As horror stories go this is a horror story, but before moving on to the story proper let's take a look at the reasons that have allowed this abomination to flourish.
As with most stories of the woes that befall indigenous populations around the world there is invariably a white man involved and invariably that white man is clutching a goddamn bible.
Historically Africa as always been, due the ignorant and the backward that are so readily found there, fertile ground for the do-gooders and the sanctimonious that wish to spread God's word and bring salvation to the unenlightened.
Although old tribal beliefs in witch doctors are not so deeply buried in people's memories, and although there had been indigenous Christians in Nigeria since the 19th century, it is American and Scottish Pentecostal and evangelical missionaries of the past 50 years who have shaped these fanatical beliefs. Evil spirits, satanic possessions and miracles can be found aplenty in the Bible, references to killing witches turn up in Exodus, Deuteronomy and Galatians, and literal interpretation of scriptures is a popular crowd-pleaser.
Just as the missionaries of the past fifty years have played on the ignorance of the people now so it's the evangelical pastors of today that have taken over the job of filling heads with utter nonsense.
Were it just the teaching of the mumbo jumbo that constitutes the Bible , bad enough, but that which is going on today in Nigeria is far more sinister, and for no other reason that I can see than for these modern day men of God to make a few bucks.
Children are targets of Nigerian witch hunt
Evangelical pastors are helping to create a terrible new campaign of violence against young Nigerians. Children and babies branded as evil are being abused, abandoned and even murdered while the preachers make money out of the fear of their parents and their communities
The rainy season is over and the Niger Delta is lush and humid. This southern edge of West Africa, where Nigeria's wealth pumps out of oil and gas fields to bypass millions of its poorest people, is a restless place. In the small delta state of Akwa Ibom, the tension and the poverty has delivered an opportunity for a new and terrible phenomenon that is leading to the abuse and the murder of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children. And it is being done in the name of Christianity.
Almost everyone goes to church here. Driving through the town of Esit Eket, the rust-streaked signs, tarpaulins hung between trees and posters on boulders, advertise a church for every third or fourth house along the road. Such names as New Testament Assembly, Church of God Mission, Mount Zion Gospel, Glory of God, Brotherhood of the Cross, Redeemed, Apostalistic. Behind the smartly painted doors pastors make a living by 'deliverances' - exorcisms - for people beset by witchcraft, something seen to cause anything from divorce, disease, accidents or job losses. With so many churches it's a competitive market, but by local standards a lucrative one.More and video
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