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Social Exclusion Of Older Mossi Women Accused Of Witchcraft In Burkina Faso, West Africa, Clarisse Barbier

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Among the most marginalized populations in the world, one group of women has been persistently ignored, silenced, and forgotten. In Burkina Faso, West Africa, older women in rural villages are often the target of witchcraft accusations; the consequences of these accusations are alarming because these women undergo violent attacks, face exclusion from their villages, and become the most vulnerable and marginalized segment of the Burkinabe population. Between August 2017 and November 2018, I conducted an ethnographic study of Burkinabe women accused of witchcraft living in two shelters in the capital city of Ouagadougou and examined women’s experiences of accusation, trauma, …