Butchered over witchcraft accusations!

. . . Old women framed, killed over property rights, jealous and inheritance

SIMBARASHE MSASANURI
Dar es Salaam

THE killing of elderly women on grounds of witchcraft and superstition continues unabated in areas such as Mwanza and Shinyanga while the killers get away with murders. An average of 517 women (reported cases) are killed yearly in this country amid revelations of jealous and property conflicts.

According to statistics more than 2,585 old women were killed in eight regions of Tanzania Mainland over a period of not more than five years. And, of the eight regions, Mwanza and Shinyanga recorded the highest number of killings with 698 and 522 respectively.

The statistics also revealed that Tabora had 508 women killed, Iringa 256, Mbeya 196, Kagera 186, Singida 120 while 103 were killed in Rukwa. And this means that one old woman is killed in Mwanza Region after every three days while for Tabora and Shinyanga, an old woman is murdered after every four days.

Despite these shocking figures, the number of arrests seem not to correspond with the number of deaths and according to the HelpAge International Programme Manager, Flavian Bifandimu, in an exclusive interview with THISDAY, traditional beliefs that killing a witch is doing good service to the society has seen these killers being protected.

“We did a research in Magu District on the killings of older women on witchcraft accusations and discovered that traditional healers, property rights conflicts and jealous are some of the factors fueling the problem.

And, with the UN predicting that by 2050 the number of older people in Tanzania over the age of 60 will have dramatically increased from just over two million in 2006 to nearly over seven million in 2050, more stringent measures are needed to protect innocent elderly people from barbaric attacks.

It also remains true that as the population ages, the number of older women will increase. Older women and men experience ageing differently in Tanzania. Older women are less likely to remarry after the death of a partner and are more likely to be divorced or abandoned by their partner.

According to a research conducted by HelpAge International, in 2006 only 41 percent of older women were married compared to 82 percent of older men. The majority of older women, 84 percent according to the last census live in rural areas and these are areas more prone to such killings.

“Lack of data on older women in Tanzania is a major challenge to assessing the extent to which
their rights are being realised. No data is available on the number of older women who live below the poverty line. This lack of data is a major barrier to ensuring that appropriate programmes are designed and sufficient funds allocated to addressing poverty and the health service and social protection needs of older women and their families,” reads the report.

Bifandimu explained that HelpAge International and its partners’ experience over the last 21 years has been that older women in Tanzania face discrimination on the basis of their gender, age and poverty. The fact that older women live longer and are less likely to remarry than older men tend to leave more older women living in vulnerable conditions, relying on the goodwill of relatives and neighbours for economic security. The majority of older women have no access to formal social security in a country where only 5 per cent of the total labour force has access to it.

It is common knowledge that widowhood profoundly changes the status of women in Tanzania and undermines their security. Customary laws deny widows the right to inherit common assets (for example a house or land). Widows can be inherited by their deceased husband’s brother and must abide by these laws or risk being ostracised and left without income and assets at a time of trauma and bereavement.

For older widows, discrimination compounds the effects of a lifetime of poverty and gender
discrimination. This can result in extreme impoverishment and isolation, both for the widows
themselves and any dependents they care for. Their situation is worsened by a lack of knowledge of their legal rights, of how to access appropriate information and where to seek impartial advice and guidance.

Despite this older women continue to experience gender-based violence. In particular older
women are often subject to accusations of witchcraft which can result in psychological abuse,
intimidation, banishment from their homes and communities, isolation, violence and in extreme
cases, killings of older women.

Whilst accusations are common across the country, the extent to which these result in violence varies from region to region, being most extreme in the North Western parts of Tanzania.

The context in which accusations of witchcraft are made is complex. Deep seated cultural beliefs, the low status of women, poverty, and the need to apportion blame and seek redress for a negative event, such as a death in the family or crop failure, all contribute to a culture in which these allegations and subsequent violence is tolerated. Older women are often targeted due to their low status, their low levels of literacy, their inability to defend themselves and, in the event of widowhood, family members wishing to take control of property and assets. The vulnerable women are butchered while very little is done about it.

Bifandimu condemned the brutal acts saying the killings of elderly women violate their basic right to life.

“Right to life is a constitutional and human right and it is the role of the government to ensure its people live in peace,” he said.

Though he commended the government on its efforts in dealing with the problem, Bifandimu feels that more still needs to be done to address it.

“While there have been very good efforts in relation to the hunting of albino killers, there hasn't been the same level of work in relation to the killing of the elderly. We believe if the same efforts are applied then we could see a remarkable change,” he added.

Bifandimu also praised the police for the recent arrests where 14 people were nabbed on allegations of involvement in organised killings of elderly women in various districts in Mwanza Region, saying it is a step in the right direction and will deter would be killers. He also urged the government to spread the crackdown to other regions and bring the killers to book.

He said that there is need to make people aware that older people of today were youths of yesterday and youths of today will become the elderly tomorrow and if nothing is done now, then they are likely to face the same fate.

“The youths should be in the forefront in fighting for the rights of the elderly so that when they get old, they will benefit. They should fight the killings because they will also be killed, when they get old, if they don't stop it now,” he said.

(ENDS)