affecte le pays et la dynamique de deconstruction socio-familiale afin de focaliser sur la comparaison des dispositifs institutionnels qui agissent dans l’espace public katangais. Ainsi emergent clairement les modes de « penser » des institutions et la maniere dont celles-ci produisent la categorie d’« enfants sorciers ».

Re-imagining Horror in Children's Animated Film

Re-imagining Horror in Children's Animated Film

Introduction

Introduction

Problems of doing research at home: research on child witches in London (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

In this narrative, Jean La Fontaine recounts her experiences trying to do fieldwork in London on the topic of witchcraft accusations involving children.

Child witch hunts in contemporary Ghana

Objective The persecution of children as witches has received widespread reportage in the international mass media. In recent years, hundreds of children have been killed, maimed and abandoned across Africa based on individual and village-level accusations of witchcraft. Despite the media focus, to date, very little systematic study has investigated the phenomenon. In this case study, the persecution of child witches in Ghana is studied to explore the nature and patterns of witch hunts against children in the West African nation. Methods There are no reliable national data on child abuse related to witchcraft accusations in Ghana. For this study, 13 cases of child witch hunts appearing in the local media during 1994–2009 were analyzed. Case summaries were constructed for each incident to help identify the socio-demographic characteristics of assailants and victims, victim-offender relationships, the methods of attacks, the spatial characteristics, as well as the motivations for the attacks. Results Children branded as witches ranged in age from 1-month-old to 17-years-old, were primarily from poor backgrounds, and lived in rural areas of the country. Accusations of witchcraft and witch assaults were lodged by close family members often through the encouragement of, or in concert with Christian clergymen and fetish priests. Accused witches were physically brutalized, tortured, neglected, and in two cases, murdered. For school-aged children, imputations of witchcraft contributed to stigmatization in both the community and at school, resulting in dropping out. The most frequently expressed reason for persecution of the child was suspicion that the child had used witchcraft to cause the death or illness of family relations or someone in the community. Another reason was suspicion that the child was responsible for the business failure or financial difficulties of a perceived victim. Conclusions The results of this research are consistent with findings in the witchcraft literature suggesting that seemingly inexplicable illnesses, untimely deaths, and financial hardships tend to be the major causal forces generating witch hunts. Additional research is necessary to further shed light on child witch hunts in Ghana and other countries. Practice implications To reduce the incidence of such abuse, there is a need for increased advocacy and protections for children in the society. The government must also increase the penalties for child abuse. This will serve as a deterrent to potential offenders. Additionally, through public service campaigns, educating citizens about the causes and trajectories of diseases, will lead to a significant diminution of witchcraft accusations and the associated violence.

Scotland Yard in the Bush: Medicine Murders, Child Witches and the Construction of the Occult: A Literature Review

In the Sherlock Holmes stories Scotland Yard famously does not deploy science or make use of all those studies of blood and ash and bone which Holmes himself had pioneered. But the Yard is never so clumsy as when the occult seems to be involved – with suspected vampires, spectral dogs, tribal fetishes. The Yard's combination of ignorance, scepticism and credulity is shown to be the very worst of all attitudes to adopt. How much things have changed in one way and how little in another. Scotland Yard is now incredibly scientific. The assumed ritual murder of ‘Adam’, the African boy whose torso was found in the Thames, has allowed a dazzling exhibition of what scientific method can now achieve. On the other hand police interpretations of the African occult still combine ignorance, scepticism and credulity.

Scotland Yard in the Bush: Medicine Murders, Child Witches and the Construction of the Occult: A Literature Review

Scotland Yard in the Bush: Medicine Murders, Child Witches and the Construction of the Occult: A Literature Review

Gender in Early Modern German History

Preface 1. Introduction Ulinka Rublack Part I. Masculinities: 2. What made a man a man? Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century findings Heide Wunder 3. Men in witchcraft trials: towards a social anthropology of 'male' understandings of magic and witchcraft Eva Labouvie Part II. Transgressions: 4. Monstrous deception: midwifery, fraud and gender in early modern Rothenburg ob der Tauber Alison Rowlands 5. 'Evil imaginings and fantasies': child witches and the end of the witch craze Lyndal Roper 6. Gender tales: the multiple identities of Maiden Heinrich, Hamburg 1700 Mary Lindemann 7. Disembodied theory? Discourses of sex in early modern Germany Merry Wiesner Part III. Politics: 8. Peasant protest and the language of womens' petitions: Christina Vend's supplications of 1629 Renate Blickle 9. State formation, gender and the experience of governance in early modern Wurttemberg Ulinka Rublack Part IV. Religion: 10. Cloistering womens' past: conflicting accounts of enclosure in a seventeenth-century Munich nunnery Ulrike Strasser 11. Memory, religion and family in the writing of Pietist women Ulrike Gleixner 12. One body, two confessions: mixed marriages in Germany Dagmar Freist.

The child witch syndrome: Satanic child abuse of today and child witch trials of yesterday

Abstract If history repeats itself there are special reasons to pay attention to those phenomena that tend to return in new disguises. The seventeenth-century child witch trials among the Basques and in northern Sweden seem to be such a phenomenon. During the last 15 years the western world has experienced these trials in a new and refined disguise. A number of parents and employees of nursery schools have been tried for abusing children in organized Satanic rituals. A comparison of the historical and modern child witch syndromes shows the following parallels: association with moral panic; breakdown of solidarity; a saturation point; the argument that the crime is of such a secret kind that it cannot be exposed without slackening legal procedures; witch signs and witch tests; absence of physical evidence; brainwashing; moral pressure during interrogation of witnesses; unconscious influencing of the witnesses; contamination of evidence; irregularities in the interrogation procedures; consistency of confess...

The child witch syndrome: A reply to Dr Henningsen

Abstract This reply to Dr Henningsen evaluates claims concerning alleged similarities between early and modern bouts of witch mania. It is argued that the social meaning of witchcraft is different in both cases and that modern versions of witch mania do not appear to benefit any particular social class. Similarities between the evidence associated with the witch-hunters and other exponents of extraordinary belief systems are also noted.