Gambaga Witch Camp Inmate Appeals for Support to Build a Home

Madam Ama Salifu, a 50-year-old inmate of the Gambaga witches camp, is appealing for support to build a house where she can live peacefully and receive her children when they visit her.

Madam Salifu, who has eight children with the youngest being seven years old, said she didn’t want to return to her husband’s home because of the fear of rejection from the family. She made this appeal during an exclusive interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Gambaga.

She recounted her ordeal that led to her being accused of witchcraft and seeking refuge at the Gambaga witches camp. According to her, her husband’s older brother accused her of witchcraft after she returned home from another village where she attended the funeral of their relative.

“My husband was summoned to the chief’s palace, though he was not well, they picked him up on a motorbike to the palace just before bedtime. Later, they sent for me that same night, and when I got there, I was told that their grandmother was sick, and it was confirmed that I was the one bewitching her,” Madam Salifu said.

Madam Salifu further disclosed that her younger sister, who had just completed JSS, visited them, and they wanted to take her for a wife for a young man in the village, but she protested because her sister was still awaiting her results. This caused anger and led to her being taken to Togo and tried by ordeal, where she was beaten severely until she was asked to admit to being a witch.

“My brothers who followed up and saw how I was being treated told me to just agree that I am a witch and ask them to allow me to go back to the house to free up the sick old lady, and that was how they left me, so I had to run into hiding,” Madam Salifu said.

After some days, she went to the Nalerigu Chief, who asked that she be taken to the hospital, but she refused and went to the Gambaga Chief’s Palace where she has lived to date.

Madam Salifu revealed that at the witch camp, a fowl is usually slaughtered to ascertain whether one is a witch. If the fowl dies on its back, then the accused is free of witchcraft, but when it dies lying on its front, then the person is said to be a witch. In her case, the fowl slaughtered in her name died lying on its front, and that meant the gods had refused it because she was a witch, so she lived at the camp for one year and went through the cleansing rites.

Before the incident, she used to hawk vegetables and spices to earn money to support her husband and take care of the family. But now at Gambaga, she does jobs for people and cooks for her caretaker, the leader of the camp, and whatever income she gets, she sends it to her children and mother for their upkeep.

Madam Salifu is, therefore, calling on the government, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and other philanthropic individuals to come to her aid and help her build a house so that she can live in peace with her children when they visit her.