Witch camps saga: Throw away Gender Ministry – Feminist

A feminist Scarlett Iwrite Ewurama has said that plans by Gender Minister-designate Sarah Adwoa Safo to rebrand witch camps in Ghana, is not what Ghanaians need at the moment in relation to this menace.

She said the camps are a double-edged sword, a prison, and a sanctuary.

Adwoa Safo has said that if approved to be the substantive minister, she will work to rebrand all the witch camps in the country.

She explained to the Appointments Committee of Parliament during her vetting on Wednesday, February 17, that most of the women in these camps are unwilling to return home because they have formed families there.

To that end, she said, she will work to ensure that the government provides them with the necessary basic amenities to make life comfortable for them within the camps.

“If I am given the nod, what I will first do is to engage and visit some of the camps and engage these alleged witches,” the Dome Kwabenya Lawmaker said.

“I will further engage the traditional authorities and opinion leaders in these areas to get a very clear picture of what indeed ought to be done,” the former Procumbent Minister said.

She added “That is not to say that the Ministry hasn’t done anything. I chanced upon some documents which indicated that in Gambaga witches camp, for instance, there are 600 inmates. When they were engaged only one was prepared to come back home.

“So I believe in a rebranding of these camps because as far as the women of these camps are concerned they have found families in these camps and so I will engage them.

“Attempts to withdraw these women have proven difficult in the past that is why I believe that another and a novel approach to dealing with the matter will be more prudent. So, if they see it as homes and the ministry supports them with the necessary social amenities that are expected of a state – they are given food, they are put on LEAP, and they are given clothing – I believe that negative branding as a witches camp will be taken away.

“I intend to go through with them some education on the need for them to also know that the abusive methods on them are not legal and they can speak out and report to the Police.”

Reacting to these comments in a Facebook post, Scarlett Iwrite said “Adjoa Safo said that from the information she has from the previous minister, the women at Gambaga are reluctant to leave. No one asked her why she thinks that’s the case!

“The women don’t want to leave because they’d rather stay there where they’d be alive even if barely surviving than be lynched to death by their village people and own family members if they go back to their villages.

“How does not a single person in government know that’s the real issue? The camps are a double-edged sword; a prison and a sanctuary. Rebranding it will be like Cynthia Morrison adopting abused children instead of working to ensure policy to prevent child abuse was implemented.

“Throw the whole gender ministry away.”