The Humanist Association of Nigeria (HAN) welcomes the convention of an international conference on witchcraft at the University of Nigeria Nsukka. Witchcraft is a narrative that many Nigerians use in making sense of their misfortunes. It is a pervasive belief that leads to egregious human rights abuses of mainly children, elderly persons and people living with disabilities. In fact Nigeria has gained an international notoriety as a country where some of the worse cases of harmful practices linked to belief in witchcraft take place. Thus it is encouraging to know that a conference is being organized at one of Nigeria’s foremost universities to debate and explore this dark and destructive phenomenon.
Humanists are utterly dismayed by the protests and oppositions from Christian leaders and organisations especially the call by the Christian Association of Nigeria to cancel the event. It is unfortunate that CAN and other Christian groups have totally misconstrued the purpose and objective of the conference, and are using their mistaken views and positions to mobilize the Christian community against the event. The Christian propaganda against the conference on witchcraft has reached a worrisome extent that a Christian Bishop has vowed not to be alive and see the conference happen. This is a clear demonstration of intolerance, extremism and anti intellectualism. The witchcraft conference is an academic seminar that is taking place in a university. It provides an important space to learn, educate and bring various perspectives to the charged issue. Instead of the proposed prayer event, CAN and other religious leaders should mobilize the Christian community to attend the conference and use the event as an opportunity to explore and understand a potent and threatening socio-cultural reality.
Leo Igwe, who holds a doctoral degree in religious studies and wrote a doctoral thesis on witchcraft accusation in northern Ghana, is the chair of the Board of Trustees of the Humanist Association of Nigeria,
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
