On September 4-5, 2009 the Association for Secular Humanism (ASH) organised a national conference on Humanism, Religion and Witchcraft in Malawi. It was held at the NCIC hall and attracted over 40 participants. The conference was preceded by a press conference on 3rd September. All the major media houses were in attendance including Television Malawi. The national conference was sponsored by IHEU, HAMU, CFI, BHA and the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR). Goodwill messages were received from the Atheist Alliance International and American Atheists.

Leo Igwe, the IHEU representative, in his keynote address, thanked Humanists for the work of promoting Humanism in Malawi. He was happy to note that the Association is now registered, has an Executive Director and its visibility has been raised in the country. He thanked Dr. Paul Munyenyembe, the Chairman of ASH for providing the required leadership. He assured the membership of support from IHEU, other Humanist friends and organisations worldwide. He called upon ASH to sustain this momentum to ensure that Humanism grows and awakens in the people of Malawi and Africa from their dogmatic, superstitious and supernatural slumber.

Leo was concerned with the witchcraft problem in Malawi. He stated that witchcraft is a primitive superstition, and it should be eradicated, though efforts to eradicate this belief and the problems it is causing in Malawi are being undermined by Christian fanatics who use the Bible to justify witchcraft accusation, labelling, persecution and killing. Most people in Malawi and Africa cannot draw a distinction between the reality of a belief and the reality of what is believed in. Witchcraft has no basis in reason, science or common sense, he said. He was firm that the time has come for Africa to do away with such primitive superstitions and asked Humanists to take this message of enlightenment and intellectual awakening to all parts of Malawi, particularly since that Malawians are considering reviewing the Witchcraft Act.

Dr. Munyenyembe thanked the donors for the financial support for the conference. He said that the event was taking place at the right time, as Malawi was awash with evils such as ritual and albino killings, harvesting of human body parts, witchcraft accusations of children, rampant religious superstitions and irrationality. He told participants that Humanism is not communism, religion, nor Satanism. He pointed out that Humanists are free from superstition, non religious, believers in science, and oppose superstition and supernatural beliefs; and among Humanists one is likely find atheists, free thinkers, rationalists, skeptics, secularists and agnostics. As Humanists, we are committed to building a liberal, democratic and scientific country, and promoting human rights including the fight against HIV/AIDS. Dr Munyenyembe briefed the members on the progress made to date by ASH, i.e. increased membership, acquisition of an office and having an Executive Director. He thanked all those present for attending the conference.

Dr Munyenyembe made a presentation at the conference on, “The Difference between Scientific and Supernatural ways of Knowing”. In his paper, he said that there are serious differences between these two methods in that science relies on observation, theory and experiment, it is precise in defining issues, and is rational, while the supernatural method is conservative, almost unchallenged and based on belief in gods, angels, and spirits, it is vaguely presented and evades tests and is subjective. Supernatural ideas are mainly based on revelations, intuition and speculations. He pointed out that the dangers of unjustified supernatural beliefs and dogma had resulted in loss of life in the Kenya bombings in 1998 and USA on September 11, 2001. In Malawi, supernatural beliefs have led to ritual killings and victimisation of children accused as witches. He concluded that reliance on supernatural beliefs leads to the prescription of wrong solutions to real problems.

Pastor Chakwera of International Christian Assembly thanked Humanists for being tolerant by inviting religious persons to the conference. He acknowledged how fear and superstition has derailed progress and how some religious beliefs have resulted in violence and other evils. Nonetheless, he disagreed with the assembled Humanists on the issue of abjuring supernatural beliefs in his paper titled “Anti-Supernatural Bias” in which he accused Humanists of being intolerant towards supernatural explanations.

Titus Munthali’s presentation on “Witchcraft in Malawi and the Way forward” tackled the origins and background of witchcraft. He then provided three horrific examples of witchcraft that have occurred recently. The first example involved five children of ages between two and eleven years in Mzimba District, who are alleged to have fallen from a magic plane claimed to have been under the control of Mr. Machilika. One child, nine year old Clementine Phiri, died. Mr. Kachilika is reported to have admitted to teaching these children witchcraft when quizzed by the police. People in the area went amok and torched the houses of the accused witch. A second case was from Blantyre District where witchdoctors were called from Mozambique to sort out a case of an unknown vampire that was terrorizing Ndirande township where residents were raped, had their faces mangled, found dead or chased at night. A third case was in Mulanje district where a woman is said to have given birth to a stone. The women claimed that her sister-in-law had bewitched her.

Mr. Munthali stated that witchcraft belief is a real problem in Malawi. He proposed for advocacy action to educate people that witchcraft is not real. He said that people should learn to know that belief does not confer reality on what is believed in. Therefore, the participants concluded that it was sad that people should continue to suffer because of witchcraft. They agreed to press the government to take stern action against witchcraft accusation and labelling, particularly on children. Participants also agreed that the Association should seek financial assistance to undertake an advocacy project against witchcraft.

C. Chifunda’s presentation dwelt on cultural and oppressive practices that keep women in bondage in Malawi while Mr. Magola’s paper tackled harmful and superstitious beliefs in the heath sector. Chifunda’s paper stated that some injustices against women have some basis in the scriptures where women are presumed to be inferior to men. Some of the oppressive practices were given, eg women take no prominent positions in the church, inheritance of widows, women being discouraged from using family planning methods. Mr. Magola’s presentation cited some harmful cultural practices such as mothers shunning hospitals because they believe that nurses kill children at delivery; men suffering from malaria because of the belief that treated mosquito nets interfere with reproduction; pregnant women being discouraged from eating eggs to avoid having their birth canals closed, pregnant women being discouraged from crossing a river before delivery etc. These two papers showed that beliefs have a detrimental effect on the promotion of gender equality and health. Members agreed that the Association should engage with other stakeholders to eliminate harmful religious and cultural beliefs in the society.

The paper by Ollen Mwalubunju “Religion, Nationalisation, and the Growth of Humanism in Malawi: Prospects and Challenges” showed that Christianity and Islam were introduced in the 1800s. These religions have grown to the extent that 90 percent of Malawians are either Protestants, Roman Catholics or Muslims. There is also a heavy presence of religious preachings and songs in private and public radio stations including TV. Many religions have also established their own radio stations. Despite this religiosity, Mr. Mwalubunju advised that there are a lot of opportunities for the growth of Humanism because of the dropout in church attendance in Britain where Christianity originated. The expansion of science and technology should encourage scientific thinking in the current belief system, and with economic development, superstitious beliefs will begin to be questioned and rational and critical thinking will take roots. He stated that there is already a national concern for the negative effects of some religious beliefs and superstitions that the Humanist movement can capitalise on. He pointed out that many challenges remain for the Humanist movement because Malawi is a heavily dominated religious society. The introduction of religious studies in schools, religious media campaigns and strong religious influence in decision making circles are some of the challenges. Some strategies were suggested for the promotion of Humanism, eg the need to design awareness programs based on common areas of concerns, holding of debates in colleges and secondary schools, starting Humanist ceremonies, identifying progressive NGOs and formulating joint programs and printing and distribution of awareness materials.

Mr. Koloko of Bunda College mentioned some challenges faced by the student Humanist associations. He said that the main problem is lack of follow up by continuing students once the devoted students leave college. The outgoing students leave a gap that is difficult to fill. He promised to resolve this problem.

There were also presentations by Humanist organisations from Nigeria and Tanzania with the aim of allowing Malawian Humanists to learn and draw lessons from the experiences of other Humanist groups. Finally, Leo took the participants through some exercises on critical thinking. They were asked to raise as many questions as possible on some common religious beliefs and witchcraft stories that appeared in the media. It was discovered that with critical thinking, most of the beliefs and stories were proved to be false.

This is a brief of the issues discussed at the National Conference on Humanism, Religion and Witchcraft in Malawi. The main report of the proceedings and an Action Plan arising from the deliberations are being finalised. The conference has led to the visibility of Humanism and recognition of the efforts that the Association is taking to promote it.

George Thindwa is Executive Director of the Association of Secular Humanism