Do you believe in witchcraft?

Edwina (20yr old) in white and red has confessed to being a witch

A 20yr old girl, Edwina Esther Thorpe has supposedly confessed to being a witch in Wilberforce and is being kept at the chief’s house for safe keeping after she accused a neighbor of “feeding ‘witch meat’ to an 8yr old girl and burrying a ‘witch pot’ inside one of the trees in the compound”. Edwina also claimed that she turned herself into a snake and bit her boyfriend for cheating on her.

Now before you naysayers go telling me that I am making this up, I have posted the front page headline that ran the story.

I have to wonder, what would make a young girl make up a story like this? Why would she knowingly put herself in harm’s way by accusing others of witchcraft? Could she be telling the truth? Is she suffering from mental illness? Whats wrong with Edwina?

Earlier this week my aunt told me that a witchman was caught carrying what seemed like a pregnancy. He too supposedly admitted to being a witch that he had stolen his sister’s pregnancy the previous night as he went out on his witching duties. Unfortunately for him, it was day break by the time he made it home and was caught on as he landed on the roof and because it was already morning, he couldn’t return the pregnancy to its rightful owner. He was seen seated on the floor in front of Caunnaught Hospital

When i was a kid growing up in Freetown, we were told the story of Sierra Leone’s greatest witch who accomplished the impossible of traveling to America to bewitch a relative using the skin of a peanut as her witch’s airplane. It doesn’t make sense to u does it? I know. But this is what people believe and this story of Adama witchman has been passed on for years without dispute, we all accept it as it was told to us.

In Banana water, the fishing community where I’ve lived for most of my life, a woman believes that if she loses a child in infancy, that, it is most likely that her neighbor has bewitched her baby. These beliefs keep women in fear and hatred of each other, and continue to perpetuate the stereotype of women as evil beings.

I don’t believe in witches but i do believe that there are dark forces and evil people amongst us who conspire to destroy others. What do you believe? Are there such things as witches? Should we all be afraid???