Your look. Some look resolutely into the camera, others questioningly, still others haven’t opened their eyes in the first place, which in turn appears despondent. The images convey sadness, emptiness, but sometimes also strength. And again and again the hands come into view, sometimes they lie quietly in your lap, sometimes they are resolutely folded. However, there is one thing that all recordings radiate: dignity.
Ann-Christine Woehrl portrays in her illustrated book “Witches in Exile” Women in northern Ghana who were separated from their families and driven from their villages on charges of witchcraft. In the poorest region of the actually stable and economically emerging country in West Africa, superstition and the persecution of witches are still widespread. Women are held responsible for every imaginable misfortune, often a bad dream, a storm, financial problems or the death of a loved one are enough. Events for which people seek a culprit and ways to overcome their fears.
Damu Dagon was taken to Gambaga village by her family. A man stole goats and was caught, blaming Dagon for it.
(Photo: Ann-Christine Woehrl / Kehrer Verlag)
They live together in specially founded villages, mostly older and widowed women, but also younger people with their children. Stories circulate about successful women who have been denounced, persecuted and tortured by relatives or competitors and sometimes have no other chance but to move to the remote ghettos.
The belief in witches is deeply rooted, and the West African country is considered a model democracy. In 2014 the government announced that it would close these so-called witch villages and reintegrate the women into their families, but this does not always succeed. Reason is one thing, fear is another. Ann-Christine Woehrl visited two of the villages, Gambaga and Gushiebu, and at some point simply hung a black cloth in front of a hut, she says on the phone now. Please take a seat. Looking at the camera.
The Franco-German photographer got the idea in 2005 through a small article in the French daily newspaper Le Monde about witch hunts in Ghana, a topic that fits well with her work. Ann-Christine Woehrl, born in 1975, studied photography in Paris, where she worked as an assistant for the photojournalists David Turnley and Reza and for the legendary Magnum agency. Being excluded has been a recurring motif in her photography for years. In 2014 she released Pictures of victims of acid and fire attacks from Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Uganda and Nepal, two years ago she documented the return of former Farc rebels to a normal life in Colombia.
With “Witches in Exile” she also dedicates herself to those excluded from society and completes a project that she had stopped in the meantime.
Many of the photos also show the hands of those portrayed, such as Habiba Abukari’s here.
(Photo: Ann-Christine Woehrl / Kehrer Verlag)
The colorful dresses of the women glow against the black background, nothing distracts from those portrayed. Woehrl always photographed the women in the evening when they returned from working in the fields, shortly before sunset, which makes the colors shine in a special way. It took a while, says Woehrl, for the women to trust her, but then the word would have got around and some even changed their clothes especially for the camera. She did not arrange the pose, expression and clothing, but left it to the women alone. The result is that the recordings are varied and interesting, despite the fact that they always have the same structure. Many of the women look worn out, the wrinkles deep, their eyes cloudy. In some faces, however, you think you can see a smile. And that’s exactly what it’s aiming for, says Woehrl. She wants to break the collective stigma that clings to the rejected women and give them back their identity.
Ann-Christine Woehrl: “Witches in Exile”, Kehrer-Verlag, Heidelberg 2021, 104 pages, 45 euros.