wfn.org | All Africa News Agency 25/03 June 30 2003 (c)

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

ALL AFRICA NEWS AGENCY
P. O Box, 66878, 00800 Westlands, NAIROBI, Kenya.  Tel: 254-2-4442215,
4440224
Fax: 254-2-4445847, 4443241; Email: aanaapta@insightkenya.com , 
aanaapta@nbnet.co.ke
AANA BULLETIN No. 25/03 June 30, 2003 (c)

FEATURES  SECTION

The Foreseen Arch-Enemy Of A Post-War Sudan

The 19-year old Sudanese war could soon end if the peace process currently 
underway proceeds to the anticipated achievement, but fears are rife that 
the underground arch-enemy of the civil population, landmines, may remain a 
menace in a post-war period, if appropriate measures are not taken 
beforehand to remove them, reports AANA correspondent, Makur Kot Dhuor.

Landmines, or "non-agricultural seeds", as others would prefer to call 
them, have been planted indiscriminately in Sudan, both by government 
forces and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).

The country is one of the few in Africa with longest history of mines 
warfare, dating back to the Second World War. In its internal conflict, 
including the first civil war in 1955, landmines have been extensively used.

According to reports from a local non-governmental organisation, there is 
an estimated 10 million landmines that are already beneath the ground, 
waiting for victims. But estimates from the United Nations (UN) and the 
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), indicate the number could 
be between 500,000 to 2 million.

To the villagers though, what matters more is not the exact number of 
landmines and other unexploded ordinances (UXOs) in their midst, but the 
persistent danger these explosives pose to them.

Like the familiar Angolan scenario, landmines here have left many people 
disabled, having one or more limbs amputated.  Most victims are women, 
children and the elderly. UN estimates that there are 50,000 amputees on 
both sides of the conflict in Sudan, arising from landmine explosions.	In 
addition, both UN and government assessment have established that over 
three million livestock have been killed by landmines.

Aleu Ayieny, the director of Operation Save Innocent Lives (OSIL), a local 
indigenous non-governmental organisation, affirms that the issue is not the 
number of mines, but the trauma caused by even a rumour of the presence of 
a landmine.

"Landmines have been with us for several years," Mr. Aleu says, adding that 
villagers seem to have accepted that landmines had become part of their 
daily life, a fact which he notes, led to the formation of OSIL in 1997, to 
assist communities overcome the menace.

In the seven years of its operation, OSIL has cleared mines from several 
villages, opening up a number of roads linking communities that had been 
isolated. Such links include, Kaya-Rumbek road, Yei through to Loka, Amadi 
to Yirol, and Kajo-Kaji to Moyo roads in southern Sudan, close to the 
border with Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

OSIL provides information on identification of landmines and other UXOs, 
and the dangers they present.  The organisation also teaches safe behaviour 
to civilians living in or moving into mine-infested areas.

Apart from being operational in Western and Eastern Equatoria regions in 
southern Sudan, OSIL has extended its activities to the Nuba Mountains, and 
sometimes goes for emergency operations in Bahr-el-Ghazal region and 
Southern Blue Nile.

Available statistics show that between September 1997 and April 2003, OSIL 
managed to clear approximately 10.5 million square metres area of landmines 
around Yei, Kajo-Kaji, Kaya and Magwi counties.

This has resulted in the removal of about 732 anti-tank mines, 3,512 
anti-personnel mines, and 116,930 other UXOs such as bombs, shells, 
rockets, and grenades among others.

But due to the magnitude of the problem, OSIL cannot cover all the areas 
alone. A lot of support from the international community is needed in order 
to widen the scope and capacity of mine clearance in this region.

Hundreds of victims of landmines in Sudan include both soldiers and 
civilians. Mostly at risk are villagers who cultivate along the peripheries 
of towns, where the largest deposits of landmines are found.  Pastoralists 
are also at high risk of encountering landmines as they graze their animals.

With these factors in mind, observers say that the post-war period may not 
be as "sweet" as it is assumed, unless efforts are extended to make sure 
landmines are removed.

"Landmines are a [menace] because they restrict movement to water points, 
school and [prevent socialising]," says Mrs. Anisia Ochieng, co-ordinator 
for Sudanese Women Voice for Peace (SWVP).

"In the refugee camps, landmines are more dangerous than any fire-arms, 
especially to women, children and the aged," she adds.	In her opinion, the 
peace process "cannot talk about military and security arrangements without 
looking into the issue of landmines, which are [maiming] human beings and 
cattle on a daily basis".

She continues: "Women are now ready to go home, but we are afraid of 
landmines because we don't want to live on relief (food) for another forty 
years to come." For this reason, Anisia calls for a quick implementation of 
landmines clearance, and establishment of landmine information centres.

Her sentiments are supported by John A. Sei, co-ordinator for Sudan 
Landmine and Information Response Initiative (SLIRI). Sei argues that the 
Sudan peace process should go all the way to include removal of landmines.

He poses:  "How can people resettle if the place to settle in is full of 
landmines? How can we say there is peace when people are killed or maimed 
by landmines? How can we say there is peace if pastoralists cannot take 
their animals to where they can graze because of landmines? How can you 
travel wherever you want to go when the roads are mined?"

Talking to AANA, Sei complains that landmines have prevented communities in 
parts of Sudan from engaging in productive activities, resulting in 
shortage of food. "People's businesses have been reduced to a minimum 
because they cannot move freely. People are confined to certain routes," 
Sei asserts, adding that a lot of time is spent travelling long detoured 
routes because short alternatives are mined.

However, efforts are being made in the Upper Nile region to educate 
communities on the types and consequences of landmines and UXOs.

The awareness activities involve teaching people how to conduct themselves 
to avoid being victims of landmines. Radio Malakal, has been effective in 
disseminating such information in different dialects.

Besides, the Government of Sudan and the SPLM/A agreed last year on a mine 
action programme. The two parties signed a tripartite agreement with the UN 
Mine Action Service (UNMAS) last September.

The agreement has mandated the UN to establish a mine action service in 
Sudan to be based on both sides of the conflict, in which one office would 
be based in Khartoum, and another in Rumbek.

The objective of these offices is to support local initiatives on both 
sides of the conflict to address the problem of landmines.

  Erosion Of Traditional Values Hurt The Elderly

African governments are now being challenged to take up the responsibility 
of caring for the increasing number of the elderly, whose rights are being 
violated more today than before. Traditional systems that ensured care for 
the aged in Africa, are crumbling because of cultural changes. Our writer, 
Joseph K'Amolo, who recently attended a workshop fro the aged organised by 
HelpAge International in Nairobi,  reports on some of the worrying issues 
concerning the plight of the continent's older generation.

A
s they converged to deliberate on matters that affect older persons, 
representatives of organisations working with the elderly from across the 
continent once again reiterated the depreciation of care for the aged.

The emerging concern is that the plight of the elderly has never been given 
the attention it deserves, despite the many years that organisations in 
solidarity with them have advocated for their recognition.

Many African governments have failed to recognise, in their policy 
formulation, concerns of the elderly, thus contributing to their isolation. 
Observers say policy makers cannot escape the blame for the increasing 
abuse of rights of Africa's elderly people.

According to Mr. Tavangwa Nhongo, HelpAge International's regional 
representative for Africa, policy initiatives and development programmes 
have not adequately appreciated the rights and needs of the older people, 
despite the alarmingly growing number of this segment of society.

It is feared that this might create a crisis to governments that have not 
instituted measures to take care of the situation.

The workshop noted that the elderly, it appears, have been neglected a lot, 
not only by governments, but also by the society in general. There are many 
organisations concerned with the welfare of children and women, but very 
few cater for the elderly. The attitude is that the aged are people who 
have lived their lives and have become irrelevant.

But the strong warning coming from the workshop was that the younger 
generation should take note that ageing is a process, and that they too, 
will become old.

These issues bring the question of Africa's cultural values to the fore. 
Observers now wonder what could have happened to those values Africans so 
fervently held on to, which elaborately took care of the elderly.

Today, the society has undergone thorough social and cultural 
transformation. The socio-economic changes have provided fertile ground for 
excuses, as they are blamed for weakening the strength of traditional 
systems that held the elderly in high esteem.

In the traditional African set up, elderly people were viewed as an 
integral part of the family, and were accorded great respect. In the past, 
it was usual for the elderly to receive various forms of assistance from 
relations.  It is hardly the same any more, yet help to the aged is needed 
now than before.

Many old men, who in their prime time, even made sacrifices in educating 
their progeny, have been condemned to solitude. Ms Fanta Terefe, an 
Ethiopian representative to the workshop, said that among the Oromo of 
Ethiopia, traditional support mechanisms favouring older persons based on 
kinship, family lineage and settlement, have been diminishing.

Pamela Mboya, the chairlady of HelpAge Kenya, affirms this. While she 
recognises that the family is still the most important institution for 
older people, and that older people were in the past, given much 
recognition for their roles in areas of conflict resolution, cultural and 
health education, the changing structure of the family, migration and new 
cultures have eroded such recognition.

In the Ethiopian case, older people face daunting poverty, especially in 
rural areas. Food is particularly a serious problem, as it is in short 
supply. Food security is therefore one of the biggest concerns affecting 
older persons in that country.

Were it not for Oromo Grassroots Development Initiative (HUNDEE), an 
indigenous non-governmental organisation established in 1995, the situation 
would have been worse.

HUNDEE is involved in initiating community-based solutions to the problems 
of ageing. In so doing, elderly people are given special dignity and 
respect with the slogan, "Whatever we do for older persons today is what we 
expect to obtain from the younger generation tomorrow".

In Tanzania, older persons, especially women, are often accused of 
practising witchcraft, according to Juliana Bernard, civic and legal rights 
co-ordinator for Sukumaland Older Women's Programme (SOWP).

Juliana says many elderly women have lost their lives simply because their 
eyes were red, a sign associated with witchcraft in the region.

SOWP is engaged in activities intended to change this attitude, a task 
Juliana admits is not easy. There are those who are not convinced that the 
redness of the eyes of the aged can be caused by prolonged contact with 
smoky fires while cooking.

For Esther Zana from Zimbabwe, the issue of emergency takes a different 
twist when it is related to older people. She says her country has had its 
share of conflicts and natural disasters in the form of floods and drought.

In her presentation at the workshop, she noted that older persons were 
always victims of disasters.  They are often neglected, and their frail 
bodies prevent them from escaping disasters.

The conclusion drawn from her presentation is that older people are many 
times forgotten in times of emergency, not just by the government and 
society, but also by close family members.

There are numerous other situations that would demonstrate how the elderly 
are marginalised.

It is against such background that HelpAge International brought together 
the various organisations working with the elderly, to map out the way 
forward to address violations of rights of older people.

The workshop's objective was to generate guidelines about the best 
strategies and approaches that could be used to address the rights of older 
people in Africa.

A technical working group of HelpAge International members and partner 
organisations from 10 African countries, namely, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, 
Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Ghana, Ethiopia, Lesotho, and 
Zimbabwe, combed through issues that negated older people the dignity they 
deserved.

It emerged that the crumbling of traditional structures due to pressures of 
urbanisation and increasing mobility, is consigning older people to the 
periphery of life, and shifting responsibility for the care of elderly 
people to governments.

Does Witchery Exist Or Is It's Belief A Show Of Paranoia?

To many urban young and middle-aged persons across Africa, the talk of 
visiting relatives in rural villages is not as simple as it may sound. To 
them, rural set-ups must be avoided as much as possible in order to evade 
witches and wizards. But does witchery really exist? This report by Vincent 
Okungu, presents divergent views on the existence of witchcraft, as 
expressed by scholars, traditionalists and the clergy.

P
rof. Wole Soyinka once complained of the phalanx of witches and fortune 
tellers with which former Nigerian leader, the late Sani Abacha, surrounded 
himself.  Similarly, a number of leaders in Africa are known to keep among 
their confidantes, at least a witch doctor, thus testifying to their belief 
in the existence of witchcraft.

It is also an open fact that many football teams consult witch doctors 
before crucial matches. Cases of witchcraft paraphernalia being exhumed 
from football fields abound.

But according to Prof. Clement Oniang'o and Dr. Solomon Monyenye, both 
philosophers at the University of Nairobi, witchcraft does only exist in 
people's imaginations and their failure to find an explanation to a strange 
phenomenon, such as an unusual disease.

Prof. G.E.M Ogutu from the same institution, on the other hand, disagrees, 
and explains that witches have caused havoc in people's lives. "Witchcraft 
is real and dangerous," he cautions.

Past studies by a British Anthropologist, E.E. Evans-Pritchard, among the 
Azande people of southern Sudan and North Eastern Democratic Republic of 
Congo (DRC), concluded that witchcraft, oracles and magic are a reality and 
affects everyday lives of the Azande.  Evans-Pritchard noted that the 
Azande "brew" witchcraft in pots to make it potent.

Recent preliminary studies by this writer among Azande's neighbours, the 
Balanda and the Nuer of southern Sudan, established that the communities 
summon the power of witchcraft and magic before going to war or hunting. 
This, they do to achieve positive results.

Interviewees who claim to have been victims of witchery confess to its 
power. Patrick Muia confirms that kamuti (witchcraft) among the Akamba 
people of Kenya can kill within hours of contact. "It can as well be 
manipulated to plant an object at any part of the body," he says.

Last month, a Kenyan Member of Parliament from the Akamba community, James 
Mutiso, drowned while crossing a river, reportedly in the company of a 
witch doctor.

Victor Okoth of the Luo community in Western Kenya claims he was bewitched 
late last year, when he fell ill and almost died after several unsuccessful 
visits to hospital.

His illness started immediately after he had constructed a hut in his rural 
village. "Had it not been for Japolo (prophet), I would be dead by now," 
says Okoth.

He explains that upon visiting Japolo after failing to get treated in 
hospitals, he was informed that some witchcraft paraphernalia were hidden 
in his grass-thatched roof and needed to be removed within two weeks; 
otherwise, he dies.

Okoth says he was stunned when the "prophet" removed from his roof, the 
skull of a sheep and hornbill bones that represented witchcraft intended to 
kill him within weeks.

Archdeacon, Elijah Matolo of the Anglican Church, and Fr. Peter 
Braunreuter, a Catholic, agree on the existence of witchcraft and term it 
an evil that has to be spiritually fought.

"Witchcraft is the work of Satan and those who engage in it or allow 
themselves to be controlled by it are guilty of disobeying the First 
Commandment, " Matolo asserts. The First Commandment states: "Worship no 
other god but Me, the Father".

Elders maintain that witchcraft indeed exists, and that it is propagated by 
jealousy.  According to 72-year old Grace Mghanga, jealousy comes between 
siblings, relatives, neighbours or friends, when one party feels left 
behind in some aspect of life. The aggrieved party may resort to witchcraft 
to attempt to bring down those they feel are ahead of them.

"One individual competing for a common interest with another person may 
resort to witchcraft in order to have an edge over his or her competitor," 
says Mghanga.

This, she notes, is common among the Chaaga in Tanzania, and a few coastal 
communities in Kenya. In this case witchcraft may not necessarily kill, she 
explains, but may cause serious illness or discourage the competitor from 
proceeding with the undertaking in question.

Nevertheless, Peter Otinyo, a member of Legio Maria (an indigenous 
religious group in Kenya) confirms that witchcraft can be effectively dealt 
with through prayers.

Otinyo claims to be gifted with the powers of the Holy Spirit, which he 
says he uses to heal victims of witchcraft. "The Holy Spirit is the most 
powerful force against witchcraft. No witches can pass undetected," he 
declares.

Mzee Joseph Olela, a village elder in Siaya district in Western Kenya, 
recalls that medicine men were traditionally contracted to fight witchcraft 
because they had a unique power to turn witchcraft against the perpetrators.

But he observes that such people are nowadays rare, and their place in 
combating witchcraft is increasingly being taken up by prayers, to which 
Archdeacon Matolo responds: "Evil cannot fight evil."

In many West African countries the most feared form of witchcraft is juju. 
"Juju has been employed [for many reasons], one of which is the belief that 
its power can help bring wealth," explains Prof. Femi Taewoo of Nigeria.

Recent reports from Ghana noted  how two fortune seekers mutated into 
vultures after a jujuman (magician) faulted in a process meant to give the 
ambitious businessmen supernatural powers to boost their trade.

Three months ago, traders at a market in Abossey Okai suburbs in Accra, 
maintained that some two strange vultures that had become common in the 
market, were two of their former three colleagues.

According to the story, the three traders had gone to seek juju in 
neighbouring Benin late last year, but did not return, apart from one, who 
broke the news that his colleagues had turned into vultures and followed 
him all the way from Benin.

Interestingly, the story was believed by not only the villagers, but some 
religious leaders who even said they could transform the "vultures" back 
into human form, if they (the "vultures") were captured.