Cameroon: Witchcraft and Justice :: Ed'son de Pary E.A.

27/04/2009 19:27

George Esunge Fominyen

27 April 2009

In December 2008, the American newspaperStar Tribune reported that a woman of Cameroon origin had filed a lawsuit in a US Federal Court accusing another woman for using voodoo to steal her man and ruin her life. By February the woman had withdrawn the case citing the power of prayer as the final sword in her battle to regain "her man". This affair drew a mix of contempt, ridicule and sympathy for her, as it seemedabsurd that one would dare to file such a case in a court of law.

If this woman had been well advised she would have simply taken the case to the land of her forefathers. Article 251 of the Cameroon penal code provides that anyone found guilty of practising sorcery could be punished with imprisonment for up to 10 years and fined 100,000 FCFA ($200). All she neededto do would have been to prove her allegations.Well, that's where things become awkward. How do you prove the existence of what is essentially supernatural?

Thishas been the focus of many a discussion in Cameroon. Back in March 2005, the CatholicUniversity of Central Africa in Yaounde, Cameroon organised an international conference on witchcraft and social justice. Eminent researchers, jurists, traditional healers, priests and students reflected on whether witchcraft and sorcery actually existed and if punishment for it should still feature in the legal system of a "modern" state. The event seemed so hair-raising that it featured as top story on the national radio (CRTV)news and on News Focus (I was presenting at the time). Below is an edited version of thenewscastwith a report of the event by Kihkishiy Lawrence and an analysis by Mbah Peter Nforsi.

Does a crime like witchcraftexist?Is it reasonable tomaintain such an article in the penal code?How manycourt cases related to witchcraft are tabled to judges in Cameroon. What is the mumber of persons in prison convicted (or even accused) of wizardry and bewitching others?What if a leading media organisation in Camerooninvestigated this issue? They couldeven base their work on the piece by Sorious Samura on Justice and Witchcraft inthe Central African Republic.

Relevant Links

A fundamental concern would be whether law is basedon the circumstancesof a given society or on universal precepts of modernity. It may also be interesting to know wherestate law stands on issues of belief systems? Is there a rightor a wrong belief in the eyes of the courts? Is it OK to believe that a man named Moses led Israelites (walking) across the red sea that wassplit into two andnot alrightto think that a manis held by a spell cast on him by a woman? What do Cameroonians reallythink about this matter?

Senegal-based Cameroonian blogger George Fominyen blogs at https://www.gefominyen.com/

(originally Posted On Gef's Outlook)