"Sorcery Children" Blamed for Tragedy of AIDS in the Congo

Belinda Kaji Manengu, 8, ran away after being accused of "sorcery" in the AIDS deaths of her parents, and abused by an uncle.

Belinda Kaji Manengu is an 8-year-old runaway girl sleeping on the mean streets of Kolwesi, a large town in the southern part of Katanga Province, near the Democratic Republic of Congo’s border with Zambia.

Many street children like Belinda can be found in the train stations, narrow alleys and marketplaces of the Congo’s cities. Belinda had migrated from the train station, where she slept for several months, to a bush beneath the window of the Faradja Center, a small nonprofit organization in Kolwesi that specializes in helping street children. This is where the center’s founder, Mrs. Maguy Numbi, 47, found her. Mrs. Numbi quickly opened the doors of the center, took Belinda in, fed her a hot meal and started trying to help her put her life back together.

“Why did you run away?” she asked Belinda, who had been living with an uncle after her parents both died from AIDS.

“I cannot go back to my family,” the little girl replied. “I was beaten every day.”

Belinda calmly tells her heartbreaking story of abuse as a volunteer counselor looks on.

Sorcery Children: Scapegoats for Tragedy

One unique manifestation of this phenomenon, this tendency to “spin off” the most vulnerable members of society, is the appearance of what many Congolese call “sorcery children.” When tragedy strikes in this deeply spiritual and superstitious society, the survivors often seek to identify an underlying spiritual cause. Three years ago, for instance, when an Ebola outbreak claimed the lives of 64 people, many locals were convinced that sorcery was the root cause of the problem, according to the BBC.

And today, if a parent becomes sick or dies of AIDS, uncomprehending relatives often take the surviving children to see a local pastor or other religious leader in an effort to understand “the cause.” In anguish, Belinda’s uncle asked, “Why did this happen to us? Why did my brother have to die?”

So, her uncle began attempting to “exorcise the demons” out of Belinda, and she was beaten mercilessly and repeatedly. She finally escaped with her life and began wandering the streets of Kolwesi, trying merely to survive.

According to Human Rights Watch, often the same independent “revivalist” churches that diagnose a family’s problem as “sorcery” offer (for a price) to implement a horrific “cure.” They call it exorcism, but children are often locked away in a dark basement room, deprived of food and water, and otherwise abused. Children have even been burned with coals in a misguided attempt to “exorcise the demons.”

Many children run away or are forced from their homes. In desperation, children in Belinda’s position become easy prey for the thousands of truck drivers who visit the DRC from places as far away as South Africa. Unfortunately, truck drivers who seek sex on the road are often also the ones who are importing HIV, and the children unwittingly become their victims.

Currently, Only a Fraction Are Rescued

Fortunately for Belinda, Mrs. Numbi was able to find other relatives who were willing to take her in and care for her. The Faradja Center, with World Vision’s help, continues to provide a nutritious lunch for Belinda and 230 other street children in Kolwesi, as well as uniforms and fees so they can return to school.

Despite the large number of children Mrs. Numbi and her volunteer counselors are able to help out of their small two-room facility in Kolwesi , they know they are only reaching a fraction of the street children there who need their assistance. “One out of ten” was Mrs. Numbi’s estimate of how many children they had have been able to rescue off the streets.

Some of the street children at the Faradja Center enjoy a healthy meal together.

A Multi-Faceted Solution Needed

Innocent children aren’t the only ones who are suffering because of these false accusations of witchcraft. Sorcery, as an excuse to abandon the Congo’s elderly, has been documented by the U.N.-based “Global Action on Aging,” which reports that elderly men and women, forced from their homes by accusations of sorcery, can be seen begging along the avenues of Kinshasa.

How You Can Help

Pray for mercy and justice for the children and elderly in the Congo who are being unfairly accused as scapegoats for tragedy. Pray also for World Vision staff as they are seeking ways to help them, working in a very difficult context.