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The Documentary Podcast

Assignment: Cry witch - take my land, take my life

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.32.6K Ratings

🗓️ 8 July 2024

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In a coastal region of eastern Kenya at least one elderly person is being killed every week – in the name of witchcraft. There are violent attacks on people accused of being witches across much of Africa. But, according to human rights groups, the seventy or so murders every year in Kilifi County are about more than fear of the supernatural. For Assignment, Njeri Nwangi from BBC Africa Eye investigates the real motives behind these brutal attacks and the impunity that enables them. She meets victims, relatives and perpetrators. Listeners might find some of the details in this programme upsetting.

Archive: ‘Witches’ Burnt in Kenya, NTD News

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

0:04.0

I'm Jerry Mwangi for assignment in Kenya.

0:07.0

David Nizarro is a slight wiry man who looks younger than his 69 years and who fears for his life.

0:20.0

The person he's afraid of is his son Chris who he says is accusing him of witchcraft.

0:27.0

I'm living with chow, I'm smoa, I'm a witch, I'm a witch, and that I am a witch and that I bring trouble.

0:35.0

Chris lives with his family just a few meters away from his father's home of sticks and mud in a much bigger house with a veranda and roof.

0:48.0

And according to David, his son has threatened him and thrown stones at his home.

0:54.0

We just pass each other without speaking.

1:00.0

I live next to my grandchildren, but they are scared to come near me.

1:04.4

That's their parents' rules.

1:07.0

If they come too close to me, they call them and tell them,

1:11.0

come back, you're sitting next to that witch come away do you fear for

1:17.6

your life sure when one of the coconut there drops on the top of the house, they come out, the husband and the

1:29.2

wife, you leave your chow we will kill you.

1:34.0

I ask him what happens here if someone is

1:39.0

someone is accused of being a witch.

1:41.0

So what is actually, what is going to be a witch. If someone calls you a witch, it makes you vulnerable.

1:45.0

You know you can be attacked at any time,

1:52.0

by anyone. You know your life is in danger.

1:57.0

But why would a child accuse their parent of being a witch?

2:04.0

For what reason?

2:05.0

It means he wants to kill me,

...

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