This study examines the processes of hosting, social reintegration and family
reunification of children accused of witchcraft in two Catholic missionary institutions of
Angola: the Arnaldo Janssen Children's Shelter, in Luanda, and the Frei Giorgio Zullianelo
Shelter, in Mbanza Kongo, Zaire province. It is based in ethnographic work carried out in
these two Angolan cities during 2013 and explores the role of witchcraft - and in particular of
accusations directed at children - in the social reconfigurations that have marked, since 2003,
post-civil war Angolan society. The results indicate that the phenomenon of "child-witches"
as a social problem is linked closely to the public debate about the place of the Bakongo
ethnic group in Angolan society, and reveals that, far from being passive elements in this
process, children themselves can use these charges as a way to access resources and
opportunities that allow them to rise socially. These results seem to be in accord with other
studies that, in recent decades, identify deep changes in the status and roles of children and
youth in several post-Cold War crisis contexts in West Africa.