[Music] after my husband died i decided to return to my father's house my brothers accepted me giving me a room one day it was threatening to rain we all ran to fetch containers to collect rainwater the next morning all the containers were full except for mine so i asked where is my water my brother replied that i should ask his wife so i asked where is my water we started arguing my brother came out and said that i shouldn't insult his wife for if i insult her i'm insulting him as well he said i should get out of the house the house belongs to all of us it is our father's house and it doesn't have the right to throw me out my brother struck me that very night he died his children claimed that i killed him with witchcraft so they came after me with people from the largest houses in the village they beat me until they thought that they killed me luckily my senior son arrived and drove everyone away but the next day the villagers carried me across the river and dumped me on the other side calling me a witch [Music] i lay there for a full day and night before i felt strong enough to get up and walk [Music] [Applause] when i heard amina wumble as a count of how she was expelled from her village and forced to take refuge at the witches camp in gambarga in northern ghana i was horrified i'm yaba baidu a writer and filmmaker i couldn't understand how traditional beliefs that in my opinion demonize women are still so strongly held that they can unleash violence that destroys a woman's life and this in a country proud of its human rights record i was born in tamily not far from gambarga and educated in britain for years i've been fascinated by stories that link ordinary middle-aged women like myself to witchcraft and for the past 14 years i've been writing about the lives of the witches of gambarga gambaga was once the capital of the northern region a part of ghana ravaged by poverty it's now a run-down provincial town famous for housing the oldest sanctuary for witches in the north it's claimed that the town's gods protect its citizens from witchcraft by destroying the potency of witches it was an utter revelation when i found out that gambarga was one of several refuges for witches in the norse one and how many people attacked you are you nervous six men but what was even more shocking was the scale of the problem i discovered that there were over a thousand women condemned for witchcraft living in camps in 2005 when i was last here ma hauer the most senior resident at the camp was about to be installed as the witch's spokeswoman by the chief the celebration took place at the chief's palace the chief's power is absolute he gives the women sanctuary but they can't leave his custody without his consent he protects the women every one of whom is scarred by events that brought her to gambarga [Applause] [Music] asana was tortured by her brother who threatened to pluck out her eyes if she didn't confess to witchcraft awabu was beaten and then tortured for days when she found her way to the chief she was at the point of death bintuck was on the run for her life for three months before she found refuge here [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] even though the women are rejected by their communities and are beholden to the chief they're supported by men and women such as gladys laraba who's worked at the witches camp at gambarga for years she started off as a volunteer but is now a member of a team initiated by the presbyterian church to help witches return home to their villages she finds out what's going on at the camp through daily visits to my hauer's compound in her former life ma hauer was a famous praise singer at local weddings and funerals but just like most women here she shared her husband with another wife described as a rival to my man you said that you had caused the boy's sickness how is that possible foreign foreign [Music] i didn't know what to make of my hauer's confession she later told me that if she hadn't confessed to witchcraft she'd have been killed [Music] yet a conviction that she was a witch made me wonder if witchcraft beliefs are so deeply entrenched that to be born a woman is to be born under a shadow of suspicion [Music] the presbyterian church's team to help women return to their communities is led by simon and gotta a common belief especially this part of the country northern ghana people have a very strong belief in weak and they have a belief that the witches they have the power to cause the illness of somebody even to the extent of the person dying so they oh they have they believe that it is actually something that is very bad men are believed to use witchcraft as well however they're expected to exercise their spiritual power responsibly with the men they use it in a positive way like a man might use it to protect his house a man might use it to treat people as a heavilies but they have a general belief that women actually use it to destroy life the witches camp at gambarga was established thanks to the intervention of the first imam of gambarga sometime towards the end of the 19th century before the british colonized what was then referred to as the gold coast as the story goes imam baba was on his way to nalegu walking along this road when he came across a woman adisa of simba from a village in the upper east who was being led to her execution because of witchcraft on this hill behind me adisa ran to the imam and begged for her life the imam managed to take her to see the chief of nalegu who just authorized her execution he quoted verses of the quran to him he asked for clemency and the chief agreed that imam baba could take hadisa back to the mosque at gambaga for her protection [Music] before long whenever a woman was about to be executed for witchcraft she would run to gambaga for protection at the mosque the imam apparently made the woman swear on the quran that she would behave herself and if she didn't it said that the quran made sure that she got her comeuppance eventually so many women were living in the mosque that the people and the chief of gambarga built a camp for witches on the outskirts of the town but when the next imam quarreled with the chief of nalegu the chief placed the witches under the authority of the chief of gambaga the gambarana they remain in the custody of his descendants to this day i can't tell what's in people's heads so witchcraft is everywhere what the chief doesn't mention is that he has a stake in keeping it that way because every woman at the camp pays for his protection and if a woman arrives with nothing she repays her debt with labor [Music] today yet another woman condemned for witchcraft arrives at the camp and begins what could be years of exile from her family she's escorted from the cheese palace to marhawa's huts salmata's daughter is the only member of her family to come to gambaga to support her could you ask her what happened lariba um [Music] it transpires that both mother and daughter have been accused of witchcraft and both have undergone a trial by ordeal according to local belief the daughter is innocent salmata however is now a confirmed witch because the ritual has gone against her her guilt was determined by how a chicken died when it was slaughtered whether it died with its wings facing the sky or the ground foreign while salmata begins her new life as a witch alima is getting ready to return home with her son she'll be going with another woman from the same village agrouba working closely with the chief simon and gotta and gladys laraba do one of the toughest jobs in the world they help women believed to be witches return home but before she can leave the chief's custody agreement has to prove that she's completely free of witchcraft by undergoing a final trial by ordeal foreign [Music] foreign [Laughter] the hand will come to your face the chicken has died with his wings up turned a sign that the gods have given agrabah the go-ahead and cleansed of witchcraft she will soon be on her way home with the chief's blessing and we are working together so that even if a woman is going the chief will have to inform us and after the chief has performed his rituals we will have to take the woman back and then as a church we'll make follow-ups to ensure that the woman is living at the community peacefully through simon and laraba the church has helped agruba and alima's sons pay most of the fee demanded by the chief for the release of their mothers just as alima and agruba are about to leave mahawa prays for their safe [Applause] [Applause] before they leave the chief's custody alima and agruba have to drink a special potion that prevents them from dabbling in witchcraft again then the chief gives their sons a final word of advice [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you will [Music] the village of paragu is notorious for expelling women believed to be witches so far five of them have ended up at gambarga the chief and the elders didn't want to accept them back but with our regular visits and counselling they have come to understand and now they are ready to accept them sometimes relatives take women home and kill them to raise the stain of witchcraft from the family we have got stranger we have to say it before we sit down [Laughter] this time despite hours of preparation the village elders aren't very welcoming the women have to prove that the gambarena has cleansed them of witchcraft even so unwilling to take any chances a village elder lays down some cast-iron rules [Music] okay undeterred by the prospect of living under virtual house arrest alimah goes to her husband's compound foreign [Music] [Applause] now that she's home agrabah faces daunting challenges how is she going to adjust to her new life will her relatives really accept her or will she end up like others before her back at the witch's camp hello [Music] foreign [Music] in case you think witchcraft belief is just a problem in northern ghana you're wrong witchcraft believe permeates ghanaian culture it's a part of the ether we breathe here here's an edition of the daily guide newspaper of the 30th of september there's a story about ghana's very popular finance minister the honourable kojo ba redu who died suddenly in south africa members of his family thinking that the guy who contested the parliamentary primary against him was responsible for his death had started organizing groups of young men to lynch him thankfully the chief of the area called the family to his palace and asked them to stop making such inflammatory statements and here's another article ritual murder hits a crowd inside there's a very gruesome photograph of a young boy of around nine who was found murdered the way he's killed the way his body has been dismembered and his genitalia removed suggests that he was killed for ritual purposes so if people believe in witchcraft it's very likely that there are others who will use that belief for their own purposes ghana was the first country in black africa to gain independence from britain i imagine that our leaders back then hope that development and christianity would change our thinking but countless economic upheavals seem to have reinforced traditional religious beliefs in which the spirit world is every bit as important as the world of the living but nobody dies naturally they either were killed by somebody there's always a spiritual cause when you come to the christians you have a lot of the charismatic churches feeding on people's fear about witchcraft sometimes you have some pastors telling you that your problems are all caused by your mother or by that old lady in that house when a woman cannot have children she's either which was a victim of witchcraft and usually the person who is accused of having caused her inability to have children would be another woman a few days ago a colleague of mine was swearing to me that they are the girl who lived with them a child basically who was about eight or nine was a witch then i kept saying oh come over you have children can you imagine it being suggested that your child was a witch she says no but the child confessed i said anybody can confess to any kind of thing if they're pressured enough women can never do anything right the woman is poor that's a reason for her being branded as a witch the woman can be very rich and that can be a reason for her being branded as a witch [Music] back at the camp in gambarga it's now three days since the new inmate salmata was condemned for witchcraft and laraba pays her a visit to see how she's settling down almost all of them the first day is not easy some weep after three four days some even after one week they still with time they used to settle and then they forget of it and join the others now she's sad because the children haven't come to see how she's feeling she is not happy no woman is exempt from the taint of witchcraft azara was once a prosperous trader with a restaurant in a house of her own during an outbreak of meningitis she was one of three successful women accused of starting the epidemic me foreign in folk tales and at gambarga witches are usually elderly widows or strong-minded middle-aged women in her early 30s salmat is the youngest woman at the camp she arrived when her daughter was still a baby there were about 20 children so we saw the school authorities and registered them and then because their mothers are here and they are poor and their fathers are not even here so we have to provide school uniform we have to pay for the school fees we have to provide the books and then we have to make follow-up just facing the schools ensuring that the children are attending school life at the camp is hard during the growing season salmata works on the chief's farm with the other women in return for food the rest of the year she ekes out a living as best as she can die foreign [Laughter] foreign [Music] most women are anxious to leave the camp to be reunited with their children this wasn't the case with zanabo when her husband's family accused her of witchcraft she returned to her father's house but then she decided to move to the witches camp foreign unfortunately zanabo's husband had a stroke and had to return to his village i don't want to love the popular mother was accused of witchcraft as well she followed zanabo's example and chose to stay at the camp to help raise her grandchildren by the fourth day of her life as a witch the new inmate salmata has moved from the shelter of my house heart into the open [Music] how she ships feeling and she said she's fine her son came yesterday to say hello now i said whether he brought his hair something and she said yes she brought some millet to her and that at home they are all feeling fine [Music] [Music] the memory of everything they've lost in becoming witches haunts every woman at the camp [Music] i ask zanabo why it's usually women who are accused of witchcraft and women who end up here again and again the women i spoke to describe the tremendous upheaval that being condemned for witchcraft has had on their lives [Music] [Music] in exceptional circumstances some women are allowed to visit family members i arranged to meet azara the businesswoman thrown out of her neighborhood during a meningitis epidemic on one of her brief visits to her brother in gushing it's likely that when she finally leaves the camp this is where azara will live then for the first time in 10 years she decided to go back to see what's become of her home foreign stripped of everything she possessed azara may never live in her old house again but for alima and agrupa the first week with their families has just ended to see how they're settling down simon and laraba make their first follow-up visit benny we have to make sure that she is settled nicely and then the community she is doing well with the community members if not one day you will go and you will be very sorry husband is almost blind and needs her now more than ever our visit to meet the people there to know that there are some people caring for her because there are some instances where they used to come and request for them then go and kill them because some doesn't even want their mothers to be here it's a disgrace to them so they called them back and then killed them when simon and laraba left agribar with her relatives she appeared petrified so they're anxious to make sure she's alright [Music] um is living with her son's wives and her grandchildren [Laughter] [Music] another day at the camp and salmata in the second week of her life as a witch appears reconciled to her predicament while in the heart of the most senior resident mahar there are two new arrivals who've confessed to being witches a woman's confession proves that she's a witch um when i press him on how he's able to detect witchcraft by killing chickens the gambarena clams up [Music] there's no doubt in my mind that this state of affairs benefits the chief he provides sanctuary but the women pay him for it and they also have to pay to leave this sanctuary and while they're here they work on his fields however when deeply held superstitions and beliefs come into play it's hard to make a clear-cut case of good guys against villains for if a woman is abandoned by her family and left destitute the chief takes her under his wing and looks after her so he really does look after outcasts [Music] in december 2008 i returned to the witches camp to find out what had happened to the women i'd filmed the presbyterian church's initiative to rehabilitate witches had run out of funds and the number of women at the camp was rising again what's more relations between the gambarena and the church had deteriorated the chief no longer allows the women in his custody to attend church and the presbyterian minister is barred from leading mourning devotion at the camp as we are counseling the women and educating the communities take some of them back from the beginning the chief did not understand he thought that we were just going to close the home so that the woman would no longer come and because it's a tradition he also didn't want it to happen during his reign the women i'd filmed were doing well salmatre is still at the camp she told me that she has no plans at present to return home but she hopes that very soon her children will come for her determination to concentrate on her children's education has paid off her son is the first child at the camp to attend secondary school okay and here he is the women were so proud of his success that to help zanaba pay his school fees they organized a collection for him it's a beautiful photograph sonarbo with her two children smila and hannah i asked what her hopes were for her son's future hope is that mala should complete successfully and get a job that she will go back to the village and build a house there and take her home after 11 years at the camp azara was planning to return home she'd almost finished rebuilding her old house and wanted to go back in the new year she believed that she'd be safe because after filming with me and other film crews she'd become a local celebrity people see her with different people coming to the village i mean they recognize her to be somebody she is not the only one they have accused around that area but why she comes with different people to see her place they don't come near her but they stand outside and talk much about her i mean over there people call say a queen mother i filmed alima and agruba returning home when i was last here so with simon and laraba i traveled to the village of paragu to pay them a visit before i could see them i was introduced to the new chief who has an interesting take on witchcraft [Music] when a woman accused of being a witch is brought before him he seizes the opportunity to counsel the family concerned to find out what's really going on simon and larabaz visits to pargu to help alimer and agruba settle down seem to have worked alima is flourishing [Music] and so is agrupa after the grinding poverty of life at the witches camp they are being looked after well by their families yeah that she doesn't do any hard way she only traveled to the brothers place to say hi to them and then come back the children are there to prepare meals for her mahara's dream has finally been realized three years ago after spending almost a quarter of a century at the camp she returned to her family mahara relishes her freedom [Music] another inmate of the witch's camp who was able to go home soon after marhawa is young salmata we found salmat with her daughter in church and joined in the celebration [Music] salmata is overjoyed with her new life [Music] it sometimes seems to me that the problem of how to shift entrenched attitudes and traditions which jeopardize women's lives is intractable [Applause] but things are slowly changing and now those condemned for witchcraft in ghana are beginning to be heard by social activists all over the country i have had a chance to talk to a number of these women in the communities and they are very very clear about the injustices that have been done to them and how they feel that this is something that should be eradicated [Music] the government has to come in and be proactive the community has to be educated and to accept the fact that these women are not abnormal and that they are part of the community and i think with time that practice will die out [Music] we craft is not something that you expect that you can eradicate it immediately but at least we know that we are able to change the attitudes of the people gradually and we know that in the distant future people will understand what we are telling them better we are not saying that witchcraft doesn't exist but i mean the attitude towards the women is what we are preaching on so they later on listen to us because some of them they are mothers who are here and they are victims they know what it means so they started having listening to us the chief of paraguay was a treat to meet so it's the same thing people he hasn't got much time for witchcraft accusations and rather uses them to try to make sure that families are working together and living together in harmony the chief of gambaga on the other hand is determined to hold on to his power the cost for a woman to leave his custody has gone up to over a hundred dollars a vast amount of money for families here and what about the government of ghana instead of enforcing laws already on the statute books it seems indifferent to what is now over 3 000 of its citizens condemned to live as witches [Music] unless the government and the minister of women and children's affairs engages in a wide scale education campaign with chiefs and with communities it seems that a woman's future is going to be determined as it has been over the past hundred years by the way a chicken dies [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] i videos you