WUNRN
HelpAge International
OLDER WOMEN -
VULNERABILITY TO VIOLENCE & ABUSE + WITCHCRAFT CLAIMS
Sukumuland in
The standing of older people in the community, largely
based on age and wisdom, is being eroded as urbanisation and migration have led
to the abuse and neglect of older people by their relatives. An increase in
violent attacks has left others fearful that they will be next.
Villages along the shores of
Complaints of abuse in both
The reasons for these killings are complex.
A belief in witchcraft and the use of traditional healers to vocalise
suspicions and vendettas seeps through the lifeblood of
Ancient beliefs misleading
The harm is in utilising a respected and ancient belief
system to justify irreligious violence and brutality for settling jealousies
and fear of the unknown. Witchcraft is a vague and loose term, defying exact
definition. All too often an accusation of witchcraft prevents the participants
from confronting the true nature of the social problems that face them.
Searching for herbs in the scrubland rather than making expensive and
exhausting journeys to clinics is seen as a telltale sign of witchcraft, as are
red eyes: in reality often the result of older women spending a lifetime
stirring maize porridge over smoky fires.
Older women particularly vulnerable
Older widows are often those most at risk. According to
CEDAW, discriminatory inheritance laws and customary practices against women in
both
Leonard Ndamguba from HelpAge International's Mwanza office explained that
unlike other crimes, violence against older women is not just tolerated but
accepted. The perpetrator of an attack is usually known and the feud is
personal. The killing of an older woman had taken place the night before we
arrived to meet Bugandando villagers. Leonard Ndamguba was sure it had been a
deliberate act of intimidation intended to crush the momentum of activists like
him.
Many older women are vulnerable targets with which to attribute blame for
unforeseen problems. They are also regarded with suspicion for having outlived
many of their own children - the so-called ghost generation of HIV and AIDS.
UNICEF estimates that 14% of all children in
Community paralegals offer a solution
The training of community-based paralegals in inheritance
and land law by HelpAge International in both
However, the paralegals receive only minimal expenses and cannot provide
answers to the endemic problems of poverty and neglect that lie behind the
violence.
In N'gwaswengele, near to the Williamson diamond mine in
As an alternative to isolation or dispossession of land,
a woman can compensate for her witchcraft by paying 12 cows. The problem is
that no woman has ever been known to own more than 10 cows.
Attitudes are changing
The number of killings has reduced in areas where work is
being done to prevent them but reporting allegations of witchcraft remains
highly controversial and often dangerous.
However, attitudes to the reporting of elder abuse by local and national
authorities are changing. This is partly due to efforts to implement change in
the perceptions of older women through awareness-raising, and practical
interventions such as the construction of secure housing and fuel-efficient
stoves.
If long-term change is to be possible, older people must become the agents of
change themselves; feeling able to voice their own stories and having a forum
in which to do so. Changing attitudes will take time.