Witches in Nigeria.
Witches,Wizards&Enemies,The arrows and daggers of Nigerian beliefs.I saw the note below on the page of a friend on facebook..it was posted possibly by a facebook friend of his.When i read it,it was so close to home that it felt like a member of my family wrote it..as i had heard many of the things he wrote about many times..word for word..Some of you might find this close to home as well..in fact i am most certain most of you will....read on....
"My father was a product of his environment, a typical Nigerian. He believed in witches and wizards. He believed his enemies--which I refused to inherit--were always behind his ailments, his misfortunes. He believed one of my mother's relatives was a witch and that she killed my mother. When I tried to tell him that my doctor friend tested and confirmed that my mother died of breast cancer, he said, "won ta lofa ni." "She was shot with spiritual arrow." My youngest brother that died of asthma was killed by my father's enemy, he insisted. Before he died in 2012, at a ripe age of 85, he was still adamant that his ailments were the handiwork of his enemies. "But baba mi, why do all these enemies do all these to you and then leave me untouched, knowing that I was your first born, the person you lean on for assistance? " I asked. My father replied that the enemies' machinations did not work on me because I did not believe. Ah! Seemed like we had a solution. "Baba mi, if what you are saying is true, then stop believing so this thing will not work on you too." Instead of seeing the logical conclusion to his utterance, he simply said that I did not understand.
He finally died, not from the machinations of "witches, wizards, enemies, but from prostate cancer, from old age. Just as I did not inherit his enemies, I also did not "inherit his believe in witches and wizards. As a modern man who has a modern mind, I know that I can use my thinking, my behaviour, to guide the course of my life."