African Children Tortured And Brutally Murdered By Christians

[cogitoergosum]

African Children Denounced As "Witches" By Christian Pastors

KATHARINE HOURELD | 10/18/09 12:01 AM |

EKET, Nigeria — The nine-year-old boy lay on a bloodstained hospital sheet crawling with ants, staring blindly at the wall.

 

His family pastor had accused him of being a witch, and his father then tried to force acid down his throat as an exorcism. It spilled as he struggled, burning away his face and eyes. The emaciated boy barely had strength left to whisper the name of the church that had denounced him – Mount Zion Lighthouse.

 

A month later, he died.

 

Nwanaokwo Edet was one of an increasing number of children in Africa accused of witchcraft by pastors and then tortured or killed, often by family members. Pastors were involved in half of 200 cases of "witch children" reviewed by the AP, and 13 churches were named in the case files.

 

Some of the churches involved are renegade local branches of international franchises. Their parishioners take literally the Biblical exhortation, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."

 

"It is an outrage what they are allowing to take place in the name of Christianity," said Gary Foxcroft, head of nonprofit Stepping Stones Nigeria.

 

For their part, the families are often extremely poor, and sometimes even relieved to have one less mouth to feed. Poverty, conflict and poor education lay the foundation for accusations, which are then triggered by the death of a relative, the loss of a job or the denunciation of a pastor on the make, said Martin Dawes, a spokesman for the United Nations Children's Fund.

 

"When communities come under pressure, they look for scapegoats," he said. "It plays into traditional beliefs that someone is responsible for a negative change ... and children are defenseless."

 

Story continues below

____

 

The idea of witchcraft is hardly new, but it has taken on new life recently partly because of a rapid growth in evangelical Christianity. Campaigners against the practice say around 15,000 children have been accused in two of Nigeria's 36 states over the past decade and around 1,000 have been murdered. In the past month alone, three Nigerian children accused of witchcraft were killed and another three were set on fire.

 

Nigeria is one of the heartlands of abuse, but hardly the only one: the United Nations Children's Fund says tens of thousands of children have been targeted throughout Africa.

 

Church signs sprout around every twist of the road snaking through the jungle between Uyo, the capital of the southern Akwa Ibom state where Nwanaokwo lay, and Eket, home to many more rejected "witch children." Churches outnumber schools, clinics and banks put together. Many promise to solve parishioner's material worries as well as spiritual ones – eight out of ten Nigerians struggle by on less than $2 a day.

 

"Poverty must catch fire," insists the Born 2 Rule Crusade on one of Uyo's main streets.

 

"Where little shots become big shots in a short time," promises the Winner's Chapel down the road.

 

"Pray your way to riches," advises Embassy of Christ a few blocks away.

 

It's hard for churches to carve out a congregation with so much competition. So some pastors establish their credentials by accusing children of witchcraft.

 

Nwanaokwo said he knew the pastor who accused him only as Pastor King. Mount Zion Lighthouse in Nigeria at first confirmed that a Pastor King worked for them, then denied that they knew any such person.

 

Bishop A.D. Ayakndue, the head of the church in Nigeria, said pastors were encouraged to pray about witchcraft, but not to abuse children.

 

"We pray over that problem (of witchcraft) very powerfully," he said. "But we can never hurt a child."

 

The Nigerian church is a branch of a Californian church by the same name. But the California church says it lost touch with its Nigerian offshoots several years ago.

 

"I had no idea," said church elder Carrie King by phone from Tracy, Calif. "I knew people believed in witchcraft over there but we believe in the power of prayer, not physically harming people."

 

The Mount Zion Lighthouse – also named by three other families as the accuser of their children – is part of the powerful Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria. The Fellowship's president, Ayo Oritsejafor, said the Fellowship was the fastest-growing religious group in Nigeria, with more than 30 million members.

 

"We have grown so much in the past few years we cannot keep an eye on everybody," he explained.

 

But Foxcroft, the head of Stepping Stones, said if the organization was able to collect membership fees, it could also police its members better. He had already written to the organization twice to alert it to the abuse, he said. He suggested the fellowship ask members to sign forms denouncing abuse or hold meetings to educate pastors about the new child rights law in the state of Akwa Ibom, which makes it illegal to denounce children as witches. Similar laws and education were needed in other states, he said.

 

Sam Itauma of the Children's Rights and Rehabilitation Network said it is the most vulnerable children – the orphaned, sick, disabled or poor – who are most often denounced. In Nwanaokwo's case, his poor father and dead mother made him an easy target.

 

"Even churches who didn't use to 'find' child witches are being forced into it by the competition," said Itauma. "They are seen as spiritually powerful because they can detect witchcraft and the parents may even pay them money for an exorcism."

 

That's what Margaret Eyekang did when her 8-year-old daughter Abigail was accused by a "prophet" from the Apostolic Church, because the girl liked to sleep outside on hot nights – interpreted as meaning she might be flying off to join a coven. A series of exorcisms cost Eyekang eight months' wages, or US$270. The payments bankrupted her.

 

Neighbors also attacked her daughter.

 

"They beat her with sticks and asked me why I was bringing them a witch child," she said. A relative offered Eyekang floor space but Abigail was not welcome and had to sleep in the streets.

 

Members of two other families said pastors from the Apostolic Church had accused their children of witchcraft, but asked not to be named for fear of retaliation.

 

The Nigeria Apostolic Church refused repeated requests made by phone, e-mail and in person for comment.

 

___

 

At first glance, there's nothing unusual about the laughing, grubby kids playing hopscotch or reading from a tattered Dick and Jane book by the graffiti-scrawled cinderblock house. But this is where children like Abigail end up after being labeled witches by churches and abandoned or tortured by their families.

 

There's a scar above Jane's shy smile: her mother tried to saw off the top of her skull after a pastor denounced her and repeated exorcisms costing a total of $60 didn't cure her of witchcraft. Mary, 15, is just beginning to think about boys and how they will look at the scar tissue on her face caused when her mother doused her in caustic soda. Twelve-year-old Rachel dreamed of being a banker but instead was chained up by her pastor, starved and beaten with sticks repeatedly; her uncle paid him $60 for the exorcism.

 

Israel's cousin tried to bury him alive, Nwaekwa's father drove a nail through her head, and sweet-tempered Jerry – all knees, elbows and toothy grin – was beaten by his pastor, starved, made to eat cement and then set on fire by his father as his pastor's wife cheered it on.

 

The children at the home run by Itauma's organization have been mutilated as casually as the praying mantises they play with. Home officials asked for the children's last names not to be used to protect them from retaliation.

 

The home was founded in 2003 with seven children; it now has 120 to 200 at any given time as children are reconciled with their families and new victims arrive.

 

Helen Ukpabio is one of the few evangelists publicly linked to the denunciation of child witches. She heads the enormous Liberty Gospel church in Calabar, where Nwanaokwo used to live. Ukpabio makes and distributes popular books and DVDs on witchcraft; in one film, a group of child witches pull out a man's eyeballs. In another book, she advises that 60 percent of the inability to bear children is caused by witchcraft.

 

In an interview with the AP, Ukpabio is accompanied by her lawyer, church officials and personal film crew.

 

"Witchcraft is real," Ukpabio insisted, before denouncing the physical abuse of children. Ukpabio says she performs non-abusive exorcisms for free and was not aware of or responsible for any misinterpretation of her materials.

 

"I don't know about that," she declared.

 

However, she then acknowledged that she had seen a pastor from the Apostolic Church break a girl's jaw during an exorcism. Ukpabio said she prayed over her that night and cast out the demon. She did not respond to questions on whether she took the girl to hospital or complained about the injury to church authorities.

 

After activists publicly identified Liberty Gospel as denouncing "child witches," armed police arrived at Itauma's home accompanied by a church lawyer. Three children were injured in the fracas. Itauma asked that other churches identified by children not be named to protect their victims.

 

"We cannot afford to make enemies of all the churches around here," he said. "But we know the vast majority of them are involved in the abuse even if their headquarters aren't aware."

 

Just mentioning the name of a church is enough to frighten a group of bubbly children at the home.

 

"Please stop the pastors who hurt us," said Jerry quietly, touching the scars on his face. "I believe in God and God knows I am not a witch."

[Vixentrox]

Older article. I seem to recall it from last year. Still stinks though. Christianity and evil go hand in hand.

[Phanta]

Thankfully our laws are strong over here, keeping at bay similar violence from erupting once again.

 

Desperate people are more inclined to magical thinking. It's tragedy all around.

 

What is the apologetic for that witch verse, anyway? How is that one justified as all-holy Jesus love? (Serious question).

 

Phanta

[Ouroboros]

Thankfully our laws are strong over here, keeping at bay similar violence from erupting once again.

 

Desperate people are more inclined to magical thinking. It's tragedy all around.

 

What is the apologetic for that witch verse, anyway? How is that one justified as all-holy Jesus love? (Serious question).

 

Phanta

It's from the old testament. So the excuse is probably something like "it's a cultural law. It was valid then, but not now because Jesus only counted the 10 commandments, blah blah..."

 

It's like when I quote Jesus telling the disciples to hate their parents (yes, he did tell them that), then Christians tell me the verse was only for the Jews at that time, and that it didn't mean literally "hate."

 

This could be used in this verse too. It was only for the Jews at that time, that culture, and perhaps they even would go to the Greek and see if the verse really said "live" or another version of it and argue it really didn't mean that literally.

 

Seriously, this is what they do to keep their belief alive.

[Phanta]

Seriously, this is what they do to keep their belief alive.

 

Ergh.

 

Thanks.

 

Phanta

[Ouroboros]

Seriously, this is what they do to keep their belief alive.

 

Ergh.

 

Thanks.

 

Phanta

When Christians read articles like these, they might realize that this is how it was back in Moses's days. Torturing and killing witches was probably a daily event (almost). But I think most Christians believe that it was okay because those witches were real witches. The way to justify violence is to paint the idea in the mind that the violated person deserved it. It's okay to torture a terrorist. It's okay to pour acid down the throat of a real and evil witch. It's okay to beat the crap out of a murderer. And so on. The mind tries to justify what we do and what we believe. It's natural. It's the process of protecting our sanity--by creating lies about reality. That's why truth starts with being honest to oneself. A Christian who begin to accept that it might not be black-and-white when it comes to OT, they're on the path of softening the rules of their religion. They're afraid of a slippery-slope, that one day they will lose their faith because they loosened the belief. (That's my arm-chair pseudo-amateur psychological analysis of the day... )

[Snowflake]

This makes me sick. My church was heavily into spiritual warfare and even took the novels, This Present Darkness and Piercing The Darkness by Frank Peretti as manuals for demonology and useful for insights into how demonic activity manifests itself. Lay people were chosen as prayer warriors to cast out various demons, by their apparent abilities to pray well, I guess. When they would pray over people, they would raise their hands over heads and make motions that appeared to look like they were slamming their bibles or fists on the heads of the people receiving prayer. They really weren't, it just looked like it.

 

What those people don't realize is that that kind of crap breeds this shit. That kind of zealotry taken to the next step would be physical violence but the people in those churches would say that's not true christianity. I mean, just the name spiritual warfare suggests violence in itself, what do they think the possible outcomes could be when the wrong people are given power?

[florduh]

It's a small step from "spiritual warfare" to real violence. Once one buys into the spiritual crap and good vs evil, the deep end is only a step away for some people.

 

While these perpetrators don't represent Christianity by a long shot, that religion is still the basis for their heinous acts, as it has been throughout history for many atrocities committed in the name of Jesus.

 

Imagine no religion.

[qec]

Wait I heard the whole acid thing was exclusive to Islam? Whelp better go invade their countries, kick their doors in, and force a progressive society down their throats through the barrel of a gun. We wouldn't want that country to be a breeding ground for terrorists would we?

 

At first glance, there's nothing unusual about the laughing, grubby kids playing hopscotch or reading from a tattered Dick and Jane book by the graffiti-scrawled cinderblock house. But this is where children like Abigail end up after being labeled witches by churches and abandoned or tortured by their families.

 

There's a scar above Jane's shy smile: her mother tried to saw off the top of her skull after a pastor denounced her and repeated exorcisms costing a total of $60 didn't cure her of witchcraft. Mary, 15, is just beginning to think about boys and how they will look at the scar tissue on her face caused when her mother doused her in caustic soda. Twelve-year-old Rachel dreamed of being a banker but instead was chained up by her pastor, starved and beaten with sticks repeatedly; her uncle paid him $60 for the exorcism.

 

Israel's cousin tried to bury him alive, Nwaekwa's father drove a nail through her head, and sweet-tempered Jerry – all knees, elbows and toothy grin – was beaten by his pastor, starved, made to eat cement and then set on fire by his father as his pastor's wife cheered it on.

 

Well goddamn this just takes the cake!! Whelp we better go invade their country and "save them". Shit wait, what if their country doesn't have resources we can utilize? Oh shit, guess we are out of luck, nevermind. I better go read some more Mackinder, maybe that shit will sink through and I'll face the inevitable reality that the poor little Africans need to be murdered by us anyway, should we ever find resources that justify us doing so.

[Crazy Donna]

"When Christians read articles like these, they might realize that this is how it was back in Moses's days. Torturing and killing witches was probably a daily event (almost). But I think most Christians believe that it was okay because those witches were real witches. The way to justify violence is to paint the idea in the mind that the violated person deserved it." Ouroboros

 

I think that's a really valid point. Christians seem to walk around believing that back in the 'old days', there were witches, and virgin births, and talking snakes, but now if you said you were a pregnant virgin or you'd just had a conversation with a talking snake, they would regard you with some skepticism. Even the fundies would treat you with suspicion.

 

Somehow, they lose the ability to see reality thousands of years ago the same way we see reality now. It's crazy. Why would reality be any different then to now? The laws of physics didn't come into effect the second we discovered them. They were in effect for the whole time before we understood what was going on. We know now that people cannot survive inside whales, but christians believe that somehow, because it apparently happened a long time ago, it was possible for this to happen. As if there are a separate set of rules for the reality of antiquity, other than the ones human beings applied at the time.

 

It angers me that because something supposedly happened a long time ago, christians are not critical of it in the same way they would be if it happened two streets away last Tuesday. They have double standards for different eras. It is as if the mists of time somehow legitimizes the irrational. The older the story is, the less evidence it needs to be believable for christians.

 

Children are not witches, and most human beings would be physically revolted by violence towards children under the banner of 'not suffering a witch to live'. Yet if this was a story about people killing children accused of witchcraft in the bible, christians would believe that they were genuine witches without question.

 

The bible is an evil book, and no good can come from it.

[qec]

The bible is an evil book, and no good can come from it.

 

 

It belongs in a Museum.

[Vixentrox]

The bible is an evil book, and no good can come from it.

 

 

It belongs in a Museum.

With the other torture devices.

[StevoMuso]

I live in South Africa and the amount of religious belief is staggering, even this far South. When I was a missionary (back in the 1980's) I saw the people of our village stone a man to death because he had been accused of something (I think a girl had accused him of rape - can't remember). But the "crowd mentality" was terrifying. The poor guy had absolutely no defense and the villagers got into a kind of trance-like frenzy, throwing huge rocks at him 'till he fell over and was bludgeoned to death by the whole crowd. Absolutely terrifying and beyond control.

 

They basically murdered the guy and felt, as a group, that vengeance had been done for the crime. And the police? Who do they charge for the murder? Can't be done. The same crowd-thing sets in with witch-craft and it's still alive and well in Africa. The cause is most definitely religion and HUGE doses of ignorance.

[lunaticheathen]

It's true that the violence isn't as bad here in America, but remember, Christians still bomb buildings, shoot doctors, "exorcise" (torture) children, and commit other violent crimes in the name of the exact same god in America and other developed countries. This shit really turns my stomach, though. Maybe because I'm a self-identified witch, maybe because it's children. Maybe because I had an angry mob of christians after me back in Alabama, throwing garbage. Granted, it wasn't my own parents, and it wasn't acid, but the same hate and the same god was involved.

I want to be "tolerant" and "the better person", but GODDESS, most of the time I just want Christianity to GO AWAY!

[cogitoergosum]

Wow, I find it really interesting that you actually come right out and label child exorcism torture. I remember exorcism episodes where I was forced to 'cough the demon out' until I'd cough so hard I'd actually start vomiting and that was regarded as a POSITIVE event because I was vomiting the demon out! There was one time I remember in particular though that I was so afraid of hell and thought I'd committed the 'unforgivable sin' that I was pretty much on the edge of having a nervous breakdown and it was determined my terror was caused by a 'demon of fear' which had to be exorcised, and during the exorcism I just started spontaneously vomiting because I was under such extreme stress. I was now not just afraid of hell but of this 'demon of fear' residing in my body. I think back on it and wonder about the horrifying level of psychological trauma and terrorization a child would have to be experiencing to cause them to just start repeatedly vomiting.

 

Of course it didn't just happen during exorcisms. The terror of the unforgivable sin was so deeply ingrained that once, convinced I'd done it when I questioned the supposed clairvoyance of a 'prophet', I spent FOUR DAYS actually bedridden and vomiting nonstop. There are no words for that level of terror, I sincerely do not understand why I didn't die of cardiac arrest or perhaps even have my hair turn white like you hear about. It is psychological torture, (http://humanrights.ucdavis.edu/projects/the-neurobiology-of-psychological-torture-1/index)

and should be understood as such by every therapist.

 

I wonder if it's possible some of us actually have PTSD.

 

Sorry, kind of hijacked the thread a little bit there, didn't I?

[Sexton Blake]

If you think that was bad, read this catalogue of horror by christians, you know, the people who claim to have invented morals:

 

 

http://www.psychohistory.com/originsofwar/09_bipolar.html

 

 

Monsters!

[Guest Net Eng]

...

The cause is most definitely religion and HUGE doses of ignorance.

 

Agreed.

 

The only way out of religious tyranny is through education. Teach people how the universe works and the superstition begins to drop away.

[lunaticheathen]

Sexton, I couldn't even get through that article, I felt so ill at it. I wanted to punch my computer screen.

Cogito, I'm so very sorry for your horrible abuse at the hands of these "holy" people. They should be beaten until the vomit. That kind of terror and abuse IS torture, and I will always call it as such. The more I learn from this site from other's experiences, and elsewhere, the more convinced I am that Christianity is evil.

And yes, there are people on this site that have been diagnosed with PTSD, and likely many more than live with it unknowing. This kind of terror and abuse that Christianity spreads to children cannot be without consequence for the victims.

[cogitoergosum]

If you think that was bad, read this catalogue of horror by christians, you know, the people who claim to have invented morals:

 

 

http://www.psychohistory.com/originsofwar/09_bipolar.html

 

 

Monsters!

 

OMG. I'm only part of the way through the article and it just blows my mind. Of course, I know firsthand some of the things listed here - we were starved since fat/gluttony was a 'demon'. My one sister was close to starving to death. We were forbidden from hugging or touching our mother, looking in her eyes, or having physical contact with certain of her belongings since she felt we would transfer demons to her and defile her. She told us constantly about biblical child stoning and the eagles eating out the eyes of disobedient kids, as well as the right/power of mothers to curse disobedient children, curses which could cause death or other catastrophes to fall on them. How literally she meant/believed all these things applied to her I don't know but I grew up fully believing that she was convinced of the right to stone me for disobedience or disrespect, and I lived in fear of her killing me or cursing me. She too believed that my purpose on earth was to marry and procreate since this was God's commandment to mankind. When I told her I didn't want kids she told me I was rebelling against god.

 

I was warned against sleeping in certain positions because of how it would invite sex demons to rape me while I slept.

 

We were kept from eating, sleeping, or even using the washroom while she would read the bible for hours late into the night, since doing any of those things proved we did not value the word of God above all else.

 

But despite all that - and what I've said only touches on the barest tip of the iceberg - I still am damned glad I didn't live a few hundred years ago. The stuff contained in that article is terrifying.

[Objet_trouve24]

I wonder if it's possible some of us actually have PTSD.

 

No no, I'm diagnosed PTSD myself (not for christianity stuff, unrelated). I'd believe it if a doctor linked some kind of PTSD to some of the stuff that goes on in christianity, especially exorcisms, sexuality/gender "reparitive therapy" (and other practices related to sex) and maybe even occaisionally the abandonment and ostracizing that often occurs during de-conversion (especially in groups like the mormons and JWs, where the church family is your whole life and everyone you love). Wouldn't be surprised at all. This stuff can get waaaaay out of hand.

 

I already think abstinence-only sex ed and hellfire teachings can be forms of child abuse.

[★ Citsonga ★]

It's sad to see that this kind of stuff goes on. It's mind-numbing, to say the least.

 

A while back I posted a link to a YouTube video that showed 5 Nigerian teenage "witches" being burned in a brush fire and severely beaten over the head (the video has since been removed, of course).

 

The ignorance is astounding, but who's to say that I would be any different if I had grown up in the same circumstances?

[ebonileigh]

I live in South Africa and the amount of religious belief is staggering, even this far South. When I was a missionary (back in the 1980's) I saw the people of our village stone a man to death because he had been accused of something (I think a girl had accused him of rape - can't remember). But the "crowd mentality" was terrifying. The poor guy had absolutely no defense and the villagers got into a kind of trance-like frenzy, throwing huge rocks at him 'till he fell over and was bludgeoned to death by the whole crowd. Absolutely terrifying and beyond control.

 

They basically murdered the guy and felt, as a group, that vengeance had been done for the crime. And the police? Who do they charge for the murder? Can't be done. The same crowd-thing sets in with witch-craft and it's still alive and well in Africa. The cause is most definitely religion and HUGE doses of ignorance.

you witnessed this? fucking hell!!! that must have scarred your mind!!

[ebonileigh]

Wow, I find it really interesting that you actually come right out and label child exorcism torture. I remember exorcism episodes where I was forced to 'cough the demon out' until I'd cough so hard I'd actually start vomiting and that was regarded as a POSITIVE event because I was vomiting the demon out! There was one time I remember in particular though that I was so afraid of hell and thought I'd committed the 'unforgivable sin' that I was pretty much on the edge of having a nervous breakdown and it was determined my terror was caused by a 'demon of fear' which had to be exorcised, and during the exorcism I just started spontaneously vomiting because I was under such extreme stress. I was now not just afraid of hell but of this 'demon of fear' residing in my body. I think back on it and wonder about the horrifying level of psychological trauma and terrorization a child would have to be experiencing to cause them to just start repeatedly vomiting.

 

Of course it didn't just happen during exorcisms. The terror of the unforgivable sin was so deeply ingrained that once, convinced I'd done it when I questioned the supposed clairvoyance of a 'prophet', I spent FOUR DAYS actually bedridden and vomiting nonstop. There are no words for that level of terror, I sincerely do not understand why I didn't die of cardiac arrest or perhaps even have my hair turn white like you hear about. It is psychological torture, (http://humanrights.ucdavis.edu/projects/the-neurobiology-of-psychological-torture-1/index)

and should be understood as such by every therapist.

 

I wonder if it's possible some of us actually have PTSD.

 

Sorry, kind of hijacked the thread a little bit there, didn't I?

what the...? I thought I had it bad back when I was in the IFB (Independent Fundamental Baptists) cult, who believe in the literal bible, beating their kids, till their "wounds were blue" "spare not thou soul for their crying" "the rod of correction will drive it (sin) far from them" etc etc, crueltly and abuse.

I/we (my kids were in their little christian school where they used their 'discipline' often) suffered much at their hands and I was diagnosed with PTSD after escaping.

I am definitely sure that many on this site have it or did so in the past.

[Guest Babylonian Dream]

No amount of humanitarian aid is worth the lives these christians are destroying there on the same continent their same missions are supposed to help and save and bring goodness. Absolutely sickening.

[ebonileigh]

This article made me feel so physically sick and angry, exorcism, what a load of shit, the world is so barbaric, and who suffers? the kids, if anyone is possessed its those who torture and/kill these poor defenseless babies, no sorry, don't believe in possession.

Fucking hell, sometimes I wish I didn't know all this stuff, and there's the superstitious crowd in africa who also cut off the limbs of the albino kids and run off with them believing the white limbs will bring them prosperity!!! sometimes I wish I would just stick my head in the sand and be blissfully ignorant of all this, then again, no, I NEED to be informed. god how it makes me sick. and what to do? I feel soooo terribly helpless, sitting here with my pc and knowing all this and not being able to do a damn thing about it?!!

I do believe that mankind is not the superior animal, other animals don't do that to each other. We are the dominant animal.

I feel sick.