The Role of the Presbyterian Go-Home Project in Addressing the Challenges of the Gambaga Witch Camp

Abstract

The thesis basically investigated the role of the Presbyterian Go-Home Project in trying to address the challenges of the Gambaga Witch Camp in the Northern Region of Ghana. The belief in witchcraft is widespread in the Northern part of Ghana, and for that matter in the Mamprugu traditional area. It is deeply rooted in the socio-cultural and indigenous religious beliefs and practices of the people to the extent that the belief is “institutionalized” in some parts of Northern Ghana. This is manifested in the existence of about six witch camps in different parts of the Northern Region of Ghana. Women and men accused of witchcraft are either maltreated or banished from their communities to go on self-imposed exile to the witch camps for fear of being lynched. The Gambaga Witch Camp, which is the first of its kind in Ghana, is attached to a traditional shrine which presumably, provides protection for the alleged witches and thereby believed to neutralize their powers to cause harm to others. Currently, conditions in the Gambaga Witch Camp are very deplorable and the women and their children are wallowing in misery, poverty, and indignity, which is against their human rights. It is against these challenges that the Presbyterian Church of Ghana expressed reservations about keeping the accused women at the witch camp. The church saw it as a developmental issue and as part of her social responsibility, started giving support in the form of food items, clothing, shelter and healthcare to the inmates of the camp. They also initiated a program known as the Presbyterian Go-Home Project, to facilitate their reintegration into their original communities and families. The qualitative method was used to collect the data. On the research field, the researcher employed interviews, and participant observation to gather the required data. Data was also obtained from both primary and secondary sources. The findings of the research show that, University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh vi the Presbyterian Go-Home project is faced with three major challenges. First, how to address the issue of witchcraft accusation and the inhuman treatment meted out to alleged witches. Second, how to address their immediate needs in the witch camp, and third, how to reintegrate the alleged witches back to their families. The outcome of the study would help policy makers, Civil Society Organizations, religious bodies and other benevolent organizations to focus their attention on addressing the challenges of the alleged witches in the camps. The work also aims at contributing to academic knowledge on witchcraft and witch camps by documenting facts which could otherwise be lost in oral tradition.