The Advocacy for Alleged Witches (AfAW) condemns the lynching of an elderly man for witchcraft in Malawi today. According to a local source, this unfortunate incident took place in Zolozolo in Mzuzu. Mzuzu is the headquarters of the Northern region. A photo of the incident that is being circulated on the social media shows a young man torching the body of the alleged witch which was covered with sticks and tyre.
Locals could be seen watching from a distance as the alleged witch was set ablaze. Recently there have been many reported cases of witch persecution and killing in Malawi including an incident where an alleged witch was stoned to death.
These cases of violence against alleged witches happen with the tacit approval of local/traditional authorities. According local sources, traditional authorities turn a blind eye on these mob attacks due to pressure from their witch fearing community members.
The government of Malawi must rise up to its duty to protect alleged witches and bring to justice witch killers and witch hunters. It must adopt a proactive approach to combating witch persecution and nip this witch cleansing in the bud.
Violence linked to witchcraft beliefs must stop. Alleged witches are innocent because witchcraft is an imaginary crime, a form of superstition that should be consigned to the bin of cultural mythologies. The people of Malawi should not stand by and watch as alleged witches are lynched or stoned death. Instead they should join efforts with AfAW in protecting and defending these innocent vulnerable members of the human family. Lynching a witch is an act that debases our humanity and shames us all. It should have no place at all in the 21st century Malawi and in the 21st century Africa.
Leo Igwe
Leo Igwe (born July 26, 1970) is a Nigerian human rights advocate and humanist. Igwe is a former Western and Southern African representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, and has specialized in campaigning against and documenting the impacts of child witchcraft accusations. He holds a Ph.D from the Bayreuth International School of African Studies at the University of Bayreuth in Germany, having earned a graduate degree in Philosophy from the University of Calabar in Nigeria. Igwe’s human rights advocacy has brought him into conflict with high-profile witchcraft believers, such as Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries, because of his criticism of what he describes as their role in the violence and child abandonment that sometimes result from accusations of witchcraft. His human rights fieldwork has led to his arrest on several occasions in Nigeria. Igwe has held leadership roles in the Nigerian Humanist Movement, Atheist Alliance International, and the Center For Inquiry—Nigeria. In 2012, Igwe was appointed as a Research Fellow of the James Randi Educational Foundation, where he continues working toward the goal of responding to what he sees as the deleterious effects of superstition, advancing skepticism throughout Africa and around the world. In 2014, Igwe was chosen as a laureate of the International Academy of Humanism and in 2017 received the Distinguished Services to Humanism Award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union.
Igwe was raised in southeastern Nigeria, and describes his household as being strictly Catholic in the midst of a “highly superstitious community,” according to an interview in the Gold Coast Bulletin.[1] At age twelve, Igwe entered the seminary, beginning to study for the Catholic priesthood, but later was confused by conflicting beliefs between Christian theology and the beliefs in witches and wizards that are “entrenched in Nigerian society.”[1] After a period of research and internal conflict due to doubts about the “odd blend of tribalism and fundamentalist Christianity he believes is stunting African development,” a 24-year-old Igwe resigned from the seminary and relocated to Ibadan, Nigeria
