When Extraordinary Belief Became State Power

Introduction

A second, closely related episode was Jammeh’s claim that he could cure HIV and AIDS through herbs and religious ritual. That programme turned an unsupported miracle claim into state policy, using official media and political authority to suppress doubt and expose patients to grave danger. Together, the two cases show how fear and extraordinary belief become especially destructive when backed by an authoritarian government.[nih.gov]pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.govThe Impact of the Presidential Alternative Treatment Program…by SL Bosha · 2019 · Cited by 4 — This paper argues that PATP and the…

Evidence for other Gambian episodes commonly described as “mass hysteria” — such as school fainting epidemics, satanic scares or UFO religions — is sparse in reliable published sources. The country’s strongest cases therefore concern state-amplified witchcraft accusations and medical miracle claims rather than classic mass psychogenic illness.

The 2008–09 witch hunts

The campaign began after Jammeh attributed the death of an aunt to witchcraft. According to the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission, or TRRC, he invited a group of witch hunters to his home area around Kanilai and Sintet in 2008. The operation spread during 2009 to villages including Jambur, Makumbaya, Essau and Barra, as well as to state institutions such as police and military premises.[Ministry of Justice Gambia]moj.gov.gmMinistry of Justice Gambia

The visiting diviners did not operate as independent healers. Armed soldiers, police officers, members of the ruling party’s informal “Green Boys and Girls” organisation and local officials accompanied them. Witnesses described drums, horns, mirrors and searches for objects presented as evidence of occult activity. Those selected were publicly named, placed in government vehicles and taken away. A cameraman reportedly recorded parts of the operation so that Jammeh could follow what was happening.[Ministry of Justice Gambia]moj.gov.gmMinistry of Justice Gambia

Victims were held for days and forced to drink or wash in bitter herbal mixtures said to remove witchcraft. The TRRC found that the concoctions caused hallucinations, unconsciousness, diarrhoea and serious short- and long-term illness. Some detainees were beaten, stripped or otherwise humiliated. Elderly people were targeted most frequently, although the commission also documented a pregnant woman, nursing mothers, children and a victim aged 16.[moj.gov.gm]moj.gov.gmMinistry of Justice GambiaMinistry of Justice Gambia

Amnesty International reported during the campaign that as many as 1,000 people had been taken from their communities. Its earliest public account confirmed two deaths and warned of kidney damage, while the later TRRC investigation, drawing on extensive witness testimony, attributed about 41 deaths to the operation and its consequences. The difference reflects the limits of reporting under dictatorship: the Amnesty figure was an estimate made while abuses were still unfolding, whereas the commission examined them publicly a decade later. Even the TRRC warned that its total might be incomplete because some families were afraid or ashamed to identify relatives who had been branded as witches.[Amnesty International]amnesty.orgAmnesty InternationalThe Gambia: Hundreds accused of “witchcraft” and…March 18, 2009 — 18 Mar 2009 — Amnesty International today revea…Published: March 18, 2009

How fear became a government weapon

Calling this episode “mass hysteria” would obscure more than it explains. It was not simply a crowd becoming irrational or a village rumour spreading spontaneously. It was an organised campaign in which supernatural accusations were converted into orders, arrests and physical coercion by the state. The central mechanism was not unconscious psychological contagion but authoritarian power.

Belief nevertheless mattered. The accusation of witchcraft already carried social meaning, and the rituals were designed to appear capable of revealing hidden guilt. Public identification, altered behaviour caused by poisonous substances and forced “confessions” could then be presented as confirmation. In this circular system, any reaction supported the accusation: illness or hallucination could be read as evidence that the potion had exposed occult power, while resistance could be treated as proof that the suspect had something to conceal. The TRRC concluded that the campaign brought an entrenched belief in witches into the open and intensified the discrimination attached to it.[Ministry of Justice Gambia]moj.gov.gmMinistry of Justice Gambia

Political fear strengthened the process. Security officers arrived armed; village leaders were expected to cooperate; and Jammeh had ruled The Gambia since the 1994 coup through institutions marked by arbitrary detention, torture and intimidation. People therefore had strong reasons to obey even when they doubted the accusations. The state’s involvement also gave the witch hunters an authority that an ordinary rumour or private divination would not have possessed.[United Nations]un.orgOpen source on un.org.

The campaign also appears to have served more worldly purposes. The TRRC found evidence that witchcraft allegations were used against personal enemies and in places regarded as politically disloyal. Jambur, for example, was described as opposition territory. When opposition figure and newspaper editor Halifa Sallah investigated the abuses, he was arrested, his recorder was destroyed and he was charged before the case was withdrawn. The supernatural purge therefore operated partly as political persecution disguised as spiritual cleansing.[Ministry of Justice Gambia]moj.gov.gmMinistry of Justice Gambia

This distinction is important. Belief in harmful magic was neither invented by Jammeh nor unique to The Gambia, but the violence did not flow automatically from popular culture. It required organisers, armed enforcement and a ruler willing to treat an unverifiable accusation as state evidence. Describing the affair as an eruption of “primitive superstition” would wrongly shift responsibility away from the officials who planned and enabled it.

The miracle cure that became state policy

Two years before the largest witch hunts, Jammeh announced that he could cure HIV and AIDS with a secret herbal preparation and spiritual treatment. He created the Presidential Alternative Treatment Programme, commonly shortened to PATP, and administered the treatment himself. State television repeatedly showed patients receiving it and broadcast testimonials suggesting that they had recovered.[The New Humanitarian]thenewhumanitarian.orggambia president’s aids cure raising more questions answersHIV-infected patients began receiving the treatment at the…Read more…

The claim had no credible clinical evidence behind it. HIV can be controlled with antiretroviral therapy, but no herbal or religious ritual has been shown to eliminate the virus. Accounts of the PATP state that participants were told to stop taking antiretroviral medicine, while Jammeh applied preparations to their bodies, gave them mixtures to drink and incorporated prayer into the procedure. A peer-reviewed study concluded that the programme violated patients’ rights and damaged the wider Gambian response to HIV.[nih.gov]pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.govThe Impact of the Presidential Alternative Treatment Program…by SL Bosha · 2019 · Cited by 4 — This paper argues that PATP and the…

This was more than one leader expressing an unusual personal belief. The president controlled the programme, senior health officials publicly supported it and government media supplied a stream of apparent success stories. That combination created a closed information environment: the claim appeared to carry medical, political and spiritual authority at once. People living with a stigmatised and potentially fatal illness were placed in an especially vulnerable position, because rejecting the supposed cure could also mean defying the head of state.

The dangers included interruption of effective treatment, false reassurance and pressure on participants to perform recovery in public. The TRRC later connected the programme with the deaths of 41 patients and recommended accountability for Jammeh and officials involved. Survivors have described continuing health problems and pursued legal action after his fall from power.[justiceinfo.net]justiceinfo.netOpen source on justiceinfo.net.

The PATP is best understood as a state-sponsored miracle cure rather than a spontaneous popular delusion. Some patients may have believed in it, others may have hoped it would work, and still others may have complied because refusal was unsafe. Public testimonials cannot therefore be treated as independent proof of widespread conviction. Under authoritarian conditions, apparent enthusiasm may combine belief, desperation, patronage and fear.

Why the two episodes reinforced each other

The witch hunts and the HIV programme shared a recognisable structure. In both, Jammeh claimed access to hidden knowledge unavailable to ordinary doctors, courts or investigators. In both, herbs and ritual were presented as tools that could reveal or remove an unseen threat. And in both, the consequences of treatment were interpreted through the ruler’s own explanation rather than tested by an independent institution.

They also used spectacle. Televised healing sessions, ceremonial searches, public accusation and forced bodily reactions made invisible forces seem visible. Spectacle matters in collective-belief episodes because people rarely judge extraordinary claims from evidence alone; they also watch how neighbours, officials and respected figures behave. When senior authorities act as though a claim is true, silence and imitation can be mistaken for agreement.

Yet these cases should not be reduced to the psychology of credulity. They depended on damaged institutions. The police did not protect those accused of witchcraft; officers transported and guarded them. Health authorities did not firmly separate evidence-based care from presidential claims; parts of the system lent the treatment official legitimacy. Journalists, activists and religious figures who challenged Jammeh faced intimidation or detention.[hrw.org]hrw.orggambia commission uncovers ex dictators alleged crimesHuman Rights WatchGambia: Commission Uncovers Ex-Dictator's Alleged Crimes4 Dec 2019 — The former Gambia police chief, Ensa Badjie, testi…

This is why the Gambian experience differs from a short-lived rumour panic. A rumour usually loses force when trusted institutions investigate it openly. Under Jammeh, institutions were compelled to repeat the ruler’s account. The state did not merely fail to contain fear; it manufactured credibility for it.

Survivors, stigma and the struggle for repair

The end of the witch-hunting operation did not end the accusation. Being publicly named as a witch damaged family relations, livelihoods and social standing. Survivors reported being avoided by neighbours, excluded from community life or unable to sell produce because customers associated them with witchcraft. Families also experienced bullying, rejection and lost educational opportunities.[OHCHR]ohchr.orgOpen source on ohchr.org.

These effects explain why counting only immediate deaths and injuries understates the harm. Witchcraft stigma can remain attached to a person long after officials withdraw the accusation. It may also pass to children and relatives. A 2025 study of the Gambian victims found continuing social isolation and mental-health effects at individual, family and community levels. Because the accusations had been delivered by the state, some survivors believed that only an equally public government declaration could fully restore their names.[Anglia Ruskin University]aru.ac.uknew research reveals scars of gambias witch huntsnew research reveals scars of gambias witch hunts

After Jammeh lost the 2016 election and left office in 2017, the TRRC collected testimony about abuses committed during his rule. Its witch-hunt hearings ran through 39 sittings and involved 43 witnesses, including survivors and people accused of participation. The commission held some sessions in affected communities rather than requiring every witness to travel to the capital.[Ministry of Justice Gambia]moj.gov.gmMinistry of Justice Gambia

The Gambian government subsequently accepted the commission’s core findings and its recommendation that Jammeh and several alleged organisers be prosecuted. Implementation, however, has been slower than many survivors hoped. Reparations, treatment and accountability remain urgent partly because survivors are ageing and some have died while waiting. A 2024 post-TRRC update recorded a civil-society warning that more than 23 witch-hunt victims from Jambur alone had died.[Moj]moj.gmGOVERNMENT WHITE PAPER ON THE REPORT OF THE…25 May 2022 — Former President Jammeh launched a nationwide witch hunt… The Commissi…Published: May 2022

Community work has produced more immediate forms of repair. WAVE-Gambia, founded during the transitional-justice period, has organised social-cohesion meetings, psychological support and livelihood assistance in affected areas. By 2025 its programmes were supporting about 150 survivors. Such work addresses a problem that criminal trials alone cannot solve: neighbours must learn to see those targeted not as dangerous occult figures but as people abused by the former state.[OHCHR]ohchr.orgOpen source on ohchr.org.

What the evidence does and does not show

The evidence for the witch hunts is unusually strong. It includes reporting produced while the campaign was under way, testimony from victims and participating officials, truth-commission hearings, government findings and later psychological research. These sources agree on the basic sequence: Jammeh initiated the operation, state agents supported it, hundreds were seized, coercive potions were administered and survivors suffered prolonged harm.[amnesty.org]amnesty.orgAmnesty InternationalThe Gambia: Hundreds accused of “witchcraft” and…March 18, 2009 — 18 Mar 2009 — Amnesty International today revea…Published: March 18, 2009

Some figures remain uncertain. “Up to 1,000” is an estimate of those taken, not a complete list. The TRRC’s figure of about 41 deaths is more developed than contemporary reporting, but the commission itself acknowledged that stigma and fear kept some families silent. Precise totals should therefore be treated as minimum findings or reasoned estimates rather than perfect counts.[Amnesty International]amnesty.orgAmnesty InternationalThe Gambia: Hundreds accused of “witchcraft” and…March 18, 2009 — 18 Mar 2009 — Amnesty International today revea…Published: March 18, 2009

The sources do not establish that Gambian society as a whole embraced Jammeh’s claims. Compliance under armed supervision cannot be equated with belief, and public silence under dictatorship cannot be read as consent. Nor does the record justify labelling Gambian religious or healing traditions collectively as cultic. The problem was the coercive use of selected beliefs by a political regime, not the mere existence of spiritual interpretations of illness or misfortune.

There is also no comparably well-supported Gambian record of a classic mass psychogenic illness outbreak in which a group developed symptoms through stress and social contagion after physical causes had been excluded. Such episodes are documented elsewhere in African schools, but importing those examples into The Gambia without local evidence would create a false national history.[PMC]pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.govOpen source on nih.gov.

Why the Gambian cases still matter

The Gambian experience demonstrates that collective fear does not need to begin with a crowd. It can move from the top down. A ruler’s private conviction becomes socially contagious when police enforce it, broadcasters repeat it, professionals are unable to challenge it and victims are compelled to act out the story being told about them.

It also shows why the language used to describe such events matters. “Mass hysteria” can sound as though everyone simply lost their reason. “Witch hunt” is accurate here in both its literal and political senses, but it must not become a colourful metaphor that hides the victims’ physical suffering. “Cult” is equally unhelpful unless used to describe a specific organisation with evidence about its structure. The most precise description is a state-sponsored campaign of witchcraft persecution accompanied by coercive cleansing rituals.

Jammeh’s HIV programme adds a further warning. Miracle-cure panics become particularly dangerous when hope is joined to authority. A patient may accept an extraordinary treatment not because of simple gullibility, but because proven care is difficult, illness is stigmatised, official media celebrates the supposed healer and refusing him carries political risk.

What remains culturally important is therefore not the strangeness of the rituals. It is the ease with which spectacle, fear and institutional obedience turned claims without evidence into instruments of government. The lasting test for post-Jammeh Gambia is whether public institutions can protect people from accusation, distinguish care from coercion and restore the dignity of those whom the state once ordered their neighbours to fear.

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Endnotes

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Additional References

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39. Source: youtube.com
Title: The Gambia: HIV patients recount herbal treatment under Jammeh
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Title: Yahya Jammeh: Gambian Dictator who claimed to cure HIV/AIDS
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41. Source: youtube.com
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