Prevalence,
Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the first decade
of the 21st Century gvnet.com/streetchildren/Congo.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in the HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspect(s) of street life are of particular
interest to you. You might be
interested in exploring how children got there, how they survive, and how
some manage to leave the street.
Perhaps your paper could focus on how some street children abuse the
public and how they are abused by the public … and how they abuse each
other. Would you like to write about
market children? homeless children? Sexual and labor exploitation? begging? violence? addiction? hunger? neglect? etc. There is a lot to the subject of Street
Children. Scan other countries as well
as this one. Draw comparisons between
activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Around 20,000
street children wander in Kinshasa Xinhua News Agency,
June 01, 2007 english.people.com.cn/200706/01/eng20070601_379840.html [accessed 2 May
2011] According to Mafou, out of all the street children living in Kinshasa,
74.59 percent are boys with the rest being girls: orphans, who have lost both
parents aged between 0 and 18 years represent 25.8 percent of this children.
About 21.78 percent of these children are beggars, 5.93 percent are street
vendors while 30.98 percent are engaged in minor jobs. Mafou said the children
can be grouped under six categories, notably, abandoned children, orphans who
have lost one or both parents, children commonly known as wizards, displaced
or non- accompanied children, young street adults and street children who are
off springs of the young street adults. According to Godding, many children left their homes in search of food
and never returned; many have equally fallen victim to the suffering of their
parents who accuse them of being evil, branding them wizards and throwing
them into the streets. A good number also fled their homes due to
mistreatment from stepmothers and stepfathers. Children of Dan Balluff, Jul 15, 2008 www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew4rd1YyD7A [accessed 2 May
2011] Dan Balluff reports that over five million people have died
during the past decade as a result of the war in the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC). Few people are aware of the unimaginable scale of human
suffering, death, and destruction that has occurred in this vast country deep
in the heart of Africa. In the aftermath of this brutal war, children have
endured the brunt of the suffering. This 67 minute film documents the plight
of thousands of street children living in Kinshasa and confirms the
wide-spread accusations of child witchcraft, torture and child prostitution.
The film also examines the efforts to reintegrate demobilized child soldiers,
displaced refugees, and orphaned children following the eruption of the
massive Nyiragongo volcano, near the city of Goma
in Eastern Congo. These heroic efforts are finally bringing some measure of
hope and stability to the lives of the Congolese people. ***
ARCHIVES *** The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/congo-brazzaville.htm [accessed 30 January
2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Children in the DRC have been negatively affected by
continuing armed conflict. The number
of orphans and street children is reported to be on the rise. In November 2003, the UN Special Rapporteur
to the DRC reported that there were large numbers of child refugees and war
orphans engaged in street work, including begging and prostitution. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61563.htm [accessed 7 February
2020] CHILDREN
-
According to UNICEF, between 25 thousand and 50 thousand child refugees, war
orphans, and children accused of witchcraft or sorcery lived on the streets
throughout the country, although some of those who were not orphans returned
to their families at day's end. So-called child sorcerers were accused of
having mystical powers and their families often abandoned them, most often
because of socio-economic difficulties. The government was ill-equipped to
deal with large numbers of street children. There was
widespread discrimination and violence by average citizens against these
children, who were widely perceived to be street thugs engaged in petty
crime, begging, and prostitution. There were numerous reports of collusion
between police and street children, including street children who paid police
officers for the right to sleep in abandoned buildings, and children who paid
police a percentage of goods they stole in large markets. In addition there
were reports that different groups and individuals regularly rented groups of
these children to disrupt public order. Violence against
street children continued during the year. Soldiers and police subjected
street children to harassment. Security forces in During the year
there were reports that mobs killed street children. In Mbuji-Mayi, No action had been
taken against those responsible for killing alleged child sorcerers in 2004
or 2003. Human Rights
Reports » 2004 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41597.htm [accessed 2 May
2011] CHILDREN
-
Violence against street children increased during the year. Soldiers and
police subjected street children to harassment. There were unconfirmed
reports that security forces in Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) [DOC] UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 29 September 2006 www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/898586b1dc7b4043c1256a450044f331/2a3dc64e60de1887c125722700438d40/$FILE/G0644909.doc [accessed 27
February 2011] [73] The Committee
notes with satisfaction that the revised asylum policy in place has enhanced
the protection of asylum-seeker and refugee children who are unaccompanied or
separated from their parents. However, the Committee is concerned that access
to education and health is not fully guaranteed for refugee children. The
Committee is also concerned at reports of increased violence and
discrimination against refugee children, especially from Rwanda, and at the
fact that Rwandan children are not integrated in the regular educational
system. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 8 June 2001 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/congo2001.html [accessed 30 January
2011] [70] The Committee
is concerned at the high number and difficult situation of children living in
and/or working on the street. The Committee is concerned at, inter alia, the
lack of access of these children to food and health and education services
and the exposure of these children to several risks, including those related
to substance abuse, violence, sexually transmitted illnesses and HIV/AIDS.
The Committee is concerned in addition at the tendency of the criminal
justice system to treat these children as delinquents. Children in Dan Harris, Special
for www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-05-20-childwitch_N.htm [accessed 2 May
2011] THROWN INTO STREETS - Mushiete works with street children who have been accused
of witchcraft. He says homeless children are frequently raped and beaten,
even by police. Drug use is rampant. Girls often resort to prostitution,
leaving their own babies to sleep on the side of the road at night while they
sell themselves. -
sccp [access information
unavailable] They are armed with
machetes and machine guns and attack residential areas, where they demand
valuables and destroy vehicles before disappearing. Anyone who resists is
savagely killed. Police intervention is generally too late or ineffective.
The most affected areas are Ndjili, Masina and Kingasani on the
eastern outskirts of Kinshasa. Crime in Kinshasa
is a consequence, not the cause of the problem. The cause is unemployment among
youth. A decade of war and political
disturbances have ruined the national economy and made it easy to acquire
arms and ammunition. Legions of street
kids legacy of Congolese tragedy Report by The
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, 26 Apr 2009 [accessed 2 May
2011] THEIR NUMBERS HAVE SPIRALLED OVER THE PAST 15
YEARS – THE VICTIMS OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC COLLAPSE - Nine year-old
Patient sleeps rough in the Katangan capital Patient spends his
days scrounging for food and his nights looking for a safe place to sleep.
"I have no fixed place to sleep," he said. "[To eat] I beg people
of good will for money, and if that doesn't bring enough, I collect food
waste in warehouses. In the evening, we meet with friends, and each one shows
what he has collected, and we prepare something together." Besides begging, the street children sometimes
find paid work shining shoes, washing and guarding cars, delivering packages,
selling cigarettes on the streets and in bars and as money collectors on
taxi-buses. Many turn to alcohol and drugs like valium and hemp which are
readily available due to weak regulations controlling the sale of illicit
substances. Others sniff gasoline. Child sorcery, a
sinister curse for Congolese children Fatima Najm, Arab News, [accessed 10 October
2012] “She was torn from
her sisters who were crying and pulling on her hand and begging her parents.
Aisha was shocked. She was silent and the congregation used this as
‘evidence’ that she was accepting her status as a witch,” said her foster
mother Maria Jose Rodriguez. “I was in that congregation and I left the
church afterward and looked for Aisha to adopt her as quickly as possible.
Her mother blamed her for a miscarriage she had,” Maria said. Aisha was starved
and humiliated during her exorcism. She was told to confess while she was
beaten on her knuckles and the soles of her feet. The problem
stretches from Lubumbashi to Kinshasa. Evolved as a tribal tradition, it is
now replaced by religion in the cities, according to Pastor Djicain Monzambe, national
coordinator of PCPDE Congo. Poverty Pushes
Children Onto the Streets Miriam Mannak, Inter Press Service News Agency IPS, www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=44817 [accessed 2 May 2011] www.ipsnews.net/2008/11/dr-congo-poverty-pushes-children-onto-the-streets/ [accessed 27
November 2016] With salaries
sometimes not being paid for up to twenty-four months, more and more parents
can no longer afford to take care of their children. As a result, many
youngsters end up on the street. It is
unknown how many children live in the streets of the DRC, as no nationwide
research has been conducted so far. The only available information has been
gathered by private and non-governmental organizations, and focuses on
individual cities. For instance,
according to a survey by the Network of Educators for Children and Young
People on the Street (REEJER, after its French name), the capital Kinshasa
alone hosts approximately 20,000 children.
A similar scenario, although on a smaller scale, is found in other
urban hubs in the DRC. Oeuvres Maman Marguerite
(OMM), a Belgian Salesian NGO, claims that Lubumbashi boasts about 3,000
street children, of whom 750 live on the streets permanently. "These youngsters have lost all
contact with their parents and families," said Eric Meert,
who runs Bakanja Ville - a refuge shelter for
street children, which is run by OMM.
"In addition, we know of some 2,300 youths who roam the street
during the day, aiming to earn some money to support their families. The
majority of this group returns home at the end of the day, although some of
them spend an occasional night on the street." Human Rights Watch
Submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child For the Periodic
Review of the Democratic Human Rights Watch,
August 2008 www.hrw.org/legacy/pub/2008/africa/hrw.drc.crc.0808.pdf [accessed 2 May
2011] STREET CHILDREN - Tens of
thousands of children live on the streets in Soldiers, police,
and military police routinely harass street children, forcing them to hand
over money or other property. They also frequently threaten or beat the
children and sexually assault the girls. Some street children are imprisoned
for months for minor crimes such as pick-pocketing. They are often held
without trial for prolonged periods, usually together with adults, some of
whom are convicted criminals. As one children’s rights activist said, “The
prisons become ‘reeducation centers’ for the kids. They may have only
committed a small crime, but by the time they leave the prison, they’re
professional bandits.” Police have also
carried out mass arrests of street children. In late 2006, authorities
arrested hundreds of street children in Kinshasa and scores of street
children in Goma, probably because street children were considered supporters
of opposition presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba. More recently a
police unit for child protection in Goma has helped improve treatment of
street children by the police in that city, offering a model that should be
implemented elsewhere. DRC plans for its
40,000 AIDS orphans Panapress PANA, www.panapress.com/DRC-plans-for-its-40,000-AiDS-orphans--12-514076-66-lang2-index.html [accessed 2 May
2011] The city of Church-backed
project will give hope to Ekklesia, 17 Jan 2008 www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/6603 [accessed 2 May
2011] There are now some
250,000 children living on the streets in the Democratic Republic of Congo
(known as The plight of
street children in Congo has grown as a result of parental deaths from
HIV-AIDS, children and families displaced by war, child soldiers who have
been ejected from their homes and who cannot return, children of previous
partners who are not welcome because one parent has remarried, and children
accused of witchcraft - often as a pretext to get rid of them for other
reasons. 10,000 street
children rejoin families in DR Congo December 21, 2007 streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2007/12/21/10000-street-children-rejoin-families-in-dr-congo/ [accessed 16 January
2017] Some 10,000 street
children living in Congo-Kinshasa:
Bishop Bulamatari - I Would Like a More Open-Minded
New Way of Looking At These Children E. Young & N.
Yacoubian, UN Organization [accessed 16 January
2017] WHAT HAS LED TO THE
CAMPAIGN BEING SET UP?
- The last investigation carried out in Kinshasa this year showed that there
are 14,000 children on the streets. It is serious for an African city,
especially when people talk of African solidarity. This investigation shows a
reality and if we don't pay attention, we are likely to have a human time
bomb which will make our city intolerable. We are likely to
have a generation which was born on the street and which grows up on the
street, with increased crime and insecurity. This is because the natural
environment for the development of a child is the family, and not the street. NISS grad helping
street kids in Congo streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2007/05/03/niss-grad-helping-street-kids-in-congo/ [accessed 16 January
2017] “Street children
organize themselves in amazing manners in order to survive: many of the kids
I have met on the streets have seen more suffering in their seven years than
most could imagine in a lifetime,” says Aldersey.
“Yes, these kids are victims of unfortunate circumstance. But they are also
heroes. They are courageous, capable, and determined, and all they need is
people who have faith in them, people who believe in them, and people who
encourage them.” Ministry helps
unite families in poverty-stricken Africa Mission Network www.mnnonline.org/article/9781 [accessed 3 May
2011] The girls, aged 12 and
13, were among five children in a Christian family. Like many other families
in the area, their father had no job. Food was hard to come by, and tempers
were short. One day, the girls' stepmother accused them of being witches and
blamed the family's misfortunes on them. The girls decided
to leave home but soon found themselves without jobs, money, or shelter. They
were like many other street children living in the Congo's streets--accused
of being witches by their families, so they were abandoned or forcibly
evicted by the very parents who should have loved and supported them. Twelve Dead in The Guardian, 23
March 2007 www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/mar/23/congo [accessed 3 May
2011] The fighting
started when forces loyal to Mr Bemba, now a
businessman, defied a government order to disarm under a plan to cut his
security detail to just 12 police officers.
Residents reported incidents of looting across the city by soldiers
from both sides as well as gangs of street children. Rights Groups
Protest Eviction of Street Children From Congo's Capital Franz Wild, Report,
Voice of [accessed 3 May
2011] Tshetshe says she was not
scared, because she is used to the rough conditions of living on the
street. She says she turned to life on
the street at the urging of peers who told her she should leave home, because
life would be better as a prostitute. She says her clients are homeless men,
but she gets enough money for food. The ranks of street
kids first surged in the early 1990s, when the country, still known as Zaire,
faced an economic downturn that pushed unemployment through the roof. Looting
closed many businesses, and parents could often no longer afford to feed
their children. Many children and
young adults have now spent more than a decade on the streets, and many have
formed into gangs. MONUC supporting
street children Nina Yacoubian, UN
Organization reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/dr-congo-monuc-supporting-street-children [accessed 16 January
2017] From June to
October 2006, 14 hectares of ground were cultivated, and that made it
possible to pay for the food, schooling, healthcare and clothes of 50 street
children often accused of sorcery. “We
did not kill our parents so that means we are not sorcerers. We are a part of
society, but we are maltreated and exploited by society for their own
interests,” said one of the children.
This project proved that, when given the opportunity under the right
conditions, these children can live like everybody else and be integrated
into society, explained the representative of the center. "Sorcerers"
swell ranks of Daniel Flynn,
Reuters, streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2006/10/04/sorcerers-swell-ranks-of-congo-street-children/ [accessed 16 January
2017] His father had
abandoned him, leaving the Congolese boy to be raised by his grandmother. But
Bofata's uncles blamed the child for casting a
spell on his parents and they started to beat him. Now a cheerful
13-year-old, his face still darkens as he recalls the years he spent on
Kinshasa's vicious streets after he ran away. "It was hard on
the streets. To eat, we would help women carry their bags for a little
money," said Bofata, who now lives in a centre
for abandoned children. "At night, we slept on sand or on the pavement
in front of shops." Rights groups want
arrested Reuters, [accessed 16 January
2017] Even before the
elections, the first free vote in the vast, former Belgian colony in more
than 40 years, rights groups had warned that feuding politicians might try to
exploit Protesting street
kids held streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2006/09/22/drc-protesting-street-kids-held/ [accessed 16 January
2017] More than 700
street children have been rounded up in the Democratic Republic of Congo
capital More than 100
street dwellers, mostly children and young people, caused havoc in central
Kinshasa on Tuesday, burning tyres and throwing
stones at police. They were protesting
about a fire that had broken out at a television station, owned by
presidential contender Jean-Pierre Bemba, on Monday. "These young people have been behaving
like bandits for some time now, attacking members of the public. We have had
several complaints," said Sabiti. Homeless Youths
Throng ANJAN SUNDARAM,
Associated Press AP, Aug. 20, 2006 www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/20/AR2006082000197.html [accessed 16 January
2017] Sixteen-year-old Baruti Ilanga ran away from home four years ago and now
lives in the rusty brown shell of a Children abused in
electoral campaign UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN, www.irinnews.org/report/59787/drc-children-abused-in-electoral-campaign [accessed 10 March
2015] The United Nations
children’s fund, UNICEF, is conducting a census of street children. "The
preliminary results suggest there may be 20,000 in Kinshasa alone,"
Christina Torsein, a UNICEF protection officer,
said on Saturday. Zibigniew Orlikowski,
a Roman Catholic priest who works with the Kinshasa-based NGO Ouevre de reclassement et de
protection des enfants de la rue, tried to warn
candidates against using street children when the campaign began in June.
"Put yourself in the place of the
children," Orlikowski said. "There is a
demonstration in the street and the organisers
offer money. What else can the children do but follow?" Marie Paule's story: Surviving life on the streets of Kinshasa Joyce Brandful, Report, UN Children's Fund, [accessed 3 May
2011] The girls were
saved from being burnt alive when a vigilant neighbour
alerted police. That night, however, they were thrown out of the uncle's
house – and that's when their life on the streets began. Election Poses
Dangers for Street Children Human Rights Watch
HRW, April 4, 2006 www.hrw.org/en/news/2006/04/03/dr-congo-election-poses-dangers-street-children [accessed 3 May
2011] As presidential
elections approach, Factors Pushing
Children into the Streets Human Rights Watch
HRW Report, "What Future? - Street Children in the Democratic www.hrw.org/reports/2006/drc0406/6.htm [accessed 3 May
2011] VI. FACTORS PUSHING
CHILDREN INTO THE STREETS - An ever increasing number of children live and work
in the streets of the DRC. Although exact numbers are unknown, child
protection activists estimate that the number of street children in Kinshasa
and other urban areas has doubled in the last ten years. They have identified
multiple and sometimes inter-related causes to explain the increase. The two
successive civil wars, one that began in 1996, the other in 1998, left more
than 3.5 million Congolese civilians dead and has devastated the country.
Some children living on the streets lost parents in the war––either directly
in the conflict or due to hunger or disease––or were separated from them
while fleeing violence, particularly in the war-ravaged east of the country.
Entrenched poverty made worse due to the fighting has taken an equally heavy
toll on Congolese families. Unable to feed their children, much less pay for
their education, some parents send their children out into the streets to beg
or look for work, or parents abandon their children when, faced with
unemployment, they leave their homes in search of work in other regions or
countries. Congo removes
10,000 street children to orphanages aol.countrywatch.com/aol_wire.asp?vCOUNTRY=41&UID=1134632 [Last access date
unavailable] The proliferation of reception centers is a strong signal that shows the breakdown of the traditional family ties that made the child a community property put under the protection of the community The Street Children
Of www.alertnet.org/thenews/photogallery/509572.htm [Last access date
unavailable] During a visit to Arnaud Zeitman in news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1494555.stm [accessed 3 May
2011] "Nobody
respects street children in UN Special
Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo Roberto Garretón (for UN Economic and Social Council), 1 February
2001 Report on the
situation of human rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, submitted
by the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Roberto Garretón, in
accordance with Commission on Human Rights resolution 2000/15 Mr. Roberto Garretón, (E/CN.4/2001/40), Country visit: 13 August – 25
August 2000, Report published: 1 February 2001 www.crin.org/violence/search/closeup.asp?infoid=27974 [accessed 10 October
2012] [scroll down] The cities are
swarming with thousands of street children known as shégué. While this is not a new phenomenon, it has
increased as a result of the war and the loss of parents. There are cases of
murder, such as the well-known case of “little Ndingari”,
who was killed by a police officer in the James Astill in www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/may/11/congo.jamesastill [accessed 3 May
2011] ORPHANS CREATED BY
WAR AND AIDS ARE BEING ABANDONED BY POVERTY-STRICKEN RELATIVES WHO CALL THEM
SORCERERS
- Three years ago his mother succumbed to the virus marauding through Democratic Amnesty
International, Index Number: AFR 62/010/2003, Date Published: 31 March 2003 amnesty.org/en/library/info/AFR62/010/2003 [accessed 4 May
2011] www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr62/010/2003/en/ [accessed 27
November 2016] The education
system is under-funded and pupil drop-out rates have increased. The number of
street children has also considerably increased in Goma and Bukavu. While it
is extremely difficult to gather reliable statistics on the issue, the local
human rights organization Héritiers de la Justice
(Heirs of Justice) "there is a perceptible and evident link and
correlation between the war, the high number of school drop-outs and the
increase of street children in RCD-Goma controlled eastern DRC." Katherine Arie, Report - AlertNet, reliefweb.int/node/108415 [accessed 4 May
2011] BREAKDOWN OF
GOVERNMENT
- Abandoned children -- AIDS orphans, runaways, victims of abusive or broken
homes, children recruited and then deserted by one of the many armies or
regional militias operating in the country -- have suffered most. The
number of abandoned children is difficult to gauge but it appears to be
increasing. The U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF estimated in 2000 that
there were 50,000 abandoned children. Violence Against
Girls in Conflict with the Law Human
Rights Watch HRW, 20 Feb 2007 www.hrw.org/legacy/english/docs/2007/02/20/global15345.htm [accessed
4 May 2011] POLICE
VIOLENCE, INCLUDING RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT - In the
Democratic Republic of Congo, girls also reported beatings by police.
Seventeen-year old Rebecca reported that in 2005, …
A few kids were stealing from the market, and the police arrested a whole
group of street kids in the area. We were more than twenty kids in one small
room at the lockup. We were whipped with a plastic cord on the buttocks. The
kids would cry and scream. My friends paid the police 400 francs (U.S. $0.80)
to make them stop. Committee
on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Initial report of the DRC Committee On The
Rights Of The Child, Twenty-Seventh Session, SUMMARY Record Of The 705th
Meeting, 28 May 2001 www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/654ae47921194283c1256a680053e05c?Opendocument [accessed 4 May
2011] 55. Ms. CHUTIKUL
expressed concern about the treatment of street children, who were considered
offenders and were subjected to arbitrary arrest and police harassment. Such children were generally victims of
circumstances, such as dysfunctional family structures, armed conflict or a
lack of schooling. Because they were victims, they should be provided with
social integration and rehabilitation programs, including education and
vocational training. UNICEF
and International & Local NGOs in the Area of Child Protection [access information
unavailable] To address the
issue of the street children and traumatized children, special attention will
go to the reunion programs for street children, demobilized and unaccompanied
minors with their families and communities, the reinforcement of basic social
structures such as PHC and formal/non-formal education activities targeting
these categories of children, and the reinforcement of national capacities to
treat psycho-social problems of traumatized children. Suffer the Children
- The street children of CJ Maloney, March
1st, 2004 www.winne.com/news/2004/march/suffer_the_children.php [accessed 4 May
2011] The latest horror
that the Congolese people have gotten into is that they are accusing their
children of being witches and either killing them or casting them out into
the streets. This has gotten so
prevalent that according to UNICEF and the UN there are anywhere between
15,000 to 40,000 children, mostly between the ages of 3 and 13, living on the
streets of A special fear for
all Congolese children is the cult “pastor”. The pastor is a lethal
combination of medicine man, high priest, and judge. They will approach
families and offer to “cleanse” child witches for a fee. He also operates in
the opposite direction, fingering a child as a witch, placing the child in
immediate danger. Parents also seek out such men, looking for someone to give
them support for the witchcraft accusations against their child or a cure for
it. After all was said
and done, the pastor claimed that “more work” (and hence more money) was
needed to cleanse these witch children. The parents left with the children in
tow. Being impoverished, they might very well decide to part with their
children rather than their money.
According to many reports, Congolese parents use the accusation of
witchcraft as a pretext for ridding themselves of an extra mouth to feed. No
doubt this is true. But no doubt it is also true that many do believe it.
Either way, thus grows the ranks of All
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