Richard Wilson’s New Humanist article on the African humanists campaigning against witchcraft accusations, arrests and abuse of children and other vulnerable people, deserves reading in full. Here’s a short bit from near the beginning after a few examples of outrageous police conduct in Malawi.

These are just three of over 80 case-files compiled by the Association for Secular Humanism (ASH) in Malawi, where dozens of people have been jailed on imaginary evidence for the imaginary crime of “witchcraft”. Most are poor, elderly and from rural communities. ASH has campaigned successfully against efforts to recognise “witchcraft” as a crime. But some magistrates have been pursuing cases regardless, prosecuting people for an offence that isn’t even on the statute book. Others have been imprisoned for “pretending witchcraft”, or the catch-all crime of “disorderly conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace”. This despite the fact that Malawian law actually makes it a crime to accuse another person of being a witch.

The stories make heartbreaking reading. But when I speak by phone with George Thindwa, the ASH Executive Director, he sounds upbeat. He’s just received a letter from the office of the State President. “In fact I have it in my hand – I’m just coming from the scanning machine.”

The President’s office has agreed to review the case-files that the ASH had sent, and is “committed to ensuring that Women and the Elderly are not victimised in the manner highlighted”. Thindwa is hopeful that those listed could be free within weeks.

Wilson goes on to cover how “witchcraft” abuses are spread  by Pentecostal and Revivalist churches, how lack of proper healthcare drives people to “healers” who blame ailments on witchcraft, and how a “supernaturally” obsessed film industry exacerbate superstition into outright paranoia. The witchcraft films are exported from Nigeria and the article moves there, covering the similar campaigns of Leo Igwe. Whereas Thindwa’s campaigns in Malawi tend to focus on the elderly imprisoned as witches under abused laws, Igwe’s campaigns focus on children tormented and exiled as witches, often by those closest to them.

Link: http://newhumanist.org.uk/2548/witch-hunt-saboteurs

It’s not the first time that Leo Igwe has been arrested or attacked, nor that the international humanist community has had to call on the state of Nigeria to protect the campaigner from malicious detention or harassment. According to Leo, arrested and detained again this week without access to a phone or a lawyer, the police seemed to know exactly who he was when they were beating him, but the authorities have since given conflicting reports of why he was arrested (“mistaken identity” and “fraud”).

Leo Igwe, an activist arrested last Tuesday in the ongoing onslaught against child rights activists by the Akwa Ibom State government, was released today by the Police who claimed it was a case of mistaken identity.

Confirming his freedom in a telephone chat with Saharareporters, Mr. Igwe described his incarceration as a nasty experience.

“It was a terrible encounter and it was premeditated going by the way they executed the plot to hold me accountable for “kidnapping;” my hands were tied behind me and they beat me mercilessly,” he said.

He stated further, “My head was swollen and I kept massaging it so that it does not become permanent; from Tuesday night to this morning I was kept incommunicado and had no contact with either my family or my lawyers.”

Continuing his account, he said, “During my interrogation I discovered that my case was worsened by the fact that I was an Anti Witchcraft advocate; they kept saying that I was a fraudster making money from the child witch phenomenon so it was funny for them to say that it was a case of mistaken identity.”

It will be recalled that Governor Akpabio had promised to make life uncomfortable for NGO’s working on children’s rights in the state when he ordered the arrest of Sam Ikpe-Itauma in a radio broadcast last year.

Continues: http://www.saharareporters.com/news-page/leo-igwe-regains-freedom-brutalized-akwa-ibom-police-command

Also see: The Tireless, Courageous Humanism of Leo Igwe

Leo Igwe is the International Humanist and Ethical Union’s representative for West Africa and Executive Director of the Nigerian Humanist Movement.

Around midnight on Wednesday August  4 2010, two gunmen invaded my family house in Mbaise in Imo state in Southern Nigeria. They shot twice in the air and my mother fainted. They later descended on my aging father and started beating him. They blindfolded him with a piece of cloth and hit him several times with stones.

He later fainted and the hoodlums ransacked the whole house and made away with whatever they found valuable. My father  bled from the right eye, nose and mouth. He had bruises on his head, hands, legs and chest. After the attack, some neighbours came and rushed him to a nearby hospital. From there, I moved him to an eye hospital in Lagos where the doctor confirmed that he had extensive injuries in the right eye and recommended that it be removed. Yesterday, August 11, 2010, he underwent a surgery and the right eye was removed. He is currently recuperating at the hospital. I called the police to inform them, and they said I should send a formal petition.

This attack is the latest in the vicious campaign of harassment and intimidation of me and my family members by state and non-state actors for our efforts to bring to justice a 50 year old man, Edward Uwa, who raped a 10 year old girl, Daberechi, in my community.

Full statement: http://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2010/a-violent-attack-on-leo-igwes-family/

Also see previous stories:

• The tireless, courageous Humanism of Leo Igwe
• IHEU: Nigeria must stop harassing our representative
• Leo Igwe reports on ongoing witch hunts in Africa

The disgraceful problem of child witch hunts in Nigeria was addressed for the first time this week by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC). In a May 26 meeting with a large delegation of senior government representatives from Nigeria, the CRC raised a number of child rights issues, including birth registration, children in conflict with the law, adolescent health, adoption, child trafficking, street children, child marriage as well as witchcraft allegations against children.

Leo Igwe, IHEU’s representative in West Africa, whose work in Nigeria includes campaigning against witch hunts, welcomed the UN’s focus on this issue. “It is too easy for government to ignore these problems when they are hidden from view,” said Igwe. “We hope that by shining the international spotlight on these issues the UN will prompt serious government action in support of the work we are doing at the grassroots.”

The meeting at the UN was held to review the combined third and fourth periodic report of Nigeria on how that country is implementing the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Nigerian delegation was headed by Mrs Iyom Josephine Anenih, Minister for Women’s Affairs and Social Development, and also included representatives from the Ministries of Health, Education, Justice and Foreign Affairs, as well as delegates from NAPTIP, the Prison Service and the Police, and the Nigeria Children’s Parliament.

http://www.iheu.org/iheu-welcomes-un-focus-nigerian-witch-hunts

Leo Igwe on why Africa is so relgious.

The reasons why Africans are the most religious people in the world are not far fetched. Africans go through religious indoctrination from cradle to the grave. Africans are not allowed by family, society and the state to think, reason or live outside the religious box. In Africa religion is by force not by choice. Religion is by compulsion and not according to one’s conscience. Africans are brought up to believe that there is NO alternative to religion. When in fact there is. So in Africa, it is either you are religious or you are nobody-you are not a human being, you are nothing. There is too much social and political pressure on Africans to be religious and to remain religious. The social, political and sometimes economic price of leaving religion, renouncing religion or criticizing religion is so high.

So Africans are religious willy nilly. Africans profess all sorts of religious crap even when they know it is all nonsense.

At home, religious indoctrination is the first form of orientation an African child receives. At a very early and impressionable age, infants are taught to recite meaningless syllables called prayers. Children are brainwashed by parents with various religious and spritiual myths. Their minds are infused with all sorts of religious dogmas.

Full article:  http://www.lusakatimes.com/?p=25840

Leo Igwe is the director of the Nigerian Humanist Movement and International Humanist and Ethical Union in Western Africa.

The BHA ran a campaign in November 2009 against the “labelling” of children according to religion or ideology: the Please Don’t Label Me campaign. You can donate to fund the BHA’s work against ‘faith’ schools and the legal requirement of collective worship in the UK at www.humanism.org.uk/donate. Select the “No faith schools” campaign when making an online donation.

Ten-year-old Jane Essien, twelve-year-old Abigail Monday, and eleven-year-old Godswill Okon are currently living in a makeshift camp in Akwa Ibom, Southern Nigeria. They can not return to their parents or live normal lives like other children because they were abandoned by their families, condemned as witches. Their stories are among those of the other victims of witch-hunting in the black continent. Among the untold stories of the world — pathetic and traumatising.

I met them at an event organised by Unicef Nigeria.

Jane told me how, some years back, her mother accused her of witchcraft and attacked her with a saw before driving her out of the house. Jane went to live with a mad woman who lived in a nearby market. The women fed her till someone came and brought her to the camp.

Abigail was taken to a church by her father, for prayers. There, the prophet of God identified her as a witch. As her father drove her out of the house, Abigail lived on the streets for a while before someone brought her to the camp.

Godswill was taken to a church where a pastor said he was a wizard. After he was driven out his home, a police officer saw him and took him in for a few days before bringing him to the camp.

These three children were lucky. Many children in the society who were accused of witchcraft never lived to tell their stories. They were tortured to death, bathed with acid, abandoned to die by the roadside or in the bush. Jane, Abigail, Godswill and hundreds of children in the Akwa Ibom camp carry the scars of the witch-hunting campaigns that have been going on across Nigeria and many other parts of Africa.

Continues: http://www.independentworldreport.com/2010/04/witches-of-africa/

Leo Igwe, of the Nigerian Humanist Movement and representing IHEU in Nigeria, discusses the current surge in violent clashes and massacres.

The Nigerian city of Jos once known for its peace and serenity has now become a scene of recurrent ethnoreligious bloodletting. Yesterday, at least 500 persons were reportedly killed in the latest out break of violence in the city. According to eye witnesses, a gang of men suspected to be islamic militants descended on the village of Dogo-Nahawa and attacked the people with matchetes. The militants shot in the air to bring people out of their houses and when they came out, they butchered and beheaded them. Most of the victims were mainly women and children. This latest killing is believed to be a reprisal attack by hausa-fulani muslims who suffered heavy casualties during the riots that broke out in January. In the past 10 years clashes between christian indigenes and muslim settlers have claimed thousands of lives. Attacks and counter attacks between christains and muslims in Jos have erupted several times in the past and are expected to continue in the near future due to the following reasons.

Islamic Imperialism

Islamists in Northern Nigeria want to exert and extend their power and influence by force if need be. Already, islamic theocrats have foisted their political agenda as codified in the sharia law on muslim majority states deepening the religious divide and the indigene-settler, muslim-christian dichotomy in the sharia states. Islamists want to extend their regime and influence to all states where muslims live or reside. And Plateau state falls within their sphere and remains one of their targets

Lack of Political Will

The recurrent cases of religious violence in Jos and in other parts of Northern Nigeria indicate a clear demonstration of lack of will to resolve this festering problem. This is because in Nigeria religion and politics mix. And in Northern Nigeria there is lack of separation of mosque and state. Islam is privileged. Anything islamic whether good or bad is the law or above the law. So violence perpetrated in the name of islam is not punished. Islamic militants are jihadists. And jihadists are treated as heroes, not criminals

Continues at: http://culturekitchen.com/leo_igwe/blog/why_religious_clashes_persist_in_jos

Nigeria’s security forces have been put on high alert after a new burst of sectarian violence left over 500 people dead, most of them women and children hacked to death by machete wielding gangs.

The attack happened before dawn on Sunday morning when gangs of men descended on several mainly Christian villages near the central city of Jos, firing guns as they approached. Witnesses of the attack, which centred on the village of Dogo-Nahawa, described how victims were caught in animal traps and fishing nets as they tried to flee their attackers.

A resident of Dogo-Nahawa said that the attackers had fired guns as they entered the village, to lure their victims out of their houses. “The shooting was just meant to bring people from their houses and then when people came out they started cutting them with machetes,” said Peter Gyang, who lost his wife and two children .

Dan Manjang, a state government advisor, confirmed that 500 people had been killed. “We have been able to make 95 arrests but at the same time over 500 people have been killed in this heinous act … by Fulani herdsmen,” Mr Manjang said in a telephone interview.

Continues: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article7053487.ece

Chiviya Fariku

Despite bias and prejudice, despite his own realism, Chiviya Fariku finds value in the impossible ideal of a Kumbaya existence.

Imagine a world of no conflicts, a world where everyone believes in the oneness of the human race. A world where people of all races sit down together and share equally in the wonderful resources the earth has to give. Africa and the Middle East are peaceful regions. The distinction between the third and first world, the developed and the developing, no longer exist. Racism, tribalism, xenophobia are all things of the past. The human race respects nature and the environment is safe. On that day, human beings shall hold hands together and we shall sing “Kumbaya” in unison.

Now to the realists/cynics amongst us, this vision of the world is unattainable. For such a world to exist we would have to give up the selfishness which marks us individuals, part of what defines us. While I do generally agree that this Kumbaya existence in unattainable, I do however feel that as humans we have the responsibility to try our best to eliminate bias and prejudice in every area of endeavor.

The reason I’m even thinking about this “I have a dream” scenario is because as an African, and specifically as a Nigerian, I come across all sorts of bias and prejudice in my daily life. I have always been of the opinion that education and exposure helps to lessen ignorance and hence helps to stem the tide of bias. It then surprises me that as a Nigerian that people, educated or not, are more concerned with what ethnic group I belong to than anything else about me. I say this because within the context of Nigeria or even Africa, people find it hard to place my ethnic group based on my name and hence I get all sorts of questions, “Are you really Nigerian?” “Are you this tribe, that tribe or the other?” – all of which are typically wrong. I am yet to meet a Nigerian even when I was in the US who wouldn’t, knowing that I’m Nigerian, ask as a follow up question to “What is your name?” what my tribe was.

Now there are people that would blame this on the colonial strategy of divide-and-rule. The colonial rulers played one tribe against the other to ensure easy rule although before the colonialists came, I am sure tribes were conquering each other and fighting. You would think over time people get over certain prejudices. Then again, it’s almost 50 years after the end of colonial rule and to the best of my knowledge Nigerians and Africans in general have been traveling to other lands and getting educated on the bigger picture. I say this because from my own experience, going to study outside my country provided me the opportunity to see the issues that are affecting my country outside the lens of tribalism. It gave me a sense of the bigger picture in the sense that I began to see my fellow Nigerians not as people of this or that tribe but as my fellow Nigerians. I also began to see my fellow Africans as brothers with whom I could share some common experiences. I would even venture further to say I see African-Americans as cousins of some sort and, in the complete Kumbaya state of mind, I judge a person by their merits and not by their skin color or culture. Of course as a human being, I’m not immune to all forms of bias, but I try to not let these biases be the major decision-makers in my life.

To put my thought process in context, I recently came back to Nigeria after studying in the US, and I am settling in for what could be a year or more in Africa. What has struck me while I have been back is hearing supposedly educated people spew stereotypes about a person of one tribe or another. You can walk through the streets and hear stereotypes that the Yoruba man, for instance, is dirty by nature, the Igbo man loves money and the Hausa man is an uneducated Islamic fanatic who rules and consumes all the country’s wealth. I am from the northern part of the country, where the Hausas/Fulanis are the majority tribes so anytime I tell someone I am from the north, it is assumed that a) I am a Muslim b) I am uneducated (they are surprised to discover I have finished university) and c) I come from an area that is wealthy. Of course all stereotypes have an element of truth: Nigeria is a country with enormous wealth and the north of the country has held power for longer than the other regions. The country is also has an illiteracy rate of almost 50%. The surprising thing about these stereotypes is that there are sometimes physical attributes that go along with them: the tall, skinny Fulani man, the light-skinned Igbo chap, the dark-as-hell Yoruba man and so on and so forth. If you look closely though, these so called physical attributes are almost complete hogwash as many people defy these parameters of identification. It still amazes me that people treat me a certain way because I look like I’m from a part of the country that I’m not. When I am in the northern part of the country, people sometimes treat me with disdain and speak in the language not knowing I understand, whereas when I’m in the southern part of the country, people speak their language to me and are surprised when I don’t understand them.

Now I am not anti-culture, nor do I advocate the adoption of European culture where all ethnic barriers are lifted and Africans sing Kumbaya with a Yorkshire accent. I say this because I have often been accused by people of my own ethnic group of having no respect for our people or culture because I feel we aren’t so different from others. I feel that there is a strong problem when people of different tribes do not take the time to appreciate and learn from each other’s cultures. I feel there is a problem when people of one tribe make it difficult for people from two different tribes to marry. Of course, times are changing and there are intercultural marriages, but there is still a deep suspicion of people of different tribes often steeped in the stereotypes many people already hold. I think there is a problem when as a governor, minister or president in my country, if you don’t provide dividends for people of your tribe as opposed to for all people in your constituency, you are seen as a traitor. Now I ask you how such a country hopes to progress even with loads of oil wealth. Would the US, for instance, expect President Obama to develop only Illinois at the detriment of the other states in the union? That would be ridiculous. It is a problem when people look at political appointments on the basis of ethnic affiliation, not in terms of merit and experience. There are very few technocrats working in the Nigerian government. And they are hoping to achieve the millennium development goals? I call bullshit on that one.

The same discussion could apply to religion in my country. Nigeria is statistically almost 50% Christian and 50% Muslim. As a young kid from a Christian family, I always wondered growing up why none of the Muslim kids would come and play with me. As I grew up and eventually made Muslim friends in places such as boarding school, it occurred to me that sometimes Muslim parents and Christian parents alike, depending on how fundamentalist or firebrand they are, often discourage their kids from playing with kids of the other religion. Now I wonder, if I had some Buddhist kids around, would my parents have let me play with them? I can speak for Christianity since I grew up in a Christian family. Christians in my country take religion more seriously than the damn colonialist missionaries who brought it to them. Nigerians are highly religious – it’s the only country I know where literally every street has a church or mosque on it. It doesn’t just stop there: in certain volatile parts of the country politicians often use religion to incite violence. The Christians often even argue amongst themselves, along the Catholic/Protestant line, each believing the other is wrong. It is a Nigerian Anglican archbishop that is spearheading the move by the African Church to leave the English Communion for appointing a gay bishop. I find it ironic that one of the most religious countries on earth is also one of the most corrupt. Now I wouldn’t want to make any inferences here on the role of religion in corruption because that’s a whole other discussion.

Now imagine a world rife with conflict, where each group is at another’s throat, where fighting between tribes and genocides are common place. Imagine a world where we murder anything that we perceive as different from us. I think it doesn’t take a genius to see that such a world needs progress. So my dear friends, what experiences in your life sometimes have you wishing for a world of equality and equal opportunity under the sun?

The song I had in mind as I was writing this was “If I ruled the world” by Nas featuring Lauryn Hill. I certainly miss Lauryn Hill, homegirl needs to get back pronto. Nas has always been one of my favorite rappers, dude speaks knowledge, if he listening, we need another “Illmatic” bruv.

Chiviya Fariku is an engineer, poet, Columbia grad, and Nigerian, hoping to rule the world someday. He blogs at The Young and Disenchanted.

IHEU has appealed to authorities in Nigeria to stop the police harrasment of Leo Igwe, IHEU Representative for West Africa. Igwe and members of his family have been subjected to a sustained campaign of harassment by local police involving multiple arrests on unsubstantiated charges since 2007. Most recently, Leo Igwe and his father, Oliver Igwe, were arrested on Tuesday, January 5.

Following complaints to Nigerian authorities by Humanists around the world, Oliver and Leo Igwe were released on bail. Then on January 8, Leo’s brother Uche Igwe was taken into custody by the State Security Service. He has now also been released.

The campaign of harassment against the Igwe family is a consequence of their work to bring to justice a powerful man in the area who allegedly raped a ten year old girl.

Leo Igwe’s father, who is a 77 year old diabetic in failing health, has been arrested six times on false charges since 2007. Two of Leo’s brothers have been detained three times each in connection with the same case.

http://www.iheu.org/nigeria-must-end-harassment-iheu-representative-leo-igwe

See previous stories:

• Leo Igwe arrested in Nigeria
• The tireless, courageous Humanism of Leo Igwe

On Tuesday January 5, at about 7.00am some police officers and soldiers led by two crime merchants in my community, Edward Uwah and Ethelbert Ugwu stormed my family compound in Mbaise in Imo state in Southern Nigeria. They arrested me and my aging father.

http://www.meetup.com/Central-London-Humanists/boards/thread/8340841/

Leo Igwe speaking on Nigerian caste discrimination at the IHEU "Untouchability" conference, Conway Hall, June 2009

As executive director of the Nigerian Humanist Movement, representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) in West Africa and director of Centre for Inquiry Nigeria, Leo Igwe has often suffered for his tireless, humanist commitment to justice and the value of human life.

In 2009 he was assaulted by witch-hunters at an anti-witchcraft conference he organised, and then sued by the very church behind the attacks. (See a video of the “protest” against the conference. Note that most of the delegates remain calm and seated for some time while the church members riot through the building.)

Today, allegedly due to his calls for justice in the case of a man accused of raping a 10-year-old girl, Leo and his father have been arrested, purportedly in connection with a murder. According to a friendly local source:

Leo Igwe and his family have known no peace as several pettitions have been witten against them to intimidate them to submission and to abandon the struggle for justice. This latest one, they have been accused them of mudering an idividual who doctors provided a death certificate saying the man died of HIV and AIDS complication.

When the Calabar anti-witchcraft conference was invaded by members of Helen Ukpabio’s Liberty Foundation Gospel church in July last year, Josh Kutchinsky, a Trustee of the British Humanist Association, said, “Leo is a dear friend. He is knowledgeable, wise and courageous. … His intervention in individual cases of injustice, no doubt involve some personal risk.” Now, Leo’s friends and family locally fear that he and his father risk being tortured or murdered in police custody for their role in seeking for justice for the alleged rape victim, Ms Daberechi Anongam.

As well as organising and speaking at conferences on issues like witchcraft, Sharia and women’s rights, Leo has also worked with Amnesty International and Stepping Stones Nigeria. He writes and publishes on issues which, in the context of an often corrupt legal system and a culture saturated by ‘traditional’ values, are deemed controversial to the point of heresy. But he does not court danger for the sake of it. Here we collect some extracts from the writing of Leo Igwe which express principled stances on a number of issues. Even those who are conservative or ‘traditional’ enough to disagree with any of his sentiments must surely see that Leo’s position comes from a place of passionate concern for the well-being and flourishing of human life.

From Traditional African Practices and Islam:

Like the traditional African value system, most traditional African practices are fundamentally biased against women and gender-insensitive. Little wonder, then, it is upheld as a traditional practice in many parts of Africa for girls as young as seven to be married to men old enough to be their fathers, and in some cases, grandfathers.

…

The practice of female genital mutilation (fgm)-otherwise known as female circumcision-prevails as a tradition in Africa. This process entails the partial or total cutting away of the external female genitalia. Traditional healers, birth attendants, or elderly women usually carry out the practice. The procedure is often carried out in a septic environment with crude instruments such as knives, razor blades, and broken glasses, without anesthetics, or, at best, herbal medication to check bleeding and lessen pain. This crude and hazardous procedure is grounded in and surrounded by various myths, misconceptions, and superstitious nonsense. For instance, the ritual is performed as a rite of passage, for preparing young girls for womanhood and marriage. Many also believe that it prevents a woman from giving birth to a stillborn child. In some parts of western Nigeria, it is regarded as a taboo for the head of the child to touch the mother’s clitoris during delivery.

…

As a religious norm, Muslim women and girls are subjected to various forms of victimization and discrimination. They are not allowed to move about unveiled, nor are they allowed to vote, hold public office, or have social, political, or economic power. They are not given the freedom to choose their marriage partners. Their parents betroth them to the Mallams and the Alhajis in order to cultivate friendship, and to extend and cement bonds between families. For instance, in Muslim-dominated northern Nigeria, child marriages and arranged marriages are still commonplace. Consequently, the dreadful disease called vesico-vaginal fistula (VVF) is widespread and endemic.

…

One of the most interesting and challenging experiences I have had as a humanist in the past couple of years has been trying to persuade my people to abandon these horrible and primitive customs. I have tried to persuade them to see the need for progress and improvement in our attitudes, value and society. We must openly examine the traditions we have held and accepted as sacrosanct. Many of these traditions are founded on traditional dogma, ignorance, and superstition.

From Towards a New Enlightenment:

So, for Europe, the 18th Century “Age of Light” was a true Enlightenment. But for Africa, it was not. Because, while Europe was glowing with the light of reason and science, Africa was groaning under the burden of European slavery, tyranny and imperialism. It could be rightly said that the European Enlightenment caused darkness in Africa. It dislodged Christian theocracy and expelled to the black continent the forces of unreason and superstition.

European Christian Missionaries invaded Africa in search of “believers” in what they self-styled a civilising mission “La mission civilatrice”. And European merchants thronged the continent in search of raw material to feed the industrial revolution. In actual fact, what Europe rejected and abandoned to get ‘enlightened’ was forced and foisted on Africans as a civilising or enlightening matrix.

As if that was not enough, as Christian crusaders were ravaging the continent, Arab jihadists were fighting, raiding, enslaving and killing their way to enlighten Africans on the basis of Islam and the Arab culture.

…

The real tragedy is not that Europeans and Arabs infiltrated and darkened the continent with their cultural myths and superstitions. After all, Africa has its own traditional myths and taboos, which have also undermined the process of African enlightenment and emancipation. But that Africans have at the end of the day – blindly embraced these alien dogmas and misconceptions at the expense of social peace, intellectual growth, moral progress, truth and originality.

…

In Nigeria, thousands of people have lost their lives to religious riots, and clashes since independence. Muslim fundamentalists have foisted Sharia law on the Islamic majority states in the North. Throughout the continent, religious fanatics are prosecuting an inquisition. They oppose the legalisaion of abortion and gay marriage, the abolition of the death penalty, female genital mutilation, child marriage and homophobia.

On The Osu Caste System:

Traditionally, there are two classes of people in Igboland – the Nwadiala and the Osu. The Nwadiala literally meaning ‘sons of the soil’ are the freeborn. They are the masters. While the Osu are the slaves, the strangers, the outcasts and the untouchables. Chinua Achebe in his well-known book, No Longer At Ease asks: What is this thing called Osu? He answers: “Our fathers in their darkness and ignorance called an innocent man Osu, a thing given to the idols, and thereafter he became an outcast, and his children, and his children’s children forever” The Osu are treated as inferior human beings in a state of permanent and irreversible disability. They are subjected to various forms of abuse and discrimination. The Osu are made to live separately from the freeborn. In most cases they reside very close to shrines and marketplaces. The Osu are not allowed to dance, drink, hold hands, associate or have sexual relations with Nwadiala. They are not allowed to break kola nuts at meetings. No Osu can pour libation or pray to God on behalf of a freeborn at any community gathering. It is believed that such prayers will bring calamity and misfortune.

On Sharia and Human Rights in Nigeria:

Indeed, the blood of “unbelievers”, the oppression of the poor, the exploitation of the weak and ignorant, the discrimination against women, the persecution of sexual minorities and the abuse of children have watered the tree of Islam in Northern Nigeria. And today, Sharia has become a potent tool in the hands of Islamic Jihadists for human rights violation, oppression and exploitation in the name of Allah.Sharia has become a weapon for islamic inquisition in Nigeria. There are no women among the Sharia court judges. Sharia does not recognize the rights of all individuals to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. It has no place for equal rights of all human beings regardless of religion or belief. Sharia accords second-class status to non-Muslims. Some Sharia States in Nigeria have carried out amputations, and have flogged convicted offenders including Christians. Some years ago, international outcry saved the lives of Safiatu Hussein and Amina Lawal who were sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. Many people convicted under Sharia law- to be stoned or amputated – are languishing in jails across Northern Nigeria.

On “witchcraft” and Child Rights in Nigeria:

Child witchcraft is the superstitious belief that children can be witches and wizards or that infants can or do magically turn themselves into birds or insects to suck blood or mysteriously inflict harm. It is the belief that children have evil powers which they use or can use to destroy people, particularly their family or neighbours.

The effects of accusations of witchcraft on children take three forms: accusation, confession and persecution.

Children are accused of being witches and wizards. They are blamed for whatever goes wrong in their families. This could be death, disease, business failure, accidents or childbirth difficulties. Children are accused of witchcraft at home by parents and family members; in churches by ignorant and unscrupulous pastors; at shrines by primitive-minded traditional medicine men or witch doctors; or on the streets by mobs and gangs.

Children are forced to confess to being witches and wizards or to have taken part in witchcraft activities by family members or by mobs, in most cases through physical and mental torture.

Children alleged to be witches and wizards are persecuted through torture and inhuman and degrading treatment, which sometimes leads to their death. Such children are starved, chained, beaten, matcheted or even lynched. At the churches, pastors subject children alleged to be witches and wizards to torture in the name of exorcism. Witchdoctors force such children to drink potions (poison) or concoctions which can kill them or damage their health.

In Akwa Ibom State, superstition about child witchcraft is common and widespread. Most people in this state, as in other parts of Nigeria, believe that children can indeed be witches and wizards or that children can take part in witchcraft activities.

On The Need for Skepticism in Nigeria:

Nigeria is a very religious country with most of its population mired in superstition. This is not limited to the illiterate rural folks but is also applicable to the urban elite and literati. In Nigeria there is a strong and widespread belief in juju and charms, witchcraft, ghosts, astrology, divination, reincarnation, miracles, private revelation, fortunetelling, etc. These beliefs are fostered and reinforced by the many prophets and prophetesses, gurus, miracle workers, faith healers, and soothsayers that lurk in every nook and cranny of our cities and countryside.

These charlatans claim to have divine powers-the power to bilocate and predict the future, the ability to heal all diseases-even AIDS-and the power to make people rich or live longer.

All of this happens despite the fact that these beliefs and claims have not stood the test of time, science, and reason, and that contradictory evidence emerges every day. We have yet to see an organized and coordinated attempt to challenge and unmask these scientific pretensions and irrationalisms.

Instead, our schools, colleges, and universities as well as the local newspapers and film industry have continued to misinform the public by distorting science and packaging and presenting pseudoscientific beliefs as genuine science. In fact, some of our scholars have gone to the extent of defending these paranormal claims as “African Science,” taunting skeptics as Western apologists.

…

There is an urgent need to raise the level of critical thinking, scientific literacy, and understanding. African skeptics must see this as their primary responsibility. African skeptics must rise up to this great challenge now because all that is needed for superstition to thrive and triumph is for skeptics to do nothing.

Leo discusses the conference attack:

They then said the camera had broken and all of them pounced on me and started hitting me on the head and back. They snatched my bag containing my digital camera, conference papers and some cash. They smashed my glasses and made away with my mobile phone. Some friends who tried to rescue me from the mob were also beaten. The mob left with some of our conference banners and some anti-witchcraft T-shirts and caps, which we gave to participants.

For more on the work of Leo and the Nigerian Humanist Movement see IHEU’s articles on Nigeria.

You can also listen to Leo on the BBC World Service last year talking about the way that ‘tradition’ holds back the development of Africa.

Recently on his blog at culturekitchen.com, Leo speaks in broad terms about the many ways Africans are dying.

Africans are dying because most people in Africa are living false lives. People are afraid of being themselves, of living their own lives, and of asserting their own uniqueness and originality. Many people are living under illusions and deceptions. The real tragedy is that over the years, these lies and illusions have been institionalized and normalized to the extent that no one dares change them or challenge them. They have become a way of life.

When Leo spoke to the Central London Humanist Group in the summer, he seemed oddly cheerful, until Josh Kutchinsky, a long-time friend of Leo’s and chairing the discussion that evening, pointed out that Leo laughs in inverse proportion to the seriousness of what he is talking about. It’s not a cruel laugh, or a carefree laugh, of course. It’s like a bubble – his sense of the ridiculousness of it all – escaping from the boiling pot of his rational distaste for ignorance and injustice. Leo acknowledged the idiosyncrasy of his laughing in all the wrong places, and from that point on his delivery became more understandable, as well as more tragic. Because Leo laughs a lot when discussing the abuses and betrayals of Africans by Africans.

It’s the only defence mechanism of a man challenging all the “lies and illusions” in a country blood-drenched in prejudice and superstition.

Bob Churchill is Head of Membership and Promotion at the British Humanist Association

Leo Igwe leads the Nigerian Humanist Movement. He is representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) in West Africa and director of Centre for Inquiry in Nigeria. Below follows a message from his brother, Uche, alleging that Leo has been falsely accused of murder.

At about 7.30 am this morning a team of armed police men arrested Mr Leo Igwe humanist leader and his father and whisked them away to Zone 9 police AIG office in Umuahia. The police team was led by Dr Edward Uwa the university leacturer who raped a ten year old student Miss Daberechi Anongam.They were accompanied by Mr Ethelbert Ugwu a millionaire and financier of Dr Uwa.

About three years ago,Dr Uwa invited Ms Daberechi Anongam to do some house chores for him and forced her to bed,covering her mouth and raped her. She sustained several injuries in her private part. Leo Igwe and his family members led an intensive campaign for justice for Ms Daberechi. After a lot of intrigues,the police now started a prosecution on the matter at Ahiazu magistrate court Imo State.

Since then,Leo Igwe and his family have known no peace as several pettitions have been witten against them to intimidate them to submission and to abandon the struggle for justice. This latest one,they have been accused them of mudering an idividual who doctors provided a death certificate saying the man died of HIV and AIDS complication.

Leo and his father risk being tortured or murdered in police custody for his role seeking for justice for Ms Daberechi whose parents are very poor and cannot afford two meals in a day not to talk about paying legal charges.

We need to call the Police authorities in Nigeria about the risk of additional international outrage now that this fertile ground of religious bigotry and suppression of justice and human rights has already misled a citizen of ours to suicide in the name of God!

The numbers to call are : AIG Ringin: +2348033225349

PPRO Umuahia: +2347030988278

Com Aloy Okoro: +2348037217361

I am monitoring the situation closely and will report back. But anyone who is able to call will be helpful to scale up the pressure.

Aluta Continua Victoria Acerta!

Regards

Uche Igwe

Further updates at: http://www.thinkhumanism.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=3894

Also see: http://stephenlaw.blogspot.com/2010/01/leo-igwe-arrested-in-nigeria.html

Leo has previously been attacked by witch-hunters and then sued by the church behind the attacks.