`They Say I Ate My Father. But I Didn't'

When relatives are unable or unwilling to cope with an additional mouth to feed, they may look for ways to get rid of the child, said Charlotte Wamu, a counselor at Solidarity Action for Distressed Children, which assists street children. In Africa, kicking out a family member, even a distant relative, is considered shameful, but allegations of witchcraft provide a convenient and hard-to-disprove justification.

"It's always the stepmother who finds witchcraft in the stepchild, not in her own," Wamu said. "The sorcerer is your dead brother's child, never yours."

Naomi, the only child of her father's second marriage, said his family never accepted her or her mother.

When Naomi's parents died in 2001, relatives took her from one prophet to another searching for a way to cast out her "evil spirits." Sometimes the exorcism consisted of a quick prayer, other times it was more involved.

One preacher locked Naomi in a room for three days without food or water, the girl recalled. "I wanted to try to sneak some water, but I thought that would only make my problems worse," she said.

She was probably right. Child-exorcism ceremonies can include brutal treatment, including beatings, burnings and the use of saltwater, orally and anally, to "purge" the children, the group Save the Children says.

One self-described prophet in Kinshasa, Pakoki Keni Emmanuel Suliman, began an interview with a robust prayer and ended it with a sales pitch for black-market diamonds, which he kept tucked inside his wallet.

From his Promised Temple church, which he runs from his home, Pakoki showed off one of his clients.

"Did you let the evil spirit back inside you?" the burly, bearded preacher bellowed at a quivering 9-year-old boy. "You must confess! Tell the truth! Then I will pray for you one more time." The boy dutifully confessed that since his last exorcism he had "killed" two people. His older brother has been treated several times as well.

Pakoki said he never accepted money, though relatives were required to buy white sheets, at $18 apiece, which were waved and draped around the children during the exorcism.

"I pray and they are cured," he said.

The forced confessions leave many children confused and guilt-ridden.

"They start to believe they've done something wrong or that they really are witches," said Evariste Kalumuna, head of the rescue center that took Naomi off the streets. He said that when he disciplined the children, they sometimes threatened him with their so-called powers.