Stories about witch-hunts in most parts of the world are reserved for documentaries or movies. But in Papua New Guinea (PNG) shocking tales of violent and bloody witch-hunts plague the nation’s past and continue today. For men, women and children the threat of sorcery allegations is terrifying and remains in 2018 a nation-wide issue. Local human rights activist groups are on the front line fighting for change and are seeing a shift in attitudes.
Belief in witchcraft in North America and Europe diminished in the early 1800s- a period of socio-economic development and the industrial revolution. But in PNG the opposite has occurred, the nation has advanced rapidly in recent years with mobile phones, roads and the internet connecting the once isolated communities with the rest of the country and world. Yet practices and beliefs remain prevalent surrounding sorcery.
The belief is held in PNG that illness, death and misfortune is frequently caused by deliberate interventions of individuals with special powers or knowledge. According to Associate Professor for Restorative Justice at Australian National University Dr Miranda Forsyth in her book titled ‘Talking it Through: Responses to Sorcery and Witchcraft Beliefs’ these behaviours surrounding witchcraft exist in many countries throughout the world and is particularly associated with dislocation and social stress.
Sorcery and witchcraft beliefs have been present in PNG for thousands of years, and according to Forsyth the belief and practice is spreading around the nation and Melanesia as a whole, reaching places where it has never existed before. These beliefs and practices do not always lead to harm though, from a local perspective, these powers often have a range of associated positives such as healing, gardening and weather magic.
A reason for sorcery accusations in the modern day can be traced to changes in lifestyle and the Westernization of diets causing new health problems. Diabetes and heart disease have risen, and poorer health outcomes create more accusation-based violence where relatives seek scapegoats to mitigate their grief. Research conducted by Queensland University of technology (QUT) for Oxfam demonstrates that sorcery accusations has affected men and women almost equally since 2013.
Another reason for the violence, is that the perpetrators of the malicious acts very rarely face legal consequences. A 20-year-long study by the Australian National University found that of 1,440 cases of torture and 600 killings, less than one percent of perpetrators were successfully prosecuted. This is because there are often groups of perpetrators involved in the attacks.
Accusations of sorcery being used commonly occur “if previously you have been arguing with somebody, and if somebody dies maybe a month later, they accuse you,” says Director of Kup Women for Peace, Angela Apa. “They torture the women, they burn women, they burn the house, chase the family away. The families are humiliated and they have nowhere to go.”
For every allegation or accusation, it affects the entire family as they are often ostracised within their own community and require protection themselves. “As human right defendants what we do is we go and rescue them, we relocate them to the family support centre,” says Apa. “We don’t really have a family support centre, but we have a small house where we keep all these people.”
“We have a very strong referral pathway with the police, the health department and within our organisations,” says Mary Kini, Founder of Kup Women for peace.
In the middle of the night the Kup Women for Peace organisation will get a call that an accusation of sorcery has been made against an innocent person. Calling the police to inform them in an effort to locate the perpetrators, they set out on their rescue mission to save women, men and children from the violence that comes from an allegation of sorcery. Risking their own lives these women have seen first-hand the devastation that an accusation can bring including, murder, torture and destruction of property and on flowing impacts on families.
Apa admits she isn’t scared when risking her safety to protect the vulnerable and accused. “We are very strong,” she says. “It is not easy, but we are here together. We work day and night to save lives of women and children. Even our house became a safe house,” says Kini.
The introduction of the death penalty for sorcery allegation-based violence in 2013 came after 20-year old woman Kepari Leniata was burnt alive on a busy street as hundreds of people watched on. Accused of using witchcraft to kill a neighbour’s son Leniata was vulnerable, with no one to protect her she was publicly executed while even the police couldn’t stop it, being chased away by an overwhelming crowd. This would have been another one of the 1,000 odd violent witch-hunts that according to Oxfam take place in the country each year. But due to the public nature of the execution, videos appeared and went viral around the world of what had happened to Leniata sparking global outrage.
“The whole government has realised that a lot of the sorcery related violence is going on. So they are also making a commitment to support us, support the community development in regards to this,” says Apa.
Apa has experienced allegations of sorcery herself being tortured before escaping. Now a human rights advocate and champion for change Apa is determined to educate and shift attitudes surrounding sorcery in the Highlands region and is pushing for nation-wide reform. “We do a lot of human rights awareness. We try to get men to join us, many men are joining us now. They see that the violence doesn’t help us,” says Apa.
Women from four provinces have come together as enemy sisters in the community led initiative Yumi Sanap Strong (Let’s Stand Strong Together) to share their stories in a photo exhibition in the PNG and at QUT. Being an enemy sister means that previously the women’s communities and cultures were fighting with each other, but now they are “joining together. Fighting for the rights of our sisters,” explains Apa.
The initiative emerged from an action research project undertaken by QUT in partnership with the University of Goroka. The project has developed communication strategies and materials to address sorcery accusation related violence in PNG, while shedding light on the issue for Australians.
Director of Kafe Urban Settlers Women’s Association Eriko Fufurefa in the Eastern Highlands Province is lobbying for change on a national level. “We are lobbying at our district levels, the provincial levels and also at a national level. The tools we are using now to do our lobbying and advocating; we are using our stories to make our government come out of the box and see what we are doing. Something is changing not like before,” she says.
“Big cultural customs need to change,” says Apa about small villages where there is still a belief in sorcery. It is a significant challenge for advocates though. “There are about 700 different languages. Even in my province we have about 70 different languages. People with different customs and traditions are really hard to penetrate through,” Apa says.
“There’s a lot of reduction. Where we have given our food and talked and educated them with advocacy, there is no violence. It’s only happening in the places where human rights defenders have not gone,” she says.
Apa explains how before you enter a community “you need to have your personal relations very good with other people before you go in.” Once going to these remote villages then the human rights advocates work to get to know the people in the community. “We have to build trust in the work that we do,” Apa says.
The biggest change Kup Women for Peace is driving is gender equality to combat sorcery-based violence. “We are trying our very best to fight against the customs, traditions where in the Highlands the women are known as nobodies,” Apa says. Recently Apa has seen a change in community attitudes. “Now it’s different. We have done a lot of awareness on gender equality, roles and responsibilities. Men are aware of this and are really participating now. They are supporting their wives,” she says. “It’s happening, people are changing.”
Former male perpetrator of allegation-based sorcery violence, Umba Peter now works with Fuferefa as an advocate at the Urban Settlers Women’s Association for women’s and human rights. Men are now realising they need to protect “their sisters, mothers, aunties who are in danger of accusations,” Peter says.
With increasing access to justice Apa believes victims can fight back and send a message to their preparators. “There is justice,” she says. “We have human rights lawyers, the police, the health department and the family support centre.”
While awareness surrounding the issue in PNG is increasing “we have to remind ourselves that you can believe in what you want to believe, that is not a crime. But is when you harm another person,” says Senior Researcher at QUT, Dr Verena Thomas.
As Kini said “you cannot move a mountain all at once, it takes time.”
Comments