superstitious belief - Its impact on women’s development (30/5/09)

Superstitious beliefs are prevalent among women than men because less women are educated, compared to men. Most of the superstitious beliefs in our society are in the form of old traditions which are transmitted from one generation to another.
The Wikipedia free encyclopaedia says the word “superstition” is often used pejoratively to refer to beliefs deemed irrational. It is also commonly applied to beliefs and practices surrounding luck, prophecy and spiritual beings, particularly the irrational belief that future events can be influenced or foretold by specific unrelated prior events.
Superstitious beliefs can be found in every culture and the Ghanaian culture is no exception. Many superstitious beliefs in our culture can be analysed from different angles.
First, some of these beliefs are associated with women. These beliefs show their old immature way of thinking. For example, they can guess the sex of baby by?????? a dead male snake.????????
Some superstitious beliefs which are related to bad or good luck can be found among adults in many cultures. (EXAMPLES????) know that there is no scientific justification for such beliefs, but some people still believe them and try hard to adapt their lifestyles to suit them.
Furthermore, children also have some superstitious beliefs. These beliefs also demonstrate their limited knowledge. They practise such beliefs without any family interference or correction. For instance, kids believe the red colour symbolises evil and hell whereas the green colour indicates the contrary. So, they choose the green-coloured items such as books and possessions
The issue of witchcraft and superstitious beliefs and their impact on African development was discussed at a one-day seminar in Accra as part of a campaign to disabuse the minds of the public on women and witchcraft as well as superstition. The seminar, which was organised by the Centre For Inquiry (CFI) Transitional, in partnership with the Ghana Chapter of Society for Women and AIDS in Africa (SWAA) was held on the theme “Witchcraft and Superstition: Impact on African Development”.
The President of the SWAA, Ghana, Mrs Bernice Heloo, said innocent, poor, illiterate and aged women had over the years been victims to false accusations of being witches, She stressed that there was the need to discard the ill-conceived notion that many women were witches since such perception undermined their ability to contribute meaningfully towards national development.
Mrs Heloo said the tagging of women as witches could lead to social exclusion, alienation and human rights abuses and that could psychologically undermine the capacity of women to empower themselves and contribute to national discourse and development.
She said because of the belief that women were witches, some of them had been tortured, neglected and in some extreme cases, murdered.
Mrs Heloo attributed the incidence of witchcraft accusations and superstition to the increasing number of spiritual churches which claim to be fighting against witchcraft.
She said SWAA was interested in the topic because a number of people who had been infected with the HIV virus attributed the cause to witchcraft and others also blamed women for bring the curse on them.
She said some of the ‘spiritual’ churches also keep HIV-positive persons for a long time with the excuse of praying for them and pointed out that some of the them were coerced by the pastors to announce in the media that they had been cured, while others became seriously ill and lost their lives.
She said in most cases, it was women who suffered most and, therefore, called on Ghanaians to help fight superstition through sustained educational programmes.
The Board Chairman of Amnesty International, Mr Vincent Adzahlie-Mensah, said witchcraft in Ghana was associated with stigmatisation and social violence, and argued that the phenomenon was the source of poverty, joblessness, sickness, sorrow and pain that many women went through.
He revealed that people who were accused of witchcraft were tortured and compelled to confess to avoid persistent torture.
Mr Adzahlie-Mensah said civil society organisations had a crucial role to play in reducing the menace by campaigning for the closure of camps for witches and protection of the aged.
The Chairman of CFI Transnational, Mr Leo Igwe, also stressed the need to fight against superstitious beliefs that had the tendency of undermining development, creating fear, hatred and confusion which oppressed women and undermined their ability to succeed.