Journeying into the experiences of persons accused of witchcraft: rethinking development theory and practice.

Regarding controversies and debates around 'witch camps' and whether or not they should be abolished, there are several issues that directly speak to the gaps in development scholarship, policy and practice. These gaps manifest in how individuals experience and understand their circumstances and how development interventions are designed, planned, and executed. In this article, I explore how individuals accused of witchcraft speak about themselves and their circumstances from three levels: rumour/gossip, accusation/confrontation, and eviction/banishment. I assert that there is discord between the perceived over-concentration of development interventions in the communities that offer refuge after displacement compared to other levels. Though intervening in such communities is essential, I argue that the broader debates are fixated on the existence (or lack thereof) of witchcraft. This leads to conversations that centre around whether such communities should be closed, and individuals accused of witchcraft allowed to return home. In these debates, the experiences of persons accused of witchcraft are footnotes in the argument. Although the study of witchcraft beliefs and practices is significant and has generated an impressive body of theories and debates, the issue of development intervention is relatively unexplored at the three levels mentioned above. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the Gnani community of northern Ghana, this paper highlights the implications of the problematic development constructs and subjectivities that are framed around the closure of receiving communities, eliding a more nuanced understanding of individual persons' concerns and desires at each of the three levels. There is a need for development to be more responsive to how individuals express themselves and understand their circumstances before support or intervention can be leveraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]