Factors contributing to the witchcraft related killings in Bariadi district, Shinyanga

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Date

2010

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Sokoine University of Agriculture

Abstract

Witch killings have been a problem facing the world especially African countries. In particular, African witches are widely thought to use their accult powers to inflict harm on other community members. In Tanzania, 3.693 people were killed for witchcraft related accusations. There are many efforts made by the Government, NGOs, training programmes, radio programmes to stop the witch killings. These include: TAMWA, Amnesty International, radio programmes like Radio Faraja (Shinyanga) and Radio Sauti (Mwanza). Together with all the efforts made to address the witchcraft killings, the problem is still rapidly increasing throughout the country and Bariadi district in particular. Overall objective of this study was to investigate factors contributing to the killings of old women. Study adopted a cross sectional design by using open and closed ended questionnaires administered to a sample of 30 villages as sampling unit. Stratified sampling technique was used whereby 30 villages were divided into two strata based on remoteness and township criterion. Stratification resulted into 15 villages selected from remote areas and 15 from town centres. Interviews with key informants and Focus Group Discussions (FGD) were used. Analysis was done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). A Probit regression model was run using STATA software. Findings revealed that, witchcraft related killings in Bariadi is negatively contributed by infant mortality rate, under five mortality rate, religion affiliation and natural calamity as hypothesized earlier. Witch killings were positively contributed by education status of the village, health services provision, poverty level of the village and scramble for resources. This suggests that in order to eliminate this situation, education to community should be provided, to improve economic well being of the people. Organizations which advocate anti-witchcraft killings should empower the community in dealing with the problem. Traditional songs could help to speed up the education to community.

Description

Dessertation

Keywords

Witchcraft, Killings, Bariadi district

Citation