Shrine managers at the Gnani Witch Camp in the Yendi Municipality of the Northern Region say there has been an upsurge in the number of men banish in some communities accused of being wizards. 

The men are chased to the Camp thereby increasing the number of male population at the camp.

This new phenomenon is in sharp contrast to the common phenomen in the area where women are mostly branded as witches in the society.

Women have mostly been shamed and often lynched or ostracized on suspicion that they are witches.

Traditional leaders in Yendi revealed this to Joy News on the sidelines of a health screening exercise organized by the Ghana West Africa Missions of the Church of Christ in collaboration with the Harden University from the U.S.

The Gnani Witch Camp has become a safe home for many men and women accused of witchcraft.

It currently holds a total population of 1,028 people comprising of 105 men, 313 women and 610 children who have been chased out of their various communities on accusations of witchcraft. 

Along with their wives and children, men who are also accused of wizardry are driven away from their communities to the Gnani camp to be exorcised.

One of such male inmates at the camp is Umimyuun Payaab a 40-year-old father married with six children.

He found his way into the camp 11 years ago after he was accused by members of his community for being responsible for the death of his neighbor who was bitten by a snake.

Payaab completed the Evangelical Presbyterian Senior and Technical High School, with high hopes of becoming the head of a company, however, he told Joy News that dream shattered after he was accused of being a wizard.

The Linguist of the Chief Priest of the Gnani witches camp, Alhassan Seini, told Joy News, the situation is troubling.

“Most of these men who are brought in after going through the rituals to set them free from the witchcraft at the camp, do not go back to their communities for fear of stigmatization and we have to accommodate them here,” he explained.

He further revealed that some of the inmates come to the camps with symptoms of hypertension, high blood pressure and severe eye problems.