Accused, shunned and exiled

"Bachalibanoya Anaberi settles onto a small plastic stool in the doorway of her mud-brick hut. Her bare feet shift against the dirt floor as she adjusts her position. Her clothes are worn with dust and time. At 85, she is the oldest resident of the Gambaga witch camp in Ghana's North East Region, and one of the first to have been banished to this community of exiles."

"I've lived in this camp for 45 years, says Anaberi. After her husband died, the children of his other wife accused her of witchcraft and blamed her for the family's misfortune. She had no children of her own, explains Reverend Gladys Lariba Mahama, a Presbyterian minister who has supported the women of Gambaga since 1997. Whenever a child of the co-wife fell sick, they [the family] attributed it to her."

Bachalibanoya Anaberi, 85, has lived in Gambaga for 45 years after co-wives' children accused her of causing sickness and death following her husband's death. Gambaga shelters around 80 women banished on similar accusations, clustered in mud huts with thatched roofs. The women share chores, cook together and care for one another's children, creating fragile pockets of mutual support. The camp provides protection from attacks at home but preserves the stigma of being branded a witch. Belief in witchcraft remains widespread across rural and urban Ghana, driving accusations that disproportionately affect vulnerable women, especially widows and childless women.

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