Nollywood and Misrepresentation of Traditions

(By Immanuel James Ibe-Anyanwu)

There was that billboard of a certain West-African president who was dressed in an Igbo traditional attire. A loud caption gave meaning:"Igwe!" It was easy to locate the source of that cultural benefaction, credit rightfully placed at the feet of Nollywood, Nigeria's largest exporter of culture and values. Books and the social media can tell the Nigerian story, but none can boast the compelling, even hypnotic power of the movie.

Which is why we should worry about the competence of movie makers—their cultural intelligence and sense of sensational restraint. Their products speak to millions, most of whom are illiterate and poor, but powerful. Powerful in their sheer number, in their capacity to spread a social or religious poison. They are the very agencies often punctual at lynching scenes, consumers of wild superstitions on whom depends the fate of that fellow accused of manhood theft in the local market. 

African Churches and Their Hunt for Witches

(By Leo Igwe)--It cannot be overemphasized that churches in Africa are instrumental to the witch craze in the region. Programs and activities of faith organizations continue to fuel witchcraft suspicions with sometimes horrific consequences on alleged witches. There is an urgent need to counteract this dark and destructive process. We must call witch-finding churches to order or rue it!

The main issue remains: How do we put this vicious campaign to an end? How do we restrain witch-imputing churches that exist and operate across Africa? Getting African churches to join the campaign against witchcraft accusation is important because if this horrific trend must stop, the process will start in the churches, from the churches, with the churches, and by the churches. Christian groups must lead the way. They must champion the cause of making witch-hunting history in the region.

Unfortunately, this is not yet the case. Pentecostal churches are still in the business of hunting witches. They invoke and exorcise witches and wizards. Witchcraft evangelism is still the ‘religious order’ of the day in the region.

Children Tortured, Killed as Witches in Nigeria

Just after midnight, the pastor seized a woman's forehead with his large hand and she fell screaming and writhing on the ground. "Fire! Fire! Fire!" shouted the worshippers, raising their hands in the air.

Pastor Celestine Effiong's congregants are being delivered from what they firmly believe to be witchcraft. And in the darkness of the city and the villages beyond, similar shouts and screams echo from makeshift church to makeshift church.

"I have been delivered from witches and wizards today!" exclaimed one exhausted-looking woman.

Pastors in southeast Nigeria claim illness and poverty are caused by witches who bring terrible misfortune to those around them. And those denounced as witches must be cleansed through deliverance or cast out.

As daylight breaks, and we travel out to the rural villages it becomes apparent the most vulnerable to this stigmatization of witchcraft are children.