As I might or might not have mentioned before, growing up
as a kid I was more afraid of Nigerian movies or Nollywood movies as they are
now called than I was of your typical Hollywood horror flick. I was more afraid
of the witches, wizards, evil spirits, demons and witchdoctors (aka babalawo
aka dibia) that were common in that period of nollywood history than I was of
Freddy Kruger, Jason, Candyman or Chuckie (ok maybe Chuckie freaked young me a
little bit). Why is this you ask? To my younger mind the threat of witchcraft,
someone using native medicine to make you go mad, kidnapping you and using your
body parts for rituals was realer (more real?) than Freddy Kruger who I knew
was not real and seemed to only attack oyibo children (oyibo translates as
white but refers to ‘western’ people). I was safe in Nigeria from Freddy Kruger
I thought but was not safe from the Nigerian occult. Why did I think that?
Growing up and this is still true today, the Nigerian society has stories of
occult happenings floating around, stories perpetuated by people that never
witnessed the original event or the real reason behind the event.
I remember stories about children who collected sweets
from their nursery school teacher and the sweets turned into human fingers. How
did they know this? Well apparently one of the kids did not consume his sweets
when he was given and left it in his pocket. When his mother took his trousers
to go wash them she felt something in his pocket and lo and behold it was a
human finger.
This was one of those stories parents told their children back
then so they did not collect things from strangers. The weirdest part is that
some of these parents believed the BS (Cow Excrement) they were telling their
children. pauses to engage in hearty laughter. That;s the one I can remember
from when I was a kid.
I remember reading in a newspaper that Nigerian police
once arrested a goat for a crime. What was the crime? Did the goat eat grass
that wasn’t his? No, not at all. The goat apparently was a thief who transformed
into a goat to evade capture by the police while he was being chased. You would
think this would be in a tabloid newspaper or paper of low repute but no sir,
It was in one of the most widely read newspapers in Nigeria. I have read
stories of people being arrested for stealing peoples genitalias by use of
magic just by exchanging handshakes. All this are part of perpetuating the myth
of “Juju/Jazz.”
What is Jazz/Juju? Unfortunately in this context Jazz does
not refer to the genre of music that made men like Miles Davis, John Coltrane,
Herbie Hancock and Duke Ellington famous. Jazz or Juju as it referred to in
some circles has a different meaning.
Jazz/Juju is a form of Nigerian spiritualism often
referred to as voodoo in many other cultures that supposedly involves
communication with spirits, ancestors and traditional deities who grant
mystical wishes to those who entreat these spirits. Most of the time this
communication with spirits or ancient Nigerian deities occurs through the use
of a native doctor or witch doctor who is the intercessor between the devotee
and these spirits. This transaction often involves some form of sacrifice, be
it monetary or in kind. Sometimes animals, body parts and even human beings are
requested (This is according to popular belief). When said exchange is made the
person can gain whatever they requested for be it money, power, love or the
destruction of an enemy. Jazz is a newer term for the phenomenon. It used to be
called juju years back.
So you see based on this definition. A lot of people in
our society despite being Christian or Muslim believe that these spirits have
an effect on their lives. In fact in addition to a belief in their religion of
choice for the sake of belief or upbringing, many people see Christianity or
Islam as a means to protect them from the influences of evil spirits often
conjured by their “enemies” who have to be “godless” heathens. This leads to
especially in Christianity which I am more familiar with to battleground
Christianity.
Battleground Christianity is that type of Christianity
that sees the world as spiritual battleground where spirits of the devil are
fighting with the spirits of light for the human soul daily. These are the
people that are always casting out demons and evil spirits. These are the
people that are on the constant search for witches and wizards amongst them.
Those covert agents sent by the devil to infiltrate their household and use
jazz/juju to destroy them. It is the battleground Christian who if you were to
face facts fears the devil more than he fears God. Because honestly, if you
place so much emphasis on the devil and more than half of your prayers are
spent rebuking the devil rather than praising your God, my dear friend you
probably fear the devil more than you fear God. That’s just my opinion. Why
would anyone place God on what seems to be equal footing with the devil. Do you
not know that he created the heavens and the earth?
With this belief in juju/jazz comes the belief that a
woman can completely bewitch a man into falling in love with her. Maybe she
went to a witch doctor to tie down the man’s spirit and tether him to her. Kind
of like a spiritual bluetooth remote control. Maybe she went to a traditional
medicine practitioner who gave her a potion that he claimed will capture the
man of her dreams for her. The how is not important to the people who believe
in this and the plausibility of such things never occur to them. I recently
read a story on Linda Ikeji’s Blog about an actress who used a “love charm” to
tie her millionaire boyfriend and as a result he bought her lots of fancy
things until his pastors let him know what was going on spiritually (read it here).
Are you serious? He gave her all those things because of a love charm.
Maybe/perhaps the bedmatics were that lovely. I strongly believe that love
charms are a farce. A woman does not need spiritual help to completely have a
man under her control. There are natural ways this can be done and in most
cases, that is the case. Dear ladies who use jazz/juju to attract men, first of
all stop being so damn desperate. Second of all, learn the art of seduction.
Use google, it is your friend.
Another unfortunate product of the belief in jazz/juju is
the victimization of children as witches and wizards. Now before you start to
think, “oh these savages”. I will say this, the fact that things such as
jazz/juju are seen as devilish by Nigerians and I am guessing Africans is the
missionaries fault. You see when the ‘white man’ came to Africa he discouraged
the traditional religion and preached and propagated the message that it was of
the devil and as a result you will find that the people torturing these
children as witches are mostly Christians and have this mindset embedded in
them from birth. No one like to torture children but apparently some people do
it for the greater good. Go figure.
Now I can go on for days about
Jazz/Juju and how I think it is all a load of bollocks but then my fingers
would hurt from typing. I personally think this pre-occupation with juju/jazz
in our society is detrimental for many reasons. By believing people get rich
through juju/jazz many people are not taking responsibility for their own
wealth and well being, they are looking for a magic number to get rich quick.
By thinking love can be obtained by the wave of a calabash so to say, we are
hurting ourselves. By thinking we are in a constant state of spiritual warfare
and appointing ourselves as the physical instrument of God’s pain we are doing
ourselves and our children plenty of harm. Its also a shame that many of our
leaders keep witch doctors by their sides and consult them on their “enemies”.
This issues cuts across all areas of our society. I feel that as a people if we
put our minds to better things than believing fairy tale stories we would go
far as a nation. Let those who want to do jazz do their jazz. It is their
business. Great countries were made on hard work and defeating enemies in the
physical realm. We live in the physical jo!
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