Anti-witchhunt campaign in Malawi

The anti-witchhunt campaign in Malawi is slowly gaining momentum as we have joined hands with Civil Liberties Committee, The Crusade for Community Transformation, Word and Deed and even the association for secular humanism in addressing this scourge. A weekly radio advert is being aired conscientizing the nation concerning the witchcraft act and why witch-hunting is detrimental for society. An article was published in the national newspaper highlighting a Christian responsible response to witch hunting and yesterday and today 3 different media houses did radio interviews and a newspaper reporter wrote an article concerning the problem of witch hunting orphans, the disabled and the elderly.

Besides the safehouse for girls, the safehouse for boys accused of witchcraft is now well established and recognised by the Blantyre department of social welfare.

Report first published on www.africa-outreach.com

Witch children beliefs in Malawi

We are in the process of conducting a country-wide research on witchcraft beliefs in Malawi and the preliminary findings are cause for concern with more than 65% of the respondents believing that children can be witches with over 50% of them believing that such children must be arrested and severely punished by means of imprisonment, beatings, with some suggesting execution. An interesting detail is that none of the respondents who had a Bachelors degree or higher believed in witchcraft. Although respondents included people from Chewa, Angoni, Lomwe and Tumbuka background there were few differences in witchcraft beliefs.