Media Andwitchcraft Accusation in Northern Ghana

Secular Studies 1 (2019) 186–203

brill.com/secu

Media and Witchcraft Accusation in Northern Ghana A Study of the Dagomba Community

Leo Igwe University of Lagos [email protected]

Abstract

There has been a growing visibility of witchcraft beliefs in the African media. The dominant paradigm in the academic literature on witchcraft is that the media reinforce witchcraft beliefs by disseminating information and ideas that are related to witchcraft accusations and witch hunting. However, a careful examination shows that this is not always the case because the media serve other counter purposes. Using ethnographic data from the Dagomba area in Northern Ghana and the concept of forum shopping, this paper explores how accused persons in the Dagomba communities utilize the limited media coverage to enhance their responses to witchcraft accusations. Apart from disseminating information regarding the activities of assumed witches, the media publicize perspectives that reject witchcraft notions.

Keywords media – witchcraft – accusation – Dagomba – Ghana

1 Introduction: Witchcraft Accusation in the News

Recently, reports on witchcraft accusation have generally been visible in the print and broadcast media in Ghana. These reports highlight cases of allegations not only against men and women but also children. They inform the public about the claims, activities and operations that are associated with accused persons, the treatment meted out to them as well as specific interventions of state and non-state institutions on the issue of witchcraft allegation. A few

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/25892525-00102001Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 07:15:26AM via free access media and witchcraft accusation in northern ghana 187 examples include: “Ghana Witch Camps: Widows’ Lives in Exile,” (Whitaker, 2012); “Ghana’s Witch Camps Last Refuge of the Powerless and the Perse- cuted,” (Morrison, 2012); “Gambaga Chief Wants Support for Accused Witches,” (Adombilla, 2014); “Kill This Witch Belief” 2015; “The Spiritual Shackles: A Peep into theWitches’ Camp” (Gyesi, 2015); “DOVVSU to Rescue GirlsTaggedWitches in Bomase Eastern Region,” (2015). In addition there are numerous documen- taries on alleged witches and witch sanctuaries in Ghana (see for example “Witches In Exile” (2005); “Ghana Witches,” (2008); “The Witches of Gambaga,” (2010)). Despite this visibility, the existing debate on witchcraft accusation has not properly articulated the dynamic role of the media in the accusation process because the mass media have mainly been portrayed in somewhat restrictive sense as instrumental to the acquisition, reinforcement and dissemination of witchcraft ideas and beliefs in Ghana (see Adinkrah 2015; Asamoah-Gyadu 2015). Adinkrah (2015, 112), for instance, argues that the Ghanaian mass media are suffused with witchcraft ideologies and provide forums for Ghanaians to learn about witchcraft stories and practices of witches. The media focus on witchcraft accusations, he maintains, perpetuates the beliefs and narratives by exposing Ghanaians to witchcraft conceptions. That argument is not merely biased but partial and presents a one-sided view of the role of the media establishment because state and non-state actors in this domain use the media to dispel witchcraft notions and conceptions and get Ghanaians to stop imputations of witchcraft and the persecution of alleged witches. This argument restricts critical examination of what may happen in the accusation landscape without these media and their programs. It also limits attempts to find alternative remedies to the intrusion of individual liberties through sociocultural beliefs and practices. Thus an intriguing question remains: have the media always been a force for valorizing witchcraft beliefs and practices in Ghana? That is, do media institutions only serve as platforms for strengthening witchcraft narratives? It is important to know, if the debate on witchcraft accusation benefits from an open approach that explores the dynamic role of the media in specific and everyday situations. This paper therefore discusses how accused persons, in using available media platforms to enhance their contestation of the witchcraft label shape the role of the media in the accusation process. Ethnographic evidence from three accused persons in three Dagomba communities, Changli, Nyankpala and Choggu, and newspaper items that reported the same topic are used in a complementary fashion to argue for an alternative idea to the dynamic role of the media in witchcraft accusation in Northern Ghana.

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2 Media in Northern Ghana: An Overview

Ghana is a country that is known for its free and vibrant media (see Asare 2009). The media institutions have played very important role in the growth and development of Ghana since the colonial times. The colonial authorities established the first newspaper, The Gold Coast Gazette and Commercial Intel- ligencer, in 1822, which served the commercial interests of the colonialists. Some Africans ventured into the media industry and started some newspapers such as The Accra Herald, Gold Coast Times, Gold Coast Echo and Gold Coast Chronicle. In 1948, Kwame Nkrumah established the Accra Evening News which focused mainly on criticizing the colonial government and making a case for ‘Self Government’ (see Asante and Ogawa 2016). In 1950, the London Daily Mirror group, founded a less hostile and more politically neutral newspaper, the DailyGraphic. However, Owusu (2012, 26–29) suggests that free press in Ghana suffered after Ghana gained independence in 1957 because the government of Kwame Nkrumah clamped down on opposi- tion newspapers. It shut down some of the media agencies, censored their pub- lications and imprisoned their editors. Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966, and Ghana experienced decades of coups and counter coups. The media policy of successive military regimes oscillated between tolerance of free press and state control of media institutions. However the democratic dispensation ushered in by Jerry Rawlings repealed the newspaper licensing law which his government introduced in 1989. Following the abrogation of the law, private media agencies such as The Statesman, the Ghanaian Chronicle, and Independent reemerged. The repeal of the criminal libel laws in 2001 by President Kuffour extended the frontiers of free press and Ghana has witnessed the establishment of more private print and broadcast media stations (see Owusu 2012). Many of these print and broadcast media establishments still exist in North- ern Ghana.They have their offices1 concentrated within theTamale metropolis. Tamale’s political significance goes back to the colonial times. The British colonial officers chose it as their northern headquarters following the takeover of the Yendi, the capital of the Dagbon by the Germans (MacGaffey 2006a, 109). These media outlets engage in reporting, entertainment and dissemination of news, knowledge and information. They include the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, the Daily Graphic, The Chronicle, Daily Guide, The Finder, Daily Dispatch, The Ghanaian Times, Zaa Radio, North Star radio, Mighty FM, Justice

1 These are mainly regional offices of media groups that have their headquarters in Accra, the capital.

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FM, Kesmi FM, and Fiila FM stations. They employ a handful of staff that report and cover stories of events within the region including cases of witchcraft accusation. It is worthy to note that these media institutions compete for listeners (Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung 2011) by trying to provide an extensive coverage of news and events in the region. Despite the limited transportation infrastruc- ture, efforts to capture the views and perspectives of persons and follow up on how news items unfold, reporters travel to the different locations within the region by taxis and sometimes by buses. Thus, in spite of the very challenging social and geographical environment in which these media institutions oper- ate, a commitment to a balanced coverage of events remains paramount.

3 Media Coverage of Accusations: Limitations

Given the stigma that is attached to the witchcraft label and suspicion of ‘outsiders’ interested in cases of accusation, getting information is not an easy undertaking. Media coverage of witchcraft accusations in Northern Ghana is fraught with many challenges and difficulties. One major constraint is the beliefs of media personnel regarding witchcraft. Some reporters are witchcraft believers and harbour fears whenever they are covering supposed occult activities. A leader of the Anti-Witchcraft Campaign Coalition (AWACC), a civil society group that works to support accused persons and raise awareness against witchcraft accusations in the region points out this challenge:

The media lately are doing better because we involve them in our edu- cational programs. Some of the media practitioners also entertain the fear of witchcraft but when they are educated and made to understand the law, constitution and science, they appreciate some of the things we are saying at the anti-witchcraft campaign. Then they are able to work because of their job not because of spirituality. Some of them have the fear of witchcraft and that stops them from carrying out proper investigation. So we let them understand that the constitution of Ghana and the universal declaration of human rights do not allow such things, so they are forced to report the accusations but they might be a bit biased. AWACC, Tamale, February 2 2014

The ‘fear of witchcraft’ conflicts with media professional ethics. It interferes in the media investigation and coverage particularly when the reporters travel to scenes and locations where accusations happened to interview the accused persons or when they go to the witch sanctuaries where accused persons take

Secular Studies 1 (2019) 186–203 Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 07:15:26AM via free access 190 igwe refuge. Some reporters entertain the notion that these accused persons might certainly be guilty of the crimes for which they were accused. In addition, media practitioners are afraid of being embroiled in conflicts that often char- acterize accusations because as ‘outsiders’ the risk of being labelled as taking sides either with the accusers or the accused persons remains high. The general quest for information could be misunderstood because allegations of witchcraft happen in situations of fear, hatred and mistrust. Observations of everyday practices show that both sides are constantly on alert and monitor- ing any strange moves or visits by ‘outsiders’.Thus the media’s work of gathering information could easily be seen as a pretext to gather intelligence that could be used by the accusers to exert revenge or by the accused in prosecuting the accusers.2 Families and neighbours are often circumspect and reluctant to disclose any information which they think might compromise safety and security of the accusers or the accused persons.3 The accusers try to sniff out the alleged witches and bring them to justice. At the same time, accusers, fearing that the accused persons could bring police action against them try as much as possible to conceal information about their actions and intent. Another constraint that most media stations at the regional capital Tamale have to contend with is their limited resources to cover and recoup costs of reportage. The media agencies are mainly private businesses that largely depend on advertisements for their income and for the payment their bills (see Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung 2011). The media agencies find it difficult to follow up on stories that happened outside Tamale. Therefore, there is limited incentive to do so because media coverage of witchcraft accusations have little market value. Moreover, to report cases of witchcraft accusations, media practitioners travel to so many places to source for information in order to produce balanced stories. To get a full picture of a case of accusation in Yendi, for example, a reporter has to travel over 100 kilometers from Tamale to meet with the accused, the accuser, the sub chief and perhaps theYa-Na, as the King of the the

2 The suspicion and mistrust in this case is mutual. There is feared consequence of giving out information on both sides. The accusers are suspicious of any inquiry because such information could be used for their indictment and prosecution by the police and the accused persons and the family are reluctant to divulging information to an ‘outsider’ because the accusers could use it to track, attack and beat up the accused persons. 3 Sometimes, it took a lot of persuasion for families to give me detailed information about accusers and accused persons. In some cases, family members told me that the accusers travelled and they were not sure when they would return. In one case of an accused person, it took a lot of persuasion and reassurance before the family members could disclose where the accused person fled to after the accusation.

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Dagomba area or Dagbon is called.The reporter may go to the shrine, if the case is referred to a priest but shrines are often located in remote communities and then the reporter travels back to Tamale. It becomes even more complicated if the matter has been reported to the police, in which case, reporters may be interested in capturing how the police are dealing with the matter. In addition, the poor road network in Northern Ghana makes it even more difficult to commute between these areas. Even some sections of the Tamale metropolis are rarely accessible by taxis. Thus to cover stories and to report events outside the Tamale metropolis, some journalists have to travel by motor bikes with obvious risks to their lives and security.With all these challenges, the media risk being partial in their coverage and in what they present for public consumption. These limitations, notwithstanding, there are specific factual, unbiased and well-balanced stories on witchcraft accusations as illustrated in these three cases from the Dagomba community. These cases are discussed in the next sec- tion.

4 Why the Dagomba?

The Dagomba community also known as the Dagbon kingdom is suitable for understanding the role of the media in witchcraft accusation because the Dagomba are the largest ethnic group in Northern Ghana. The population is estimated to be about 1.5 million and constitutes more than half of the population of Northern Region (see Mahama 2004; Bierlich 2007). MacGaffey (2006b, 81) noted that Dagbon was founded in the fifteenth century and was invaded and ruled at various times by the British, French and German forces. The Dagomba inhabit the major towns and communities—Yendi, Gushiegu, Karaga, Savelugu, Nyankpala, Kumbungu, Diari, Tolon, including the regional capital Tamale where media establishments have their offices. Islam is the dominant religion in the Dagomba community though in practice both Islam and ‘traditional religion’ mix (MacGaffey 2013, 4). Tijjaniyya and Al-Sunnah are the two main Islamic traditions. Tijjaniyya Mallams use the Quran to perform miracles, conduct special prayers, divination and ritu- als. They cooperate with local chiefs in providing islamic forums for remedies and resolutions to specific local problems. For instance, they use the Quran to resolve cases of witchcraft accusation by getting the accused person to swear an oath using the Quran. In the Dagbon society, persons, usually but not exclu- sively elderly women are accused of witchcraft and are often subjected to vio- lent treatment or banishment (see MacGaffey 2015, 96). Those who are accused

Secular Studies 1 (2019) 186–203 Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 07:15:26AM via free access 192 igwe of witchcraft have a choice between different institutions to go to facilitate their contestation of the allegations based on what they hope would be the outcome in terms of furthering the objective of neutralizing the allegation. The concept of forum shopping (see von Benda-Beckmann 1981; Forum Shopping Reconsidered 1990; Algero 1999) is useful in articulating how accused persons utilize media opportunities in responding to witchcraft allegations. Accused persons take counter measures to nullify insinuations of responsibil- ity by accessing different forums and jurisdictions to challenge the imputations of occult harm. They take their cases to primary forums namely nuclear and extended family structures and to the paternal and maternal family net- works with the expectation that kinship ties and solidarity would enable them overturn the imputation of occult harm. In cases where the family forums are unable to overrule the allegations, alleged witches petition the chiefs and shrine priests to use their powers to resolve the cases.Yet,situations exist where the chiefs and priests are part of the accusers or are themselves the enforcers of the witchcraft label. There are also instances where the outcomes of the palace and shrine processes are unfavourable to the accused. Accused persons react to such developments by lodging complaints with the state institutions that have the competencies to handle the case such as the police and the Commis- sion for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ). The accused persons may also decide to access the courts and file civil actions. However, there are instances where police or CHRAJ may appear to be delaying the investigation and processing of the complaints and in such situations, accused persons explore other avenues in order to pressure these institutions to expedite action on their cases. A robust alternative forum for alleged witches is often the media platform. The media facility is not only effective in putting pressure on state institutions to act but also in presenting counter witchcraft beliefs for public consumption. It is important to note that in the everyday Dagomba realities, two main types of media exist—the Kpanalana4 media and the non Kpanalana media.5 The two media types feature in the accusation process in ways that sometimes enhance or limit the chances of the accused to contest the label. Kpanalana media are the media channels used by chiefs to publicize issues of interest to the chiefdoms such as announcing dates of meetings at the chiefs’ palaces,

4 Kpanalana is a Dagomba term for the Chief’s Linguist or spokesperson. The Kpanalana are responsible for publicizing issues and events in the communities. 5 One can also classify them as ‘traditional’ or ‘modern’ media in which case traditional media refer to the media outlets that pre-date the print and broadcast media that were introduced by the colonial authorities.

SecularDownloaded Studies from 1 (2019) Brill.com09/28/2021 186–203 07:15:26AM via free access media and witchcraft accusation in northern ghana 193 transmitting messages of chiefs to community members and informing the public about individuals who are suspected of witchcraft and those who have been banished from the community for perpetrating occult harm as well as any other issue of significance to the chiefdoms. However, the Kpanalana media may serve as the voice for the accusers or the accused depending on the rul- ings and positions of the chiefs. In situations where the chiefs support the accused persons or exonerate alleged witches, the Kpanalana media amplify the voice of the accused and shuts out the voice of the accusers. Whenever the chief supports the accusation or is the enforcer of the witchcraft label, Kpanalana media assume the role of accusing media. They give a voice to the accusers, while accused persons contesting the enforcement of the witchcraft label have to seek out—if they could—other media outlets to get their voice and perspective out to the public. The non-Kpanalana media, comprising the print and broadcast media agencies including radio and television stations are often the destinations of the accused persons seeking to get their voices heard and anxious to get the stories into the public domain. For a better appre- ciation of the role of the media in communicating cases of witchcraft accusation to the public, the case of Mrs Wesi will be examined in the next sec- tion.

5 Media-Initiated Coverage: The Case of Mrs Wesi

Mrs Wesi,6 a 70 year old woman from Changli, which is a suburb of the regional capital, Tamale. She was lodging at the witch sanctuary in Gnani, which is a village near Yendi, when I interviewed her. She was accused of witchcraft but it was the media which, on its own accord, reported the case. The accused person informed me that she did not take the case to the media. Her family members did not contact any journalist. The January 12 2013 edition of a Ghanaian national newspaper, the Daily Graphic, published the story with the headline: “Youth Attack Old Lady Accussed (sic) of Witchcraft”. The public relations officer of the Dakpema, (the market Chief of Tamale), narrated the story of Mrs Wesi to the correspondent of the Daily Graphic. He recounted how the accusation started. The daughter of the accused person became ill and efforts to heal her proved abortive and subsequently the lady claimed that the mother was responsible for the sickness and the case was reported to the sub chief of the village who later referred it to the Dakpema (the market chief). The media

6 I have anonymized the accused persons in order to protect the identities.

Secular Studies 1 (2019) 186–203 Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 07:15:26AM via free access 194 igwe further reported that the Dakpema invited the family members including the accuser and the accused person and the ‘bewitched’ repeated the same allegation. The report states:

… anytime she was alone in the room at night, she would see the mother together with some three other women naked with their backs turned to her. She said it was only the mother who allowed her to see her face but others would not. She said one day, the four women decided to sit on her chest and it was during that time she had the chance of seeing the faces of the other women whom she was able to identify Dery 2013

The newspaper reported that the case was referred to a ‘witch doctor’ and the accused person and others were tried at the shrine. In the course of the trial, Mrs Wesi confessed:

… to being the leader of the witches, said they had reserved 12 other people from Changli for consumption during the Damba Festival this year. He [the Dakpema’s public relations officer] said she proceeded to men- tion the names of the people they had reserved and the affected people who were among the observers were incensed and demanded that they be freed immediately. He said the alleged witches were given an ultimatum to heal Shawana but unfortunately, they could not and she passed on. The alleged witches confessed that they had already finished killing the lady in the spiritual realm before they were asked to heal her. They said all treatment sought for Shawana could not cure her because they had put cotton in her throat to trap and remove all drugs that she would take. ‘Mrs Wesi told the crowd that the name of her witchcraft is ‘kuka be yoli’, which means, ‘kill and be free’ and that explained why she could even kill her own daughter without having any remorse’ Dery 2013

The report highlights the ‘confessions’ of the accused person as narrated by the palace official and concludes with an account of what happened when the accused returned from the shrine:

… the youth got agitated and asked her not to alight and so she was sent back to the Dakpema for plans to be made for her to be sent to one of the witch camps in the Northern Region. He [the Dakpema’s public relations officer] said it was when they were taking Mrs Wesi back to Dakpema

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Palace that some young men crossed the vehicle, forced her out of the vehicle and beat her with clubs and machetes until she sustained a deep cut on her head. He said some passers-by and the family members managed to rescue her and sent her to the hospital. All efforts to trace her in all the health institutions in the metropolis proved futile as no one wanted to disclose any information about her to the press Dery 2013

Through the case of Wesi as illustrated above, an interesting dynamic of the media’s role on the landscape of witchcraft accusation emerges. Despite their limitations, the media inform the public of cases of witchcraft accusation.They attempt to provide somewhat factual and unbiased accounts of the processes of allegation. Though in the case of Wesi, the report projects the views of the accusers and enforcers of the witchcraft label through whom the account of the accusation is narrated, the reporter made efforts to capture the other side of the story. The journalist tried to access the accused persons and to capture their perspectives without success. Indeed in many other cases, reporters find it difficult to know the substance of the accusation because the voices of the accusers are usually very loud. The news of assumed witchcraft circulate quite easily through rumours and gossips (see Ashforth 2005) and media persons find it very challenging to reach many interested parties in order to balance their stories. Given that the accusers are the ones who through the local Kpanalana media spread the information when accusations happen, the accused persons as a precautionary measure usually run for their lives. They seek refuge some- where and often could not be reached. The journalists publish the story as speculated. Thus biases in reportage of witchcraft accusations sometimes go beyond the belief tendencies of the media practitioners. Though this case seems to suggest that the concerns raised by scholars such as Adinkrah (2015, 112–115) and Asamoah-Gyadu (2015, 23–25) are valid, it shows what could be the limitations in such media reportage. Thus contrary to the perspectives of these scholars, more interesting insights into the role of the media in witchcraft accusations emerge on occasions when accused persons take their stories of accusation to the media and use the media platforms to present their cases to the public as illustrated in the following two cases.

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6 Accusation Coverage by Print Media: The Case of Neda7

Neda, a woman from Nyankpala in Tolon district, was doubly accused of witchcraft by some extended family members and then by the chief of her village. On Friday 31 May 2013, a newspaper in Ghana, The Finder, published a story on its front page with a bold headline ‘“Witch’ Given Ultimatum: Cure 25-yr-old ailing woman or face death”. The details of the report are that:

The Chief of Nyankpala in Tolon district, Nyankpal-naa Yakubu Neindow, has reportedly given a 45 year old trader in that community, Neda, a three day ultimatum to cure an ailing 25 year-old-woman or be banished or stoned to death. Neda was accused of being the cause of Nafisah’s acute stomach ailment. Last week, the family of Nafisah dragged the accused to the chief’s court. The sick person is reported to have told the chief during the hearing at the palace that the accused person on two occasions gave her fried meat to put on her food and also provided her with por- ridge during last year’s fasting period, which she believed was the source of her sickness. Neda was however denied the chance to defend herself by the chief who ordered her to, within three days, provide a cure for the sick person or face the wrath of the traditional authority. Narrating the story to The Finder, Abdulai Safik, who is a brother of the accused, said his family was summoned by Nyankpal-Naa Yakubu Neindow to the palace on a witchcraft allegation. Abdulai Sadik said they went to the palace only to receive the shocking news that their sister has been accused of bewitching a neighbour, Osman Nafisah, putting Nafisah almost at the point of death. ‘We received the news with shock. Our sister has no trace of witchcraft in her nor has she ever been involved in any activity of such kind.’ Sadik said. According to Sadik, to make matters worse, the chief summoned them the next morning, alleging that the woman attempted to strangle him to death in his dreams and that had it not been for his spiritual strength, the woman would have succeeded in killing him. Mean- while the sick person was on the next day brought to the family of the accused, who have since sent her to the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) where she is undergoing treatment while a formal complaint has been lodged at the Northern Regional Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU). Wahab 2013

7 I have used some ethnographic materials from my doctoral work in progress on witchcraft accusation in Northern Ghana for this paper.

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In an interview with a journalist from another national newspaper that reported the story, he explains how a person from Neda’s family came to their office apartment and reported the case to them:

The person sat where you are sitting. He told me about the mother, how a family member woke up one morning saying that the mother was attacking him in his dreams. For that matter, the mother was a witch, so they reported the case to the chief at Nyankpala in Tolon District. The chief invited the woman to the palace. The woman went there and the chief insisted that she was a witch. The following morning the chief woke up to say that the woman attempted attacking him in his dream. And so the chief confirms the fact that the woman was actually a witch. So she was banished from the community. In this case the matter was reported to the police. So I followed up. Daily Graphic, Tamale, 2 February 2014

In the above quotation, accused persons are able to tell their own version of the story of accusation because the media provide them forums to communicate their stories to the public. That is in contrast with the case of Mrs Wesi where the correspondent accessed and retold the story based on the narration of the accusers and enforcers of the label.The report contains details of the purported witchcraft activities of the accused, the occult name of the accused and confessions of planned witchcraft attacks. In the case of Neda however, it was the accused party who took the story to the media and the media articulated that story from the perspective of the accused and stated that the accused person was even innocent, and had ‘no trace of witchcraft in her’. The media further highlighted the steps which the accused person had taken to nullify the accusation. Beyond narrating the story from the perspective of the accused person, the reporter did some follow up and took steps to capture the perspectives of other parties involved. Thus far from valorizing witchcraft beliefs as suggested by some scholars and commentators (see Adinkrah 2015, 112–115; Asamoah-Gyadu 2015, 23–25), the media in this case were inclined to helping the accused persons invalidate the witchcraft belief. Interestingly, media publicity of such cases often yield positive results for the accused because sometimes competent institutions intervene in their favour. It is noteworthy that there was no state intervention in the case of Mrs Wesi. Apparently, this was because the family members did not report the case to the police and did not make any attempt to access any state institution to challenge and neutralize the allegations. Instead, from the hospital, family members took her to a witch sanctuary. In the case of Neda however, the media publicity led

Secular Studies 1 (2019) 186–203 Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 07:15:26AM via free access 198 igwe to the intervention of the state. A government minister travelled to the region and persuaded the chief to rescind the decision of banishment without success. The police even sent the case to court, but it was later struck out due to lack of criminal substance. The accused person appealed to the Ya-Na who eventually overruled the accusation and the decision to banish the accused person. Neda returned to her community. Nonetheless, a key hindrance is the time it takes for these news items to get printed and get into the public domain. In responding to allegations of witchcraft, time matters and is of essence for accused persons as they choose the forum to access (Rasmussen and Randall 1999, 1357) in challenging the witchcraft label. It takes days and sometimes weeks—for the weeklies—before stories in the print media could get to the public. The reporters file their stories to the headquarters in Accra where the newspapers are printed. To avert this constrain, accused persons who want to get their stories quickly into the public domain access the broadcast media institutions.

7 Accusation Coverage by Broadcast Media: The Case of Aisha

Aisha is a 60 year-old widow from Choggu which is under the Tamale metropolis. I met the accused person and her son on the very day they lodged a complaint at the DOVVSU office in Tamale. Aisha was standing outside the police apartment while the son was inside processing the complaint and a police officer drew my attention to her. She was accused of inflicting sickness on a young man in her family. One early morning, the father of the sick person, Musa, went to the accused person’s house with a cutlass, charging and shout- ing, ‘Where is Aisha?’ ‘Where is Aisha?’. Musa had gone there with some of his family who were furious and anxious to confront the accused. Aisha visited the toilet and her children sensed danger, went and managed to whisk her away to her brother’s house in the neighbouring village. This family relative is the chief of his own community and took custody of the accused person. Musa returned to his house and later reported the matter to the chief who invited all the parties to the accusation to his palace during which Aisha denied the accusation. The chief instructed them to go to the shrine and swear an oath so that the shrine could confirm her guilt or innocence. Before the day they had fixed to attend the shrine, Musa’s son died and he refused to take the matter to the shrine. There was no need for it because the shrine process was meant to confirm the guilt of the accused person and get the remedy for the sickness. The accuser wanted the chief to sack Aisha from the community. The family members of the accused rejected the idea of

SecularDownloaded Studies from 1 (2019) Brill.com09/28/2021 186–203 07:15:26AM via free access media and witchcraft accusation in northern ghana 199 going to the shrine and banishment of Aisha. However, the accused was con- cerned about her safety if she returned and instead reported the case to the police. One of the children of Aisha, a university graduate, helped to lodge the complaint and police officer was assigned to investigate the matter. The police promptly issued letters inviting Musa and others involved in the case for ques- tioning. However, after some weeks, the accusers did not report at the police station and the police process apparently stalled. The accused who was still living with a relative in the neighboring village together with her family members felt the police was not doing enough to bring the accusers to justice and if they did not take further action, the matter would hang forever and the accused would never return to the community. The accused person and her family members decided to take the matter to the media. The aim was to publicize the case and in doing that get the police and other responsible institutions to intervene and facilitate the neutralization of the accusation. During our interaction, the son of the accused person told me that his family needed assurances from the accusers that nothing would happen to the accused if she returned to the community. He strategically took the case to two media outlets in Tamale namely the Kesmi FM and Justice FM, an affiliate Joy FM that is based in Accra. These media stations organized phone-in programs and the son of Aisha recounted the ordeal the accused person has suffered, the way the mother was accused and treated and the fact that the mother was forced to flee the community. He discussed the efforts made to get the police to sanction the accusers and the frustrations and disappointments which they had experienced in the process. The son of the accused used the opportunity to inform the public about their rejection to the allegation, and that the accused person knew nothing about the illness nor death of the young man in the family. The media agencies publicized the news of Aisha’s accusation including the apparent inaction by the police. The media institutions contacted the DOVSSU police office to know what they were doing about the case. The inquiries from the media and subsequent publicity brought pressure to bear on the police and the police officer8 investigating the case went in person to Musa’s family and summoned the accusers to the station but they declined taking the letter and asked the police officer to take the letter to the chief. The police officer went

8 The son of the accused person told me that the police officer who investigated the case was unhappy with him for taking the case to the media. The very day both of them met after the media programs, the police officer was furious and asked if the son of the accused wanted him to lose his job.

Secular Studies 1 (2019) 186–203 Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 07:15:26AM via free access 200 igwe back with the letter and when the accusers refused to avail themselves, the police sent the case to court. The accusers came and pleaded with the police to withdraw the matter, which was granted after payment of a fine. Subsequently the accused person returned to her community. The broadcast media, like other media institutions, inform the public about witchcraft accusation and attempt to provide a balanced coverage of the processes. Unlike the print media, where some reporters tell the story from the perspective of the accusers, the accused, or other actors, the broadcast media provide avenues for the accused to tell their stories themselves and interact directly with the public. In the case reported above, the accused person took the story to the broadcast media and used the platform to communicate their views and perspectives directly to the public. In fact, the broadcast media gave a ‘real voice’ to the accused person and put objections and oppositions to witchcraft imputations in the public domain. In addition the media provided a platform to contact and communicate with the police to know their views and inform the public of what they were doing about the complaint that was brought by the accused. Thus, instead of a simplified view of a biased media, a nuanced perspective emerges when the debate is situated in the contexts and circum- stances whereby different sides of the story are heard and cases of witchcraft accusation are reported, evidence and counter evidence tendered for public consumption and evaluation.

8 Conclusion: Media as a Mechanism for Countering Witchcraft Claims

The foregoing argument on the role of the media in witchcraft accusations in Northern Ghana has clarified the media’s function in informing the public about allegations and the processes involved. Though there is a lot that could be said about bias in coverage of accusations, evidence suggests that the media attempt to present their stories in a balanced manner. In situations, where the reporters are unable to access the views of some of the parties to the accusation, the story is reported based on accounts of only those parties available, and thus risking a biased representation of the perspectives of especially the accused persons. The case of Mrs Wesi is a clear example of a media story that could easily be interpreted as disseminating and strengthening witchcraft conceptions and ideologies as held by some authors (see Adinkrah 2005; Asamoah-Gyadu 2015) because such reports often contain details of the trials and confessions of the alleged witch. These reports sometimes tell how the accused performed the

SecularDownloaded Studies from 1 (2019) Brill.com09/28/2021 186–203 07:15:26AM via free access media and witchcraft accusation in northern ghana 201 witchcraft, their name in the witchcraft world and other occult attacks they were planning to unleash on the community, and their potential targets of attack and damage. Put bluntly, these reports are quite informative in terms of witchcraft epistemology and operations as well as the mechanics of occultism and magic. By their very context, they educate the public about clues to expect from potential ‘witches’, and ways to identify and possibly thwart their hideous schemes. Thus the reportage perpetuates witchcraft beliefs. However, the cases of Neda and Aisha suggests that the role of the media takes a different dimension when accused persons take their own stories to the media. In this respect, the media inform the public about the allegations based on the perceptions of the accused persons, highlight their rejection and coun- teraction of the witchcraft labels while trying to enrich their presentations with the views of other parties involved. Thus, while the role of the media in the process of witchcraft accusation may appear somewhat ambiguous, it goes beyond reinforcing and disseminating ideas that valorize witchcraft beliefs and norms. The media fulfill exonerat- ing function in addition to merely affirming the occult fears and anxieties of the people and serving as forums for the acquisition of the tenets and tendencies of the occult. As a matter of fact, the media provide channels to dispel and challenge occult fears and anxieties and serve as platforms to learn about ideas that negate and reject explanations and interpretations of mis- fortune based on witchcraft and magic. Although, this does not happen too often, the media serve as formidable platforms for accused persons to contest the witchcraft label and this is made possible because multiple forums for negotiating accusations exist and the media are among such institutions that facilitate the reactions and response of accused persons. However, the avail- ability of media institutions and their uptake are contingent on other factors including the personal beliefs of the media practitioners regarding witchcraft, the socioeconomic interest of the media stations and the commitment of the journalists to the ethics of their profession. These are core issues that should challenge academics who are interested in adequately conceptualizing the role of media in witchcraft accusations as well as commentators who are keen to articulate issues that are associated with this socio cultural practice.

Secular Studies 1 (2019) 186–203 Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 07:15:26AM via free access 202 igwe

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