Witch Trials in Liberia
Written by NIAO development assoc, USA
Sunday, 20 January 2008
200px-liberia_grandgedehWitchcraft Court Opened in Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County, Republic of Liberia
According to information recently received from some outstanding Krahn citizens in Zwedru, Honorable Chris Bailey, Superintendent of Grand Gedeh County, has opened a witchcraft Court to combat recurring illnesses and other chronic diseases instead of modern medicine. He appointed former AFL General, now the Inspector of Grand Gedeh County, as a Witchcraft Court Judge.
Whether this particular court was created by legislative enactment or by an executive order of the President of Liberia for Grand Gedeh County is unclear. We, the citizens from Niao Clan, Tchien District, Grand Gedeh County, residing in the Americas, are earnestly requesting the Honorable Minister of Internal Affairs, Republic of Liberia to look into the legitimacy of this Witchcraft Court opened by the Superintendent of Grand Gedeh County and presided over by former AFL General Joseph Jarlee
According to sources from Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County, the Witchcraft Court Judge, General Joseph Jarlee, recruited a female pastor, one “Mother” Nancy Phillips that he sends to Niao Clan to search for witchcrafts, using the children to accuse their parents. When she goes to Niao Clan and meets a child with a fever, she will pretend that she is there to pray for the child. After her brief “prayer”, she will take the child with the fever and coax him/her to accuse his/her parent(s) as responsible through witchcraft for the child’s illness.
Mother Phillips will then return to Zwedru and report to Judge Jarlee on her mission. Judge Jarlee, upon this report, will send police officers to arrest the child’s parent or parents, undress them, torture them and under this duress extract a confession from them. Once they “confess”, he will then impose a fine on them: a goat or sheep and five hundred dollars for court cost. Whether these goats, sheep and cash fines go into Liberian Government Treasury or not is another matter. One of our concerns is whether by so doing, the child is cured of the fever. Or is this designed to humiliate and smear the good names and reputations of the Niao citizens?
One of the Niao citizens accused of witchcraft, undressed, tortured before his children, mother, wife, sisters, in-laws and other relatives, and sent to Zwedru before the witchcraft court Judge Joseph Jarlee, died a few days after returning home to Naio due to the humiliation & social degradation he suffered. The sickening part of this whole thing, Hon. Minister, is that at times, this Mother Phillips will go to Niao, organize a group of young children, and in the middle of the night, instruct them to stone the house of anybody she considers engaged in witchcraft while the family is asleep.
For example, a year or so ago, the late Zah Moses Kpie of Pola Town was perceived by Mother Phillips as a man who engages in witchcraft. While he and his family were asleep, a group of children and young men stoned his house and damaged some of his properties. When Mr. Kpie lodged complaint to the self-appointed Paramount Chief, Mr. Zehyee Moses Dehyee, he sided with the defendants and fined Zah Moses Kpie the sum of $500.00, a goat and a sheep. The late Zah Moses Kpie realizing that there was no way out because Witchcraft Judge Joseph Jarlee will do the same, paid the fines, returned to his hometown and hanged himself. In another incident one month after the suicide of Mr. Kpie, when one Ms Mary Dehyee’s child died, she was accused of killing her own child in witchcraft. She was treated in similar manner as Mr. Kpie and she also hanged herself. She was a sister of the self appointed Paramount Chief, Zehyee Moses Dehyee. We wonder whether the “Chief” Zehyee Moses Dehyee reported these incidents to the Superintendent of Grand Gedeh County, to you the Internal Affairs Minister, and on to the President of Liberia.
In October 2007, a child assuming that his flu was caused by witchcraft reported this to Mother Phillips when she visited the same Pola Town in Niao Clan. His father was arrested, undressed and tortured based on accusation of witchcraft by Mother Phillips. Seemingly for fear that he was going to die from the ill-treatment, he also accused others, including women. All the accused were also arrested, undressed, tortured and brought to Zwedru to the witchcraft court presided over by General Jarlee. These people were made to bring goats, sheep, and money for court cost and then made to sign surety notes that they will keep the child from illness of any kind including flu and malaria as long as the child will live.
When they brought this group of Niao citizens into Zwedru, we contacted Honorable Zoe Pennue who also represents the people in Niao Clan in the Liberian Legislature and he confirmed that there is a witchcraft court in Zwedru and Superintendent Christopher Bailey is aware of such court being in operation in the County.
In November 2007, one Joseph Gaye was accused by a Helena Gaye—no relation to Mr. Gaye but she is sister-in-law to Mother Phillips—of sprinkling a child’s blood around his house in Janzon, Naio in her vision.
Being a former General Clan Chief, Mr. Joseph Gaye challenged the female pastor, the legitimacy of the witchcraft court, the words of the children and Ms Helena Gaye’s vision. When the matter went before the Honorable Witchcraft Court Judge, he fined Mr. Joseph Gaye 1,000.00 Liberian dollars, stating that the female pastor is a Liberian Government appointee and Mr. Joseph Gaye should not call her a liar. Mr. Joseph Gaye paid the 1,000.00 Liberian dollars in protest and appealed to witchcraft court Judge Joseph Jarlee’s decision in a judicial court in Zwedru. Hon. Minister, we are aware that there exists a separation of the church and the state in Liberia. Superintendent Bailey did understand this, therefore, he employed mother Nancy Phillips in his county government to arrest torture and undress Krahn citizens in Grand Gedeh County Liberia.
Hon. Minister, because of the medieval ways in which Superintendent Christopher Bailey of Grand Gedeh County and his County Inspector/Witchcraft Court Judge Joseph Jarlee are dealing with the recurring illnesses and other diseases in Niao Clan, people may seemingly be dying every month that could have lived if taken to the hospital. According to our inquiries about other areas in Grand Gedeh County, we gathered that this situation does not exist only in Naio alone. There are allegations that in the Goway (Gorbo) area, two persons were made to drink “sassawood” for being accused of witchcraft and they died from drinking this liquid made from a tree bark. In the Gbahzon area, it was alleged that eleven persons were accused by one Boway of witchcraft. He tortured them and forced them to drink “sassawood” laced with Lysol. All eleven died according to the allegations. In the Tchien area, a man was accused of witchcraft and beaten in his hometown. As a result, he moved from his town to live in another town.
Please let us clarify why we titled Zehyee Moses Dehyee as a self-appointed Paramount Chief. Zehyee Moses Dehyee was appointed by his peers in Niao Clan as a General Town Chief during the late President Samuel K. Doe’s Administration. When civil war erupted on December 24, 1989, everybody in Niao Clan went to the Republic of the Ivory Coast for safety. To date, there has not been any election to make Mr. Dehyee paramount chief which he wasn’t before the war. And to our best knowledge, there has not been any official action by Government to say that Mr. Dehyee can hold the position pending elections. When President Doe died, we believed that conventionally everyone who worked in the Doe Government, including the chiefs, positions have gone with him and that new leafs should be turned.
Hon. Minister, when most of those who were elected during President Doe’s Administration returned home, they were busy trying to put together what was left for them and waiting to see if there will be new elections for the chiefs or a letter will come from the President of Liberia to re-confirm them as chiefs.
On his part, Mr. Zehyee Moses Dehyee did not see it that way. When he returned from exile, he named himself, General Town Chief, General Clan and now General Paramount Chief after the death of Isaac Diahn who was the Paramount Chief. Since President Doe’s death, we have not heard of any chieftaincy elections being held in Liberia.
With humility and supplication, we the citizens from the Niao Clan, Tchien District, Grand Gedeh County, are appealing to you to use your good offices to properly address this ugly situation now existing in Grand Gedeh County. The people in Niao Clan may seemingly be dying every week because recurring illnesses and other maladies are not being dealt with through modern medicine, but rather through witchcraft hunt in a witchcraft court
Very respectfully yours,
Signed:
Charles G. Breeze, Jr. SECRETARY, BOARD OF DIRECTORS
NIAO DEVELOPMENT ASSOC., USA
Approved by:
Harold G. Tarr
CHAIRMAN, BOARD OF DIRECTORS
NIAO DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION, U.S.A.
5151 Doral Avenue
Whitehall, OH 43213
Copies submitted to:
Hon. Abbular A. Johnson - Minister of Internal Affairs, Republic of Liberia.
The Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, Republic of Liberia.
