The View from a Drawbridge

Tag: Nigeria

  • Child Witch Hysteria Revisited

    I’ve written about the Child Witch Hysteria in Africa before. It pains me to have to do so again. But the crisis has not abated. A new, disturbingly detailed report has come out, entitled Branded and beaten: The children accused of witchcraft and murder. It focuses on Nigeria in particular. It discusses how the local…

  • Child Witch Hysteria

    Every day in Africa, hundreds of children are declared to be witches. Once this happens, their lives are effectively over. They are tortured for confessions, abandoned by their families or murdered by villagers. Schools will no longer teach them. Hospitals will no longer treat them. These children are blamed for any family misfortune. Disease, miscarriage,…

  • It’s No Honeymoon

    I heard recently that the tradition of having a honeymoon after one gets married has some very nefarious origins. Back when abducting the bride from a neighboring village or tribe was even more commonplace than it is today, it was a good idea for the man to hide the woman for a couple of weeks.…

  • Have we Overstayed our Welcome?

    Aw, jeez, I need to stop surfing the internet. I just came across a website called Recent Natural Disasters, and it gives you all the reported disasters all over the world, 24 hours a day. I have a hard enough time avoiding my tendency to anthropomorphize nature, especially when it seems as though the planet…