Seeking meaning: an anthropological and community-based approach to witchcraft accusations and their prevention in refugee situations

An excellent overview by Schnoebelen has shown that accusations of witchcraft have occurred in many situations of concern to UNHCR, for example amongst internally displaced in Northern Uganda and in refugee camps and settlements from South Africa through to Chad (2009). Accusations against children in refugee and IDP communities have also been a focus of particular attention in a recent report (Bussein et.al 2011). However detailed anthropological accounts of such accusations are still rare in the refugee studies literature, exceptions being the discussion by Harrell-Bond of ‘poisoning’ amongst Ugandan refugees in Sudan (1986) and a paper by Golooba-Mutebi (2004) on accusations amongst Mozambican refugees and their South African hosts.
See full report here