Article
Examining Public Responses to the Vigilante Lynching of An Alleged Witch in Ghana
Social and Health Sciences
(2023)
Abstract
Assaults on women as witches still occur in modern Ghana. In Ghana, impoverished, widowed, and elderly women are regularly stereotyped as witches and accused of practicing malevolent witchcraft. Many are subjected to lethal and nonlethal acts of aggression. In July 2020, a nonagenarian woman was accused of witchcraft and lynched by a transitory public mob. In the current article, we analyzed approximately 400 readers’ comments left at a Ghana-based internet news website (Ghanaweb.com), which reported the crime. The objective was to identify and analyze the major themes expressed. The data show that commenters overwhelmingly were appalled by the disregard of the victim’s human rights. In alignment with previous literature, the data also revealed that commenters attributed the 2020 lynching incident to several established drivers of modern-day witch-lynching, such as: scapegoating, patriarchal terrorism, religious manipulation, ignorance surrounding mental health and the aging process, as well as limited social safety nets for the elderly and indigent. Moreover, many called upon the authorities to impose draconian punishment on the offenders to deter future incidents. The article concludes by offering a set of recommendations for curtailing witchcraft-related violence in Ghana.
Keywords
- Witchcraft,
- Witch,
- Witches,
- Witch hunts,
- Lynching,
- Ghana,
- Africa
Disciplines
Publication Date
Winter December 1, 2023
Citation Information
Mensah Adinkrah and Johnita Cody. "Examining Public Responses to the Vigilante Lynching of An Alleged Witch in Ghana" Social and Health Sciences (2023) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/mensah_adinkrah/58/