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Opinions of Tuesday, 28 May 2013

Columnist: Bampoe, Emmanuel

Older people are wrongly accused of witchcraft

Older people may look different: their skin texture may be wrinkled, they may burn double, they may not be able to walk. They may not be able to see well like us. All their teeth may be gone, they may not look as smart as us and this is because, nature has it that, the older one becomes, the more weak one becomes. They have lived longer and have a lot of experience and therefore can tell what may happen in the future based on their experience.

If a child is using a knife, they may warn the one to stop using it but if the child refuses to stop, the child may hurt oneself with the knife.

Anytime any of the children begins to steal, grandparents will warn the one since it will not help the child. The older person will continue to talk about it till the child stops stealing because the older person knows what the stealing can bring to the child and the child’s family.

In fact, older people wish young ones well and not bad.

It is unfortunate that people accuse older people of being witches and wizards forgetting of the fact that one day, they will also become older people. People harm these older people in many ways and accuse them of witchcraft. People beat some of them with sticks. Sometimes people do not give them any food to eat and as they are too old to work, some of them die of hunger.

Sometimes too, people drive some of them away from the house as they accuse them wrongly of witchcraft. Some of these older people who are accused of witchcraft are avoided by the society. Nobody in the society wants to get closer to them. When they send children, they do not go. You can imagine what they really go through. It is no fault of theirs, but as the year advances, people become old. We must therefore respect what nature has for us.

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