In 1556, Mónica Fernandes, an Akan woman from present-day Ghana, was shipped to Lisbon to face the Portuguese Inquisition. Her crime was not sorcery, but seeking a medicine—a traditional ointment for a cat bite—from a local healer instead of the European apothecary. Inquisitors, however, branded her community’s customs as witchcraft, recording everyday practices like yam rituals and animal offerings as sinister spells. Despite months of pressure, influenced by a rumor that Mónica cast a spell on a fellow Akan woman, Mónica refused to confess. Instead, she insisted that her actions were driven by her need for medicine, not malice. Though convicted, she received a light sentence of religious re-education and was barred from returning home. Her case, buried for centuries, highlights how colonial powers suppressed Indigenous knowledge under the guise of heresy, turning cultural practices into crimes as a means of control and erasure.
The Conversation
