BBC Trending: Meet the anti-witch hunter
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 23 October 2024
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In many parts of the world there is still a fear of witches and witchcraft. Those accused are often vulnerable, yet they are blamed for a variety of afflictions, from disease to infertility and poverty. They often face persecution, abuse and lynching. From his base in Nigeria Dr Leo Igwe, after receiving tip-offs on social media, intervenes and protects those accused of witchcraft across the African continent from being attacked. He also lobbies local authorities to prevent witch-hunting drives from taking place and organises educational campaigns to counter existing occult narratives.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I've traveled to Lancaster in the northwest of England to speak to a Nigerian man who's |
| 0:08.7 | addressing a conference on witchcraft in human rights. |
| 0:12.4 | He helps people like this. |
| 0:14.0 | This fight is too much for me to carry. |
| 0:18.0 | I cannot continue like this. I'm not walking. I'm just begging for work. They have killed my image. I'm crying to Nigerians to rise up and fight for me. |
| 0:32.0 | This is the voice of a Nigerian widow called Nika from Asaba, who says that she's been banished |
| 0:38.0 | from her community in Southeast Nigeria after accusations of witchcraft were leveled against her by her own family. |
| 0:45.0 | She says the claim that she was using |
| 0:48.0 | killer magic in her catering business has destroyed her income. |
| 0:52.0 | We've also been told that she was beaten until she fainted. |
| 0:57.0 | Step forward, Dr Leo Igway. He says that he was sent a video of Nika lying helpless on the floor and decided to intervene, |
| 1:05.6 | supporting her to put her life back together. |
| 1:08.8 | And this isn't an isolated incident for him. |
| 1:11.5 | This is something he does on a daily basis for victims of |
| 1:14.9 | witchcraft accusations. I could no longer take it. You know, you know, just like you |
| 1:19.9 | staying around and see people being killed randomly and you know this |
| 1:22.5 | people didn't do anything. I think that naturally you just try to stop and say hey |
| 1:26.4 | what did this person do? Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service. |
| 1:33.4 | I'm Jonathan Griffin with BBC Trending. |
| 1:36.4 | I've been looking at the crusade to stop witch hunting in Nigeria, |
| 1:40.1 | led by Dr Leo Igway. It's worth pointing out his prevention work extends beyond Nigeria to a number of other countries. |
| 1:49.0 | Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe among them. |
... |
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