MATHETΩN

“The nine-year-old boy lay on a bloodstained hospital sheet crawling with ants, staring blindly at the wall.

“His family pastor had accused him of being a witch, and his father then tried to force acid down his throat as an exorcism. It spilled as he struggled, burning away his face and eyes. The emaciated boy barely had strength left to whisper the name of the church that had denounced him— Mount Zion Lighthouse, part of the powerful Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria.

“A month later, he died.

” ‘Witchcraft’ has taken on new life because of a rapid growth in Evangelical Christianity. Their parishioners take literally the biblical exhortation, ‘Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.’ Campaigners against the practice say around 15,000 children have been accused in only two of Nigeria’s thirty-six states over the past decade and around 1,000 murdered. The United Nations Children’s Fund says tens of thousands of children have been targeted throughout Africa.

“Church signs sprout around every twist of the road snaking through the jungle between Uyo, the capital of the southern Akwa Ibom state where Nwanaokwo lay, and Eket, home to many more rejected ‘witch children.’ Churches outnumber schools, clinics and banks put together. Many promise to solve parishioner’s material worries as well as spiritual ones—eight out of ten Nigerians struggle by on less than $2 a day. ‘Poverty must catch fire,’ insists the Born 2 Rule Crusade on one of Uyo’s main streets. ‘Where little shots become big shots in a short time,’ promises the Winner’s Chapel down the road. ‘Pray your way to riches,’ advises Embassy of Christ a few blocks away. It’s hard for churches to carve out a congregation with so much competition, so some pastors establish their credentials by accusing children of witchcraft.

“Sam Itauma of the Children’s Rights and Rehabilitation Network said it is the most vulnerable children—the orphaned, sick, disabled or poor—who are most often denounced. In Nwanaokwo’s case, his poor father and dead mother made him an easy target.

” ‘Even churches who didn’t use to “find” child witches are being forced into it by the competition,’ said Itauma. ‘They are seen as spiritually-powerful if they can detect witchcraft, and then the parents pay them money for an exorcism.’

“That’s what Margaret Eyekang did when her eight-year-old daughter Abigail was accused by a ‘prophet’ from the Apostolic Church. A series of exorcisms cost Eyekang eight months’ wages. The payments bankrupted her. Members of two other families said pastors from the Apostolic Church had accused their children of witchcraft, but asked not to be named for fear of retaliation. The Nigeria Apostolic Church refused repeated requests made by phone, e-mail and in person for comment.

“At first glance, there’s nothing unusual about the laughing, grubby kids playing hopscotch or reading from a tattered Dick and Jane book by the graffiti-scrawled cinderblock house. But this is where children like Abigail end up after being labeled witches by churches and abandoned or tortured by their families.

“There’s a scar above Jane’s shy smile: her mother tried to saw off the top of her skull after a pastor denounced her and repeated exorcisms costing a total of sixty dollars didn’t cure her of witchcraft. Mary, fifteen, is just beginning to think about boys and how they will look at the scar tissue on her face caused when her mother doused her in caustic soda. Twelve-year-old Rachel dreamed of being a banker but instead was chained up by her pastor, starved and beaten with sticks repeatedly; her uncle paid him sixty dollars for the exorcism.

“Israel’s cousin tried to bury him alive, Nwaekwa’s father drove a nail through her head, and sweet-tempered Jerry—all knees, elbows and toothy grin—was beaten by his pastor, starved, made to eat cement and then set on fire by his father as his pastor’s wife cheered it on.

“The children at the home run by Mr. Itauma’s organization have been mutilated as casually as the praying mantises they play with. Home officials asked for the children’s last names not to be used to protect them from retaliation. The home was founded in 2003 with seven children; it now has 120 to 200 at any given time as children are reconciled with their families and new victims arrive.

“Helen Ukpabio is one of the few evangelists publicly linked to the denunciation of child witches. She heads the enormous Liberty Gospel church in Calabar, where Nwanaokwo used to live. Ukpabio makes and distributes popular books and DVDs on witchcraft; in one film, a group of child witches are depicted pulling out a man’s eyeballs; in a book, she advises that ‘sixty percent’ of the inability to bear children is caused by witchcraft. In an interview with us, Ukpabio was accompanied by her lawyer, church officials, and a personal film crew. ‘Witchcraft is real,’ she insisted.

“After he publicly identified Liberty Gospel as denouncing ‘child witches,’ armed police arrived at Mr. Itauma’s home accompanied by a church lawyer. Three children were injured in the fracas. Mr. Itauma asked us not to reveal other churches identified by children, to protect their victims. ‘We cannot afford to make enemies of the churches around here,’ he said.”

God damn Christianity.