Sorcery In The Congo

Sorcery In The Congo
Life in the Democratic Republic of Congo is one that very few people should ever have to be faced with. Children are treated the worst. They are thrown from their homes and abandoned by their families because society calls them witches. If a child is accused of witchcraft, he or she must either be forced onto the streets or must undergo an exorcism. Many children who are forced into such situations are beaten and/or murdered. This mainly happens to children who come from impoverished families. Every day, Congolese children are being accused of some sort of witchcraft or sorcery: this is not just hurting the lives of the children, but it is also hurting the overall society of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

There are more than 40,000 children living on the streets, of whom more than 80% were actually abandoned by their families because they were accused of witchcraft (“Sad Little Sorcerers”). Children are being accused of sorcery because an unexpected event may take place somewhere in the community. The adults in the community have no one else to blame, and they will not blame themselves, therefore they blame the children. Unexpected death or disease in the family is often taken as evidence of child necromancy, or a child using some sort of magic. One story tells of how there were two twin boys whose grandfather fell ill after his business failed, and then five of boys’ uncles died. Soon after that, the boys’ mother became a prostitute and disappeared. No one could explain why all of this happened, so the grandfather pointed at the children and accused them of witchcraft, which in turn, forced them to beg and steal out on the streets (“Sad Little Sorcerers”).