The Bird that turned into a Human being: An instance of mental health stigmatization

Disclaimer! The reference news in this story is not intended to imply that witchcraft is a widespread belief or a valid explanation for mental health issues in Ghana. I use it as an example of how mental health has been stigmatized.

Background

On July 17th, 2023, I saw many news portals and my favorite YouTube channels carrying a story about a witch bird that turned into a human being. The story is about a man who has been sick for some time. One night when a prophetess came to pray for him, bystanders reported they saw two birds. Some reported that one of the two birds flew away and the other allegedly turned into a human being. However, after interviewing the prophetess, she explained that they only saw a woman. After praying for her, she started confessing that she was sent as a witch to kill the sick man. From these two accounts, we can clearly see the contradiction. However, like wildfire, hearsay spreads quickly and becomes very dangerous along the path with people removing and adding to the account. News portals also capture the sensational part of the story and start spreading it just for click baits.

I chose to write on this topic for two main reasons: how mental health issues have been stigmatized and how supernatural explanations are sometimes used to perpetuate abuse against certain vulnerable groups in certain parts of the Ghanaian community.

Identifying the Witch

Growing up as a young Christian, I heard stories about friends who were accused of witchcraft. There is also a popular community that has been branded as a witch camp in the northern part of Ghana. Recently, some people were reportedly jailed for beating an old woman who was accused of being a witch. Someone might ask, “But you are a Christian, is it that you don’t believe in the existence of witchcraft?” Well, my issue is not about the existence of witchcraft; my concern is about the rate at which the mechanism or instruments used to detect witchcraft are likely to classify women, the old, and the poor as witches. It is not strange to find that most of these individuals who are branded as witches have experienced one or more misfortunes in life, such as the loss of a spouse, a parent, or a loved one. However, because such individuals do not get the kind of support they need to help them cope with their grief, they begin to act weirdly and their behaviors are branded as witchcraft.

Helping the Vulnerable

Research clearly shows that social support is one of the key factors that predict resilience. How then do we expect the lives of these people to get any better when we continue to stigmatize and ostracize them? Also, psychological research has found an association between poverty and mental disorders. Considering the high association that has been found between poverty, mental disorders, and witchcraft branding, the logical treatment of witchcraft is not torture and maltreatment but rather economic empowerment and psychological help. I sometimes wonder about the fact that rich people in societies are less likely to be categorized as witches and their seemingly strange behaviors are branded as mental disorders. Is it not strange that there are these two disparities and differential treatment of these two groups of people? The rich are always able to afford quality health care and proper mental health evaluation because of their economic power.

Admonishment to the Media

I will admonish the news portals that they are agents of change and they should use their platforms to educate and inform people on things that bring growth and progress rather than engaging in sensationalism and click baits. They should engage in mass education on mental health and advocate for people to get help when needed, rather than helping propagate an idea that stigmatizes mental disorders and abuses the rights of individuals. If they continue like this, it stifles the progress Ghana is making on the front of mental health. This is because family members of individuals suffering from mental health will be afraid to seek help for fear of being branded as a witch which leads to further abuses.

Media houses should engage in mindful propagation to bring progress. They should use their platforms to raise awareness about mental health issues and encourage people to seek help when needed. They should also work towards reducing the stigma associated with mental disorders by providing accurate information about these conditions and highlighting the importance of seeking treatment.