‘Witches in Exile’ Exhibition at Museum Fünf Kontinente: Advocacy or cultural exploitation?

In June 2024, Museum Fünf Kontinente, located at the heart of Munich, held an exhibition themed “Witches in Exile.” This exhibition dwelled on the photodocumentary of German-French artist Ann-Christine Woehrl and her African collaborator Senam Okudzeto. The duo visited Gushiegu and Gambaga townships in North East, and Northern regions, respectively, and other parts of Ghana between 2009 and 2013 for the said portraits of women alleged to be witches. The exhibition attracted approximately 12,000 visitors during its run and extended its original closing date due to public interest. This article analyses the cultural and ethical issues the exhibition raises and questions the motives behind it.

In some Ghanaian communities, the accusation of witchcraft is rooted in certain cultural beliefs and practices. The practice of witchcraft and sorcery is part of indigenous Ghanaian customary practices. Article 26(1) of the 1992 constitution provides that ‘Every person is entitled to enjoy, practice, profess, maintain, and promote any culture, language, tradition, or religion subject to the provisions of this Constitution.’ This clause implies that Ghana has cultural pluralism and does not suppress any indigenous culture. However, the constitution disapproves of any cultural practices that diminish people's dignity and dehumanise them. With regard to the practice of witchcraft, there are reports of people accused of witchcraft across Ghana who have experienced witchcraft-related violent attacks, stigmatisation, banishment, and in some cases threats to their lives (Actionaid International, 2012; Musah, 2013; Roxburgh, 2016; Badoe, n.d.). Some communities in northern Ghana have established safe havens for individuals accused of witchcraft. Scholars and actors have found that the witch camps are not ‘prisons’ but rather served as refuge for the alleged witches and wizards (Mutaru, 2018; Musah, 2013; Actionaid International, 2012).

Subsequently, there have been governmental efforts to legislate against the practice. Article 26(2) of the 1992 constitution of Ghana provides that ‘All customary practices which dehumanise or are injurious to the physical and mental well-being of a person are prohibited.’ In line with this constitutional provision, there is a bill in parliament under consideration. Apart from that, the Ghanaian society largely condemns instant justice and frequently calls on security agencies to bring culprits of violence against people on the basis of alleged witchcraft to book.

The Museum Fünf Kontinente disclosed on its website that showing the ‘Witches in Exile’ Exhibition was based on the political brisance of the topic in Ghana and the critical discourse in the country about witch hunts and the closure of the ‘witch camps’ (Museum Fünf Kontinente, 2024). On the contrary, the exhibition seems to have an ulterior motive of perpetuating the neocolonialist agenda of painting a grotesque image of Africa’s Ghana to prolong its imperialist and neocolonial domination. This has been the colonialists’ style of framing Africa to a global audience (Nkrumah, 1963). There are ethical contradictions that reveal the negative intent of the museum in showcasing this exhibition. Both the artists (Ann-Christine Woehrl and Senam Okudzeto) and the museum, in my view, flouted ethical standards and made the alleged women witches less dignified in the eyes of right-thinking people in the society. The way the exhibition was framed ran the risk of sustaining the very injustices it was claiming to eradicate. The photographs reduced complex socio-political crises, which have their roots in poverty, gender violence, and colonial legacies, to personal spectacles of suffering by isolating the women as symbols of "resilience." Instead of placing the structural factors that allowed their persecution in context, this strategy strengthened the stigma associated with being a "witch," enshrining their identities within a victim narrative. Under Ghanaian law, such an exhibition frowns upon the dignity of the women. It would not be tolerated, most especially for an educative institution such as a museum charged with the mandate of educating the people in a constructive way. Showing such an exhibition would be an affront to Ghanaian cultural standards.

Woehrl experienced trust with those women who participated, transitioning from "stranger to confidante"; nonetheless, there was a lack of proof of sustained consent for the worldwide museum exhibition. A question that begs for a response is: Were the women informed that their photographs taken under the guise of NGO work and support were going to be exhibited in a European museum? Since they are not illiterates, was it explained to them in the language they understand? Once the women's photographs were turned into art, they were curated by Europeans. This is similar to how colonial powers objectified marginalised bodies for Western viewers, depriving the women of control over their portrayal. Showing the women's photos in Munich, which is far from Ghana's legislative battlegrounds, turned their suffering into an exhibit that others could buy. The museum's focus on their "isolation" and "pride" ironically made them more likely to be accused of witchcraft.

The artists' claim to "give voice" conflicted with its power disparity, with a European photographer and a diaspora artist (Okudzeto) articulating African suffering for mostly White audiences. The museum's past as an ethnological institution that helped with colonial objectification made this situation even more awkward. Although the museum included West African perspectives, the primary location of the exhibition in Europe emphasised a Western viewpoint, transforming injustice into an artistic experience.

When you think about whether the photographers would put their families through the same thing, their humanitarian rhetoric does not hold up. It would be difficult to imagine showing a mother's anguish to people across the world without knowing that she would be able to go back to society or have influence over how she is seen. This contradiction highlights a more serious moral failure; the women have less freedom in the name of "awareness." The exhibition's legacy is yet unclear. Did it provide the women more authority, or did it make them feel like they were always exiles, stuck in Munich's galleries as symbols of "woe"?

Understanding the customary practices helps us understand the cultural and social contexts and the efforts of Ghana’s government to curb them through legislation. The practice of witchcraft and sorcery remains one of the cultural beliefs in Ghana. The phenomenon has attracted increased research interest in the quest to understand, reinterpret, and question the practice of keeping ‘witchcraft camps’ for alleged witches and wizards. Musah (2013) explored the experiences of the fifteen alleged witches, comprising thirteen women and two men resident in the Gnani witch’s camp in the northern sector of Ghana. The study revealed that the camp serves as a refuge for the alleged witches and wizards and not a ‘prison’ as perceived by the public. Their thoughts of the witch camp as a haven of refuge are owing to the fact that they face being stigmatised and attacked, which puts their lives in danger even after being exorcised and cleansed from alleged witchcraft as demanded by indigenous cleansing and ritual. For these reasons they remain in the camp instead of going back to their original communities.

Yaba Badoe (n.d., p. 95) shared the obstacles encountered in the documentary film The Witches of Gambaga. Badoe questioned the ulterior motive of some Western broadcasters and scholars in portraying issues of fighting alleged women’s witchcraft issues in Ghana, saying that though their Witches of Gambaga documentary was situated in the broader context of the women’s movement in Ghana and its ongoing campaigns to expose and stop all forms of violence against women, Western-based broadcasters had negative agendas and priorities. The obstacles included the complicated politics of representation in and beyond contemporary Ghana in the context of reproduced images that were given currency by ‘Western-based broadcasters, who operate according to their priorities and agendas, not those of African feminists experimenting with the media they have dominated for so long.’

"Witches in Exile" effectively illustrates the delicate balance between documentary art and ethical infringement. It by no means mobilised people to support Ghanaian women and for legislative purposes as it claims; rather, its techniques have made the dehumanisation it spoke out against worse. The photographers' insistence on "resilience" did not address the fundamental injustice of converting real individuals into artefacts for European consumption, so perpetuating their marginalisation under the pretence of solidarity. In addition, the bodies of the women with exploited in the name of exhibition for financial gains. As the pictures grace the museum, the women's consent, dignity, and healing remain in the shadows.

Published August 2025

References

• Actionaid International. (2012). Condemned without trial: Women and witchcraft in Ghana. Actionaid.
• Amuzuh, J. (2021). Report on alleged witches’ camp in Ghana – June 2021. The Sanneh Institute.
• Badoe, Y. (n.d). Representing Witches in contemporary Ghana: challenges and reflections on making the ‘Witches of Gambaga’. Feminist Africa, 16, 82-97.
• Mutaru, S. (2018). An anthropological study of ‘witch camps’ and human rights in Northern Ghana. In Green MC, Gunn TJ & Hill M (eds), Religion, Law and Security in Africa. Stellenbosch: Conf-RAP.
• Museum Fünf Kontinente (2024). Witches in Exile. Photographs Ann-Christine Woehrl.
• Installation Senam Okudzeto. https://www.museum-fuenf-kontinente.de/ausstellungen/r%C3%BCckblick-auf-unsere-sonderausstellungen/witches-in-exile-english/
• Musah, B. I. (2013). Life in a witch camp: Experience of residents in the Gnani witch camp in Ghana. (Mphil Dissertation). Universitas Bergensis.
• Pierre, S. (2018). Human rights violations and accusations of witchcraft in Ghana. 6(1). McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism.
• Roxburgh, S. (2016). Witchcraft and violence in Ghana: An assessment of contemporary mediation efforts. Cahiers d’Études africaines, LVI (4), 224, 891-914.