OBS: Ghanaians In The North Ban ‘Spirit Child’ Killing

It is great to learn that the many years of the diabolical ‘spirit child’ killing has been brought to an end by Ghanaians in northern Ghana, following recent shocking revelation by Award-winning Ghanaian investigative reporter Anas Aremeyaw Anas.

Few months ago when we wrote on this evil phenomenon;

Innocent children are being unlawfully killed by the very people who are supposed to love and care for them, just because these people think the children are evil or bring some sort of bad luck.

Every year an unknown number of children – most of them disabled in some way – are murdered in northern Ghana because of the belief that they are in some way possessed by evil spirits set on bringing ill fortune to those around them.

The practice is the consequence of ancient traditions and customs and is shaped by poverty and ignorance in remote and often marginalised communities. But it is still infanticide and no less horrifying than the killing of children anywhere.

For years NGOs and the Ghanaian authorities have tried advocacy and education in an attempt to eradicate the practice but with only marginal success. Well into the 21st century, Ghana’s so-called spirit children are still being killed because they carry the blame for the misfortunes of everyday life.

Award-winning Ghanaian investigative reporter Anas Aremeyaw Anas is determined to do something to stop this senseless slaughter. In this shocking and remarkable film for People & Power he sets out to track down and identify some of those responsible and to bring them to justice.

Yesterday, the BBC reported on the ban of ‘spirit child’ killing by the people of Northern Ghana…

Local leaders in northern Ghana have announced the abolition of the ritual killing of babies born with physical disabilities, who were believed to have been possessed by evil spirits.

“Spirit children” were thought to have been a sign of impending misfortune and given a poisonous drink to kill them.

One campaigner told the BBC that improved healthcare and education meant such beliefs were becoming less common.

Activist Raymond Ayine welcomed the ban, which covers seven towns.

But he said he could not guarantee that the practice had been eradicated from the whole country.

The BBC’s Vera Kwakofi says the Kasena-Nankana region, where the ban has been announced, is the part of Ghana where such beliefs are most widespread.

Sometimes, babies born at the same time as a family misfortune were also accused of being “spirit children” and killed.

The “concoction men” who used to give the children the poisonous drink have been given new roles; they will now work with disabled children to promote their rights.

‘Barbaric practice’

Investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme that he took a plastic doll to a soothsayer, saying it was a child with eating problems and physical disabilities.

“He consulted the oracles, jumped up and down and after this said that the oracles confirmed that the child was an evil child and that the child needed to be killed immediately, and that the child had already killed two members of my family,” he said.

Local chief Naba Henry Abawine Amenga-Etigo said that anyone caught trying to harm children from now on would be handed over to the police.

Mr Ayine, from the campaign group Afrikids, said he was “saddened that in today’s era, a child could lose its life because of such a barbaric practice”.

He noted that in rural areas where such beliefs are more common, women often give birth without ever seeing a midwife, let alone having a pre-natal scan. As a result, childbirth leads to complications more often than elsewhere, he said.

He also said that even before the official ban, there had been no recorded case of the killing of “spirit children” in the area for the past three years.

He put this down to awareness campaigns, as well as improved access to education that meant more people understood that physical disabilities had a medical explanation.

In other parts of northern Ghana, elderly women accused of being witches are sometimes forced to leave their homes and live in “witch camps”.

Watch the heart breaking investigative video below

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haHGwcPyY64