Des femmes exclues, accusées de sorcellerie / Excluded women accused of witchcraft

Aujourd’hui j’ai travaillé sur un sujet tellement intéressant et en même temps très triste. C’est un projet qui concerne l’exclusion des femmes âgées de leur village à cause des accusations de sorcellerie. J’en ai écrit une proposition de projet (c’était ma première !)

Chaque année, à peu près 100 femmes âgées/veuves sont bannies de leurs villages, accusées d’avoir mangé l’âme d’un membre du village. On les appelle « mangeuses d’âmes ». Ces tribus croient que l’âme peut se promener le soir et donc elle est souvent victime d’attaques de sorcières. Souvent, quand un enfant ou un membre de la famille du mari meurt, on cherche la cause du décès. Pour déceler la cause, on emploie des méthodes différentes : la plus courante s’appelle « seongo » (en Mooré). Après avoir bu « une potion magique », deux hommes prennent le corps du mort (ils croient que l’âme du corps y habite) et sont « dirigés » vers le coupable. Une autre méthode est de tuer une poule et si elle tombe sur ses ailes, la personne accusée est innocente mais si elle tombe sur son dos, elle est jugée coupable et bannie du village.

Les histoires de ces femmes sont très tragiques : toutes vulnérables et fragiles, elles sont souvent accusées par un membre de la famille ! Mais pour moi, le plus choquant était le fait que parfois ces vieilles dames souffrent des attaques avant de quitter le village. Beaucoup d’entre elles meurent dans l’attente de se réintégrer dans la société, un autre village ou la capitale. D’autres finissent en mendiantes à Ouaga et les chanceuses peu nombreuses atteignent les centres de réfugiés où elles sont accueillies et reçoivent une formation d’alphabétisation pour pouvoir gagner leur vie.

Se promenant à Ouaga, parmi les milliers de gens dans la nécessité, on ne dirait jamais qu’il y a ces femmes. Elles disparaissent dans les grandes foules.

J’ai hâte d’aller voir un de ces centres parce qu’on entend souvent PARLER de ces choses mais de les VOIR en réalité, cela donne une autre perspective.


Today I worked on a very saddening and riveting subject. It involves the exclusion of elderly women from their villages due to accusations of witchcraft. I had to write a project proposal for a mini-project. The project, if accepted, will provide literacy training for the women I am about to talk to you about. Sounds like a simple issue? Wait until you hear the full story!

Every year around 100 elderly / widowed women are excluded and banished from their villages after having been accused of eating the soul of a member of the village. They are called “soul eaters”. Often when a child or a member of the husband’s family dies, the villagers seek the cause of death. In order to determine the cause of death, different methods are used. The most common one is called “seongo” in Mooré. It sounds a bit like a Disney film but with really tragic consequences. What happens is this: after having drunk a magic potion, two men take the body of the deceased, believed to be inhabited by the soul of the dead person and they are “led” by the person to the guilty party. When this person is designated as the cause of death, nothing can reverse the charge, even if there are medical explanations.

Another method of determining guilt is through animal sacrifices. The accused will be determined guilty or innocent according to the way in which a chicken recently killed, falls onto the ground. If it falls on its wings, the person is innocent but if it falls on its back, the woman is found immediately guilty and banished from the village.

These tribes (mostly Mossi) believe that at night, peoples’ souls can wander from their bodies and it is at this moment that these women “eat” the souls of children and others.

There are some really tragic stories about accused women. Some are married and are accused by their husband or a member of his family. Others are old and fragile (the most common), no longer able to contribute to village life and therefore classified as useless.

Not only are these women banished from their villages but many suffer physical and sexual attacks beforehand, leaving them in a very sorry condition. Many of these women die in an attempt to reintegrate into society, another village or the capital. Others end up begging in Ouaga and a few fortunate ones find their way to two refugee centres in the capital where they are received and trained to read and to produce different things in order to earn a living for themselves. What is tragic is that, without external help to improve awareness, these women will be forgotten among the millions of other people in need here.

Women in Burkina have very few rights and are often not even aware of them. Female genital mutilation has been publicized quite a lot but this is only one practice which needs our attention. While families here are tight-knit, the reality in some of these villages and the position of women leaves much to be desired.

I’m going to visit one of these centres and I’m looking forward to it. There are so many needs here, so many things hidden away that we don’t know about and when brought to light, I wonder who will be bold and take up their cause? I feel overwhelmed by the level of sickness and needs here but I have a lot of respect for those who are doing something about it.

We need to act because they need us.