Lusaka, Zambia - ON the periphery of Kaleni hills in Mwinilunga district, North-Western Province, is a mission hospital and Kaleni High school. Adjacent to the school in a bush, is a nicely-built six bedroomed house which is secluded from the rest of the houses in the area.
The house was built for old women driven out of various villages by their relatives because they were suspected to be witches.
The missionaries who are running the hospital in Kaleni have taken it upon themselves to look after the old women who have been condemned by their relatives, because they do not believe the women were witches or simply because they do not believe in witchcraft at all.
Several women, known in the local language in Mwinilunga as Nyamuwezhi (senior ladies), have over the years been chased away from the villages after being accused of practising witchcraft.
The place accommodates even rejected women from as far as Angola.
The story of these women started way back as 1906 when missionary Walter Fischer rescued the first suspected witch called Nyamuwezhi who was condemned and chased away from one of the villages in the surrounding area.
The story has it that the woman sought refuge at Fischer's place and explained to him that she had been sent away from the village and there were plans to kill her because people suspected that she was a witch.
The missionary sympathised with the woman and decided to keep her. But there were more old women being chased away from the villages and it was for this reason that the mission had to take responsibility of looking after them.
A village for them was established then on top of Kaleni hill. Today the village, together with the school, have been moved down hill.
Kaleni mission station foreman (maintenance department) Muke Kasongu said cases of the old women being chased away from the villages were prevalent but as a mission which did not believe in witchcraft, it was found pertinent to keep the women who had nowhere else to go.
"We have a number of women who have been condemned by their relatives. When they are chased away from the villages, they come here for assistance and we have taken them," said Mr Kasongu.
He, however, said it was not automatic that whoever went to the mission claiming to have been chased away from the village was to be accepted. Interviews to prove they were condemned by their relatives before they could be accepted by the mission were held.
Mr Kasongu said although there were women who were accused of witchcraft and chased away from the villages, others were innocent victims who had no means of livelihood and decided to seek refuge at the mission.
"Some of these women come to the mission claiming that they had been accused of witchcraft. When we interview them some agree that they are witches only because they need to be kept here. Most of them do not have children to care for them," said Mr Musongu.
Currently, the mission has the capacity to keep 12 Nyamuwezhis and it has built a new six bedroomed house with two beds in each room to accommodate two people.
The house is modern and far much better than those village ramshackles the 'senior ladies' were chased away from. It has electricity supplied to it, there are flushing toilets and shower rooms.
The mission makes sure that the 'senior ladies' do not starve by providing them with food.
"We give them maize meal every week and they have their own cassava meal. We feed them and dress them. We give them relish like dry fish and vegetables and a half kilogramme of meat once a week and that's how these ladies survive," said Mr Musongu.
He said the old ladies also had their own fields but although they owned these fields and worked on their own, they could not produce enough because they were old and tired.
The mission takes full responsibility for the unfortunate women, who now seem to have nothing to do with their relatives.
"Even when they die, we do not report back to their relatives who condemned them. We just bury them and forget and no funerals are held," said Mr Musongu.
The question that lingers is: Are these condemned women surely witches?
According to Mr Musongu, the women were just like any other human beings and it was sad that the African belief in witchcraft was so serious.
"Spiritually, we are told not to believe in witchcraft. This is a belief from the people and there is no proof. These women could be innocent and just because they are too old and do not have children should not be a conclusion that they are witches," said Mr Musongu.
A Mwinilunga resident, Lawrence Sigedt, said it was unfair to label the women witches simply because they were old.
He said some relatives found it difficult to keep the old women because they could not afford to look after them and instead they accused them of being witches so that they were chased away from the villages to lessen their burden.
"These women are not witches but old people who have no relatives and are condemned. They need to be treated with compassion," said Mr Sigedt.
He was echoed by another resident Jackson Zhinguluka, who also appealed to the villagers to treat the senior ladies with love and care.
Some senior ladies spoken to said they were accused of being witches by their relatives and, for fear of being constantly harassed or being killed, they fled to seek refuge at the mission.
At the time this author visited the camp, there were nine surviving women as three of them had died. During the visit, I found one of the old women sick and bed-ridden.
One victim, commonly known as head woman of the house, Mandamu Kalombo Kavungu, who was chased from a village in neighbouring Angola, said when asked why she was at the camp that she had no one to look after her as all her relatives and other people in the village did not like her.
"I come from Angola. I was chased away from the village because I have been accused of being a witch. People always think old women without children are witches. I was always being harassed and I rann away before they killed me and it is for this reason that I am here," said Ms Kavungu.
Other senior women at the camp - Nyangia Kalombo, Mawamba Kawangu, Hangaika Samanenga, Shukuyuwa Kutemba, Kiyihungu Mufuka, Nyota Chingashi, Harriet Inchila and Nandona Ijila - all said they were not witches, it was just the hatred the people of the villages had for old women especially those who did not have children.
But are the old ladies happy with the way the mission is keeping them?
According to them, standards have gone down from what they used to be a long time ago when the former missionaries used to feed them well.
"We used to eat better before than now. They used to give us a lot of meat and other foods.
Now they don't even give us clothing and blankets. This time they give us meat, fish and eggs once a week," lamented the women.
The nine women appealed to the Government to assist them with the necessities of life like the mission is doing.
Indeed, the mission is doing a commendable job by looking after the old ladies who have been made victims of circumstances beyond their understanding.