Eunice Kimutai doesn't believe in witches. The trouble is, some in her community do.
A retired school teacher near Tanzania's western border, Kimutai now leads the charge in her village to have people tested for HIV. It's a daunting task, as the elders in her community have taken to telling people who fall ill with the disease that they are possessed by evil spirits.
"When you believe (in) witches, you don't go for a test," says the elderly grandmother. "People say you have to go to a witchdoctor instead of going to the hospital."
To counter their claims, Kimutai provides community members with pamphlets on AIDS and encourages those with symptoms of HIV to see a doctor, even though witchdoctors are much cheaper than hospitals and have become ingrained in local beliefs.
"When you tell them they have signs of HIV, they say 'no,'" Kimutai explains. "It is very difficult."
Her struggle is the kind that often makes headlines out of central and southern Africa. That's where a mixture of folklore and evangelical Christianity in some communities has spawned a fundamentalist belief in witchcraft and possession by evil spirits, one that's blurring the line between traditional medicine and extreme religion throughout the entire continent.
But assertions by the UN and others about the rampant presence of witchcraft in Africa are often sensationalized. That's because much of what the West calls witchcraft is actually just the use of local remedies, often plant-based formulas, made by traditional community healers - something residents have done for centuries.
While in North America the word "witchcraft" conjures up stereotypical images of broom-riding women with green faces, in Africa it often involves herbs and rituals that can actually be beneficial.
After the civil war in Sierra Leone, for example, many former child soldiers were welcomed back into their communities only after an elaborate cleansing ceremony that included fasting, repentance, and bathing in local rivers. This was an essential form of social acceptance and forgiveness for the children, whose role in the war initially left them outcast.
There are also some extreme cases where evil spirits are blamed for everything from HIV symptoms - like in Kimutai's village - to the death of a community member. These can lead to suspected victims of possession being banished from their community, or in some cases, calls for an exorcism.
Though despite the attention these incidences can attract, they are not the norm and certainly not a reflection of traditional healing on the continent, warns a Toronto-based professor and expert on African culture.
"There are particular groups in particular regions that practice exorcism," explains Pablo Idahosa, the director of York University's African Studies Program. "You can't generalize. It's like saying Canadians practice exorcism when it's actually just a community in Montreal."
Idahosa points to the rise of fundamentalist evangelical Christianity as a driving force behind these severe forms of witchcraft. He also says that impoverished locals sometimes have no choice but to visit witchdoctors, as hospitals are just too expensive for them.
"A lot of this has to do with poverty," he explains.
In these extreme cases, well-funded affordable education and health care programs would help dispel myths about evil spirits and deter the use of witchdoctors and exorcism. At the same time, they could empower community healers to join the fight against diseases like AIDS by creating localized approaches that combine traditional and modern medicine - exactly what Kimutai wants to see.
Not all African traditional beliefs are a threat. Local healers there have been enriching communities for generations and can play a very important role in both modern medicine and social cohesion. Understanding this can go a long way in better appreciating an often misunderstood continent.
