The 2001 Kinshasa child-witch accusations and street children

Record summary

During the 2000s, churches and families in Kinshasa were repeatedly associated with accusations that vulnerable children were witches, sometimes leading to abandonment or abuse. Anthropological and child-protection literature examines how deliverance pastors, economic hardship, family rupture, and urban religious competition shaped these accusations. The lead is valuable for comparing diagnostic prophecy with Pentecostal exorcism and older Central African witchcraft concepts. “Kinshasa child witches” denotes a recurring social phenomenon, not one single case, so researchers should identify particular reports and congregations.