Helen Ukpabio

Last updated

Helen Ukpabio
Born
Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria
Occupation Evangelical Christian pastor
SpouseDr. Elijah Ukpabio
Children3
Website libertyfoundationgospelministries.org

Helen Ukpabio is the founder and head of African Evangelical franchise Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries based in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria. [1] She is widely accused of causing large-scale harassment and violence against children accused of witchcraft.

Contents

Personal life

Ukpabio was born in the village of Mbente, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, and is married to Dr. Elijah Ukpabio. She has three children. [2]

Ukpabio claims to have been a teenage witch, "betrothed to Satan" before being "set free by the gospel." [3]

In 1992, Ukpabio founded Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries with the aim of spreading her often literal interpretations of the Bible to the people of West Africa. [4]

Views on demonic possession and witchcraft

Ukpabio and her organisation believe that Satan has the ability to manifest himself in the bodies of children by demonic possession and make them become his servants in the form of 'witches' or 'wizards'. [5] [6] [7] [3]

Exploiting superstitious beliefs, particularly those related to spiritual or demonic possession or witchcraft, [8] Helen Ukpabio's organisation has grown exponentially throughout Nigeria and West Africa since its foundation. There are now major Liberty Gospel Churches in Cameroon, Ghana and South Africa as well as Nigeria. Ukpabio has published her views in several books, which have also been heavily criticized. [9] An example is 'Unveiling The Mysteries of Witchcraft', in which she states that: [2]

If a child under the age of two screams in the night, cries and is always feverish with deteriorating health he or she is a servant of Satan.

She also produces, through her film production company, Liberty Films, part of the Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries franchise, a number of films to spread the view that children can become possessed by evil spirits. The most famous of these is End of the Wicked in which child actors are shown to eat human flesh and murder their parents. [10] [11] [12]

Her activities are not limited to Nigeria. Ukpabio announced she would preach in Limbe, Cameroon, to promote a program she calls "Freedom From Strong Family Darkness", October 18–22, 2017. [13]

She incites violence against imputed witches who are usually women, children and elderly persons. The people of Cameroon should resist Ukpabio. They should reject her 'gospel' of hate and division in families and communities. - Leo Igwe

Media coverage

In 2007 an Observer newspaper article claimed Ukpabio and other evangelical pastors were encouraging an upsurge in the numbers of children being accused of witchcraft and being abused and stigmatised by parents and communities as a result. [14]

In 2008, the TV news documentary Dispatches Saving Africa's Witch Children by UK broadcaster Channel 4 stated the views that she expresses have led to a massive upsurge in children stigmatised and abandoned by their families in West Africa, particularly in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. [15] Both reports followed the activities of two charities, CRARN and Stepping Stones Nigeria, now known as Safe Child Africa, which aimed to look after the children who have been rejected by their parents for displaying what they believed to be signs of witchcraft, [16] assertions which have also been made by the Associated Press. The Telegraph Thursday 14 April 2011. [17] The accusation and her defence against them have been reported in The New York Times . [18]

A 2009 conference in Nigeria that was critical of her organisation was violently disrupted by members of her organisation. [19]

Libel suit against her critics

In 2014, Ukpabio brought a libel case against the British Humanist Association (BHA) and Witchcraft and Human Rights Information Network (WHRIN) seeking damages of £500,000,000. Ukpabio claims that the BHA misrepresented her by saying that she ascribed certain behaviours in children to Satanic possession when she in fact attributed them to possession by 'witchcraft spirits'. The BHA described the case as libel tourism. [20] After sending a mob to disrupt a meeting led by humanist Leo Igwe in 2009, she filed a suit for $1.3 million against the government for allowing the police to protect Igwe's group. The suit was promptly dismissed. [7] [21] Ukpabio also used smears against other groups critical of her actions, notably the non-governmental organization Safe Child Africa. [7] She has been prevented by the Home Office from entering Great Britain by revoking her visa after calls from campaigners in 2014 that she be banned from Britain on child protection grounds. [1]

Related Research Articles

Witchcraft is the use of alleged supernatural powers of magic. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic or supernatural powers to inflict harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meaning. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, "Witchcraft thus defined exists more in the imagination", but it "has constituted for many cultures a viable explanation of evil in the world". The belief in witchcraft has been found throughout history in a great number of societies worldwide. Most of these societies have used protective magic or counter-magic against witchcraft, and have shunned, banished, imprisoned, physically punished or killed alleged witches. Anthropologists use the term "witchcraft" for similar beliefs about harmful occult practices in different cultures, and these societies often use the term when speaking in English.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Witch hunt</span> Search for witchcraft or subversive activity

A witch hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. Practicing evil spells or incantations was proscribed and punishable in early human civilizations in the Middle East. In medieval Europe, witch-hunts often arose in connection to charges of heresy from Christianity. An intensive period of witch-hunts occurring in Early Modern Europe and to a smaller extent Colonial America, took place from about 1450 to 1750, spanning the upheavals of the Counter Reformation and the Thirty Years' War, resulting in an estimated 35,000 to 60,000 executions. The last executions of people convicted as witches in Europe took place in the 18th century. In other regions, like Africa and Asia, contemporary witch-hunts have been reported from sub-Saharan Africa and Papua New Guinea, and official legislation against witchcraft is still found in Saudi Arabia, Cameroon and South Africa today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martha Corey</span> American woman accused of witchcraft

Martha Corey was accused and convicted of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials, on September 9, 1692, and was hanged on September 22, 1692. Her second husband, Giles Corey, was also accused and killed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebecca Nurse</span> Convicted witch in Salem, Massachusetts (1621–1692)

Rebecca Nurse was a woman who was accused of witchcraft and executed by hanging in New England during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. She was fully exonerated fewer than twenty years later.

Mary Towne Eastey was a defendant in the Salem witch trials in colonial Massachusetts. She was executed by hanging in Salem in 1692.

Children have been accused of witchcraft, both historically and in contemporary times, in societies that harbor beliefs about the existence of witches and black magic. These accusations have led to punishment, imprisonment, torture, and execution of children.

Saving Africa's Witch Children is a documentary directed by Mags Gavan and Joost van der Valk. It features Gary Foxcroft and his organisation Stepping Stones Nigeria who campaign against the branding of children as witches in Nigeria, primarily by the evangelical "Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries", headed by Helen Ukpabio.

Witchcraft accusations against children in Africa have received increasing international attention in the first decade of the 21st century.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, "the practice of ritual killing and human sacrifice" continues to take place despite the illegality as described by the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and other human rights instruments. In the 21st century, Nigeria, Uganda, Swaziland, Liberia, Tanzania, Namibia, Zimbabwe, as well as Mozambique, and Mali, have practices documented in the report.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leo Igwe</span> Nigerian human rights activist (born 1970)

Leo Igwe is a Nigerian human rights advocate and humanist. Igwe is a former Western and Southern African representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, and has specialized in campaigning against and documenting the impacts of child witchcraft accusations. He holds a Ph.D. from the Bayreuth International School of African Studies at the University of Bayreuth in Germany, having earned a graduate degree in philosophy from the University of Calabar, in Nigeria. Igwe's human rights advocacy has brought him into conflict with high-profile witchcraft believers, such as Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries, because of his criticism of what he describes as their role in the violence and child abandonment that sometimes result from accusations of witchcraft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Witch camp</span> Segregated settlements in Ghana

Witch camps are settlements where women in Ghana who have been accused of being witches can flee for safety. Women in such camps have been accused of witchcraft for various reasons, including mental illness. Some camps are thought to have been created in the early 20th century. The Ghanaian government has enacted measures to eliminate such camps.

Kindoki is thought by its believers to be a kind of witchcraft or possession by evil spirits. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo and among Congolese immigrants in Europe, this belief is responsible for acts of child abandonment and ritual abuse of adults and children who were thought to have fallen victim to kindoki.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irreligion in Nigeria</span>

Irreligion in Nigeria was measured at four percent of the population in 2012, with convinced atheists at one percent. As in many parts of Africa, there is a great amount of stigma attached to being an atheist in addition to institutionalized discrimination that leads to treatment as "second-class citizens."

Witch hunts are a contemporary phenomenon occurring globally, with notable occurrences in Sub-Saharan Africa, India, Nepal, and Papua New Guinea. Modern witch hunts surpass the body counts of early-modern witch-hunting. Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, and Nigeria, experiences a high prevalence of witch-hunting. In Cameroon, accusations have resurfaced in courts, often involving child-witchcraft scares. Gambia witnessed government-sponsored witch hunts, leading to abductions, forced confessions, and deaths.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mercy Chinwo</span> Nigerian gospel musician (born 1991)

Mercy Nnenda Chinwo professionally known as Mercy Chinwo but currently known as Mercy Chinwo-Blessed is a Nigerian Gospel Musician, singer, actress and songwriter. She was signed to EeZee Conceptz in 2017. In 2018, she released the single "Excess Love".

<i>End of the Wicked</i> 1999 Nigerian horror film

End Of The Wicked is a 1999 Nigerian horror film directed by Teco Benson and written by Helen Ukpabio. The film was blamed for a rise in witchcraft accusations against children in the 1990s and early 2000s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Association of Black Humanists</span> British non-religious support organisation

Association of Black Humanists is a British organisation based in London, England. It encourages humanists and atheists to meet up, socialise, share information and support other atheists as they "come out" to friends and family, particularly people in ethnic minorities and people of the African diaspora.

The Humanist Association of Ghana (HAG) is a humanist organization of atheists and agnostics living in Ghana who espouse humanism as a way of life, fight for the protection of human rights and promote critical thinking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katarina witch trials</span>

The Katarina witch trials took place in the Katarina Parish in the capital of Stockholm in Sweden in 1676. It was a part of the big witch hunt known as the Great noise, which took place in Sweden between the years 1668 and 1676, and it also illustrated the end of it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Witchcraft in Africa</span> Beliefs about witchcraft in Africa

In Africa, witchcraft refers to various beliefs and practices. These beliefs often play a significant role in shaping social dynamics and can influence how communities address challenges and seek spiritual assistance. Much of what "witchcraft" represents in Africa has been susceptible to misunderstandings and confusion, due to a tendency among western scholars to approach the subject through a comparative lens vis-a-vis European witchcraft. The definition of "witchcraft" can differ between Africans and Europeans which causes misunderstandings of African conjure practices among Europeans. For example, the Maka people of Cameroon believe in an occult force known as djambe, that dwells inside a person. It is often translated as "witchcraft" or "sorcery", but it has a broader meaning that encompasses supernatural harm, healing and shapeshifting; this highlights the problem of using European terms for African concepts.

References

  1. 1 2 "Nigerian witch-finder Helen Ukpabio threatens legal action against". The Independent. 1 September 2014. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  2. 1 2 "This Christian preacher should not have been allowed to bring her 'witch hunt' into this country | From the Observer | Observer.co.uk". theguardian.com. 13 April 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  3. 1 2 Kriel, Lomi (10 March 2012). "'Lady Apostle' or exploiter of children?". Chron.
  4. ↑ "Call to ban 'witch hunter' Helen Ukpabio who poses risk to children – UK Politics – UK – The Independent". London: independent.co.uk. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  5. ↑ Harrison, David (8 November 2008). "'Child-witches' of Nigeria seek refuge". The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group Limited. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  6. ↑ Mungai, Michael (12 March 2012). "Americans Should Protest Nigerian Witch-Hunter's Visit". Huffington Post. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  7. 1 2 3 Robbins, Martin (11 January 2011). "The dangerous fight for the 'child witches' of Nigeria". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  8. ↑ International Humanist and Ethical Union (23 November 2007). "Superstition and Witchcraft in Africa | International Humanist and Ethical Union". Iheu.org. Archived from the original on 16 April 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
  9. ↑ "Child Witch-Branding and the Rise of Pentecostalism Across Nigeria". 16 February 2019.
  10. ↑ "End of the Wicked (Video 1999)". IMDb.com. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
  11. ↑ Reidel, Felix (2012). "Children in African Witch-Hunts: An Introduction for Scientists and Social Workers" (PDF). www.whrin.org. Witchcraft and Human Rights Information Network. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  12. ↑ "How Nigeria's fear of child 'witchcraft' ruins young lives".
  13. ↑ Igwe, Leo (15 September 2017). "Ukpabio's Witch Hunting Mission Must Stop". News Ghana. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  14. ↑ Tracy McVeigh in Esit Eket (10 December 2007). "Children are targets of Nigerian witch hunt | World news | The Observer". London: Guardian. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
  15. ↑ "Homepage – Channel 4 News". Channel4.com. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
  16. ↑ [ dead link ]
  17. ↑ Harrison, David (8 November 2008). "'Child-witches' of Nigeria seek refuge". London: Telegraph. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
  18. ↑ Mark Oppenheimer (21 May 2010). "On a Visit to the U.S., a Nigerian Witch-Hunter Explains Herself". The New York Times . Retrieved 25 November 2012.(subscription required)
  19. ↑ "CFI Representative Assaulted by Christians at Children's Rights Conference". Center for Inquiry. 5 August 2009. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
  20. ↑ BHA. "Libel tourist and Nigerian 'witch hunter' (the self styled) 'Lady Apostle' Helen Ukpabio attempts to stifle critics by suing BHA for half a billion pounds" . Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  21. ↑ Igwe, Leo (13 December 2010). "Court rules against Helen Ukpabio and the Liberty Gospel Church". Butterfly and Wheels. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
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