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Earlier this month Sita Kisanga was found guilty of abusing an eight-year-old girl in the so called "witch girl" trial. In an extraordinary interview with this programme she professed her innocence but admitted that she believed the girl was possessed by the evil spirit of Kindoki. Our reporter Angus Stickler describes how he got the story.
Sitting opposite Sita Kisanga in a hotel room in north London, I struggled to understand why she had agreed to give us an interview. As she sat before me, this large woman in her mid thirties cried as she clutched a half empty can of Lemon Fanta. It was hard to feel any sympathy. She was facing a lengthy prison sentence - accused of child cruelty and conspiring to murder an eight year old girl.
The child - who can't be named for legal reasons - had told the court how she had been tortured. Chilli pepper was rubbed in her eyes, she was hit with a shoe, whipped with a belt, cut with a knife, slapped and punched and starved. At one stage she'd been zipped up in a laundry bag ready to be thrown in a river. It was horrific abuse, and here was one of the people responsible.
It had been a lengthy and fraught process getting the interview. It was after a chance phone call to one of my contacts that I was offered a face-to-face meeting with one of the woman’s friends. The meeting took place in the back room of a community centre in east London. I made my pitch – and the date and time of an interview was agreed. But it was complicated. Sita Kisanga had been chased every day from the Old Bailey to her home in east London by the press. She feared for her safety and was in hiding, staying with friends. After driving 80 miles - zigzagging across north and east London – hopping from one address to another - we pulled over at a bus stop in Stamford Hill, Hackney. An hour later she finally climbed into the back of the car. Flanked by two of her friends we drove to a hotel in Islington.
For two hours I questioned her about the abuse meted out to this little girl - she was adamant that it was not her. She knew, she said, that it was wrong to hit a child in this country - it was against the law - and that's why she didn't do it. She blamed the girl’s aunt, who was new to the country and didn’t understand. There was no acknowledgement that it was wrong to hit a child because of the damage you may inflict. African children, I was told, are treated differently. I didn't understand - because I was from a different culture.
I must admit that I didn't and don't understand. In my view a child is a child - you don't beat them. But neither did I understand her assertion that this little girl was possessed. But Sita Kisanga looked at me in disbelief when I asked her to explain. Everybody from her community believed in Kindoki –– and, what is more,it was confirmed to her, she said, by a pastor.
During the trial the prosecution described this belief in possession as a possible smoke screen for the abuse. I don't believe it was. Since the death of Victoria Climbie the Today Programme has been investigating this issue. The belief in spirit possession and the melding of traditional African beliefs such as Voodoo or Fetishism with Christianity is widespread. We have been to West and Central Africa and witnessed rituals. We have been to the churches here in north and east London too. The power of these beliefs and the power of those religious leaders who espouse them cannot be overestimated. The congregations in these churches hang on the pastor’s every word. If they say a child is possessed - for them that is the word of God. The problem is that behind closed doors and acting out of fear,some parents and carers literally try and beat the devil out of the child.
Sita Kisanga still believes that the child is a witch. She says she feels betrayed and maintains her innocence. Apparently she didn't hear the beatings taking place in the adjoining room in her flat. On this point it appears that the jury didn’t believe her. On Friday the 3rd June she was found guilty of aiding and abetting child cruelty. She is now on remand awaiting sentencing. She said the reason why she gave me the interview was that it was the last chance she had to tell her side of the story. She was angry and confused. She truly did not understand what she had done wrong. And I believe her. While she may be guilty of horrific crimes against that little girl, she is arguably a victim herself, of a cultural void which the authorities here are only just starting to understand.
Listen Again to the interview
Angus
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