Embarrassed by reports of the continuing problem of children being stigmatised as witches in Akwa Ibom state in Nigeria, Governor Godswill Akpabio has decided to act: by going after the charities that have been caring for abandoned children and highlighting the problem. The Pioneer reports: Weekend Pioneer recalls Chief Akpabio in his reaction to a news report on […]
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CNN’s Connect the World has now broadcast the third and final part of its investigation into child-witch stigmatisation in Nigeria (I blogged parts one and two over the past two days). As before, the segment began with a depressing scene: in this instance, a young widow weeping with fear and distress as she rejects her three children from her […]
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CNN’s Connect the World has broadcast the second part of its series on children who are being stigmatised as witches in Africa, focusing on the role of pastors [UPDATE: video here]. The programme drew on the 2008 documentary Saving Africa’s Witch-Children, which I blogged on here, and we saw once again the sad sight of Mary, the […]
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As readers may have noticed, I recently received a deluge of sockpuppeting messages in support of Helen Ukpabio. These all bear the following details: Email: firstlove2010@gmail.co [sic] IP: 41.219.253.7 Here’s one of the latest, which I have actually deleted: Bartholomew you have not still answered to the two accusations on rape, we read you raped two […]
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A few days ago I wrote a blog entry about an attack website set up to defend “Lady Apostle” Helen Ukpabio against her detractors. The site accuses her opponents (including me) of being a conspiracy of atheists spreading the “Darkwins [sic] philosophy”, and it also contains some remarkably crude abuse, such as this: Leo Igwe, your wife and mother must […]
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As I blogged a few months ago, in August last year Helen Ukpabio was “consecrated” as an Apostle by Bishop N E Moses; Moses used the opportunity to denounce those who had criticised her teaching on the existence of child witches, as he ranted about “Witches attacking! Wizards attacking! “Atheists attacking!” He also praised members of Ukpabio’s church […]
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Sometime during May, an attack website was created to defend “Apostle” Helen Ukpabio following a critical article about her child-witch teachins in the New York Times. The website suggested that the author of the NY Times article was part of a conspiracy which involves Gary Foxcroft, Leo Igwe, Olusegun Fakoya, and myself (this is somewhat flattering to me, as I’ve […]
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Ignited Church is a neo-Pentecostal mega-church in Lakeland, Florida, pastored by Stephen Strader. The church came to prominence in 2008 when it hosted Todd Bentley and the “Lakeland Revival” – an event which various neo-Pentecostal leaders promised would herald a new dawn, but which instead ended in fiasco and sexual scandal for Bentley. Strader’s church still enjoys a high […]
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The New York Times carries an article by Mark Oppenheimer about Apostle Helen Ukpabio, the Nigerian Pentecostal minister at the centre of the child-witchcraft hysteria in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. The British Channel 4 documentary Saving Africa’s Witch Children is due to air in the USA on Wednesday (on HBO2) – and as luck would have it, […]
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The Nigerian Vanguard has the latest on Stepping Stones Nigeria, a charity that provides refuge for children who have been abused and rejected by their families after being accused of witchcraft: A child rights group has denied allegations of fraud levlled against it and published in the current edition of a national news magazine. …Responding […]
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