![]() As the camps were closed in December 2014, the women banished to these areas now struggle to become reintegrated into society and reunited with their families after decades of persecution and discrimination. While the camps provided a safe haven for the women and their children, they also lacked fundamental necessities like electricity and running water. Not unlike the women accused of witchcraft in colonial America, these women were discriminated against in societies riddled by mass panic. The witch camps were established nearly 100 years ago to provide a place of refuge for women who were made the scapegoats for tragedies like famine, sickness, and death. In the West African country, nearly 1,000 women and 500 children are in the process of being released from six witch camps in the country’s Northern Region. Recently, however, Ghana took a step forward to abolish this practice. While witch hunts largely ended in Europe in the 18th century, in some parts of the world, women continue to be banished as they are suspected of having supernatural powers. Both inyanga and isangoma are viewed with respect in their culture and must undergo years of training they are often consulted for a variety of problems, from health to spiritual. Isangoma verge on being religious leaders in their communities, using trance and musical rituals to communicate with ancestors. While inyanga are not dissimilar to modern day herbalists and practitioners of natural medicine, the isangoma are called to their profession by divine powers and perform tasks like predicting the future and using their psychic abilities to protect against evil spirits. Native to the Zulu people, “witch doctors” are seen as healers who are divided into two different categories: inyanga and isangoma. But the fantastical moniker should not diminish the very real influence these figures have in South African culture. The “witch doctor” may be one of the most ubiquitous depictions of a witch (placing behind wicked witches and those in Harry Potter). ![]() South Africa: The Witch Doctor (Inyanga and Isangoma) These six examples of witches from around the world prove that magic comes in many forms. Across time and space, women have been both honored and persecuted for their supposed magical powers. Most famously in Salem, Massachusetts, witch hunts and trials in the late 17th century reflected the time’s mass hysteria and misogyny brought on by religious fervor and paranoia, showing negative attitudes towards witches as a whole.īut America isn’t the only place where something wicked this way comes. history classes and historical fiction, the American witch has been recognized for her tragic history-not just her vibrant narratives. She comes in two basic forms: the scowling, green-skinned old woman who uses hexes to curse pretty young girls and all who cross her, and the cool, seemingly human witch who uses her powers largely for good, like Sabrina (the Teenage Witch) or Samantha from Bewitched.Īt the same time, thanks to U.S. Throughout decades of pop cultural assimilation, the witch has become a highly recognizable-and highly stereotyped-figure in the American mindset. Mycelium101 via Wikimedia Commons// CC BY-SA 3.0
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