ASB214 - Magic, Witchcraft and Healing: An Introduction to Comparative Religion

The Witches of Gambaga is the extraordinary story of a community of women condemned to live as witches in Northern Ghana. Every year in this part of Ghana, hundreds of women endure communal and domestic violence as a result of traditional religious beliefs that demonize women.

This documentary analyzes the role of witchcraft among the Azande people of central Africa, who considered it to be a major danger. They believe that witchcraft can be inherited and that a person can be a witch without realizing her or his bad influence.

This beautifully crafted film is an in-depth look at the witch-hunts that swept through Europe just a few hundred years ago. False accusations and trials led to massive torture and burnings at the stake, and ultimately to the destruction of an organic way of life. The film advances the theory that widespread violence against women and the neglect of our environment today can be traced back to those times.

Based on historical records, this program shows how the hysterical behavior of a few young girls set off the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692.

Witches in popular culture have a particularly insidious origin - religious persecution. In later years, the image of a witch has evolved - both through pop culture, and greater religious freedom.

From Tanzania and Zambia to Ivory Coast and Ghana belief in witchcraft continues to terrorize women: the denunciation, brutal beating, the banishment to an unknown village without family or friends. In Northern Ghana alone there are estimated to be more than 5000 'witches' confined to 'witches villages,' part sanctuaries, part prisons.