The Executive Director of The Sanneh Institute Professor John Azumah has rejected proposals to rebrand witch camps in the country as a way of uplifting the status of inmates of the camps.
According to him, it is fundamentally wrong to seek to rebrand unacceptable and inhumane acts of keeping women who have been accused of witchcraft in the existing camps.
His position follows a promise by the Gender Minister-designate Sarah Adwoa Safo to rebrand all existing witch camps all of which are found in the north.
In her responses to questions from members of the Appointments Committee of Parliament, Madam Sarah Adjoa Sarfo said “If I am given the nod, what I will first do is to engage and visit some of the camps and engage these alleged witches. I will further engage the traditional authorities and opinion leaders in these areas to get a very clear picture of what indeed ought to be done”.
She added “That is not to say that the Ministry hasn’t done anything. I chanced upon some documents which indicated that in Gambaga witches camp for instance, there are 600 inmates. When they were engaged only one was prepared to come back home. So I believe in a rebranding of these camps because as far as the women of these camps are concerned they have found families in these camps and so I will engage them”.
But reacting to the proposal of the Gender Minister-designate, Professor John Azumah said rebranding witch camps will amount to “rebranding a crime”.
“These women are victims of a crime. They are victims of a crime because they have been banished from their homes, they have been maltreated, traumatized, kicked out of their communities. This is a crime in our books and you don’t rebrand a crime. You deal with it, you solve it,” he stated in an interview on Dreamz fm.
According to him, Ghana is the only country in the world which has existing witch camps, a situation he described as backward and a dent on the image of the country.
While citing actions taken by other countries that hitherto had witch camps, Professor Azunah stated emphatically that the country must make conscious efforts to close down the camps instead of the considered action of rebranding them.
He dismissed claims that the women being kept at the various witch camps do not want to go back to their homes and communities.
“The women have to be reintegrated. The Gender Minister(designate) should be talking about a long-term plan of reintegrating the women. When they (accused witches) say that they don’t want to go back; I have been there and I have read all the reports. It is a few who don’t want to go back and the reasons they don’t want to go back is because of lack of security in their places. If they can put in sufficient measure to secure them, they will go back,” he added.
