by Max Siollun
Juju , native medicine, black magic….call it whatever you want, but do you believe in it?

In a country as deeply religious as Nigeria, there is still great belief in non-Christian/Islamic supernatural forces. Nigerians seem to have a two-tier belief system. On the one hand they believe in God/Allah, and attend church/mosque. Yet they still believe in the power of non-Biblical or Koranic spirits to cause harm, misfortune, death or heal sickness; with the same conviction that they believe in God/Allah.

When Chief of Naval Staff Vice-Admiral Victor Ombu retired from the navy in 2004, he gave his peaked navy service cap to his successor Rear-Admiral Samuel Afolayan. Ombu noted in a newspaper interview that Afolayan “took it, tried it on. It fitted, and today that is what he is wearing…He didn’t bother that this Ijaw man could have put juju round the rim and he could start barking”. The willingness of the most senior navy officer at that time to comment publicly on his surprise that his successor took an item of apparel from him without fear of it being contaminated with Juju speaks volumes. Ombu made these comments publicly because he was dealing with a public that accepts the existence of Juju as a given fact not in debate. Even our beloved Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s world acclaimed novel Half of a Yellow Sun contains a love making passage that was instigated by the use of Juju which incited a married man to commit adultery.

The belief in Juju extends to all nooks and tentacles of life. Nigerians often turn to native doctors when certain ailments or illnesses defy Western medicine. In some Nigerian communities, it also seems that the term “coincidence” does not exist. Every misfortune, act of fate or surprise is often treated with suspicion, and regarded as the end result of evil supernatural activity by an enemy, or more frequently, by an aggrieved family member or in-law. How many of us have/or know someone who has blamed a family death, marriage break up, business failure, or illness, on the use of Juju by a jealous or evil person in their community or compound?

Can Juju Make You Bullet Proof?

In the past few year s, we have heard stories about women supposedly turning into cats, goats committing crimes, eggs being thrown at buildings then transforming into deadly bombs in flight, which set entire buildings ablaze, and genitalia being put to deadly use. Each of these transformations was attributed to Juju. It seems that even in battle, Nigerians require the intervention of the supernatural. The various armed militias that have operated in Nigeria over the past decade have all relied on supernatural cosmology. Members of the Oodua Peoples Congress, Bakassi Boys, Boko Haram, and Niger Delta militants carried amulets and charms supposed to make them bullet proof, impervious to pain, or invisible – to varying degrees of success. In the case of the Bakassi Boys, their charms not only gave them protection, but also allegedly allowed them to determine which of their suspects were or were not guilty of criminal conduct.

However what seems to have happened is that Nigerians hold the words of their holy book in their front pocket, and supernatural indigenous beliefs in their back pocket. It seems that traditional religion is the option of first recourse and Juju is kept in a box marked “please use in an emergency”.

Why is it that Nigerians are so quick to blame Juju for any negative intervention in life? I do not want to dismiss belief in Juju as a symptom of lack of education. The educated believe in such cosmology too. Remember the Okija shrine and body parts scandal? Many of those that are accused of using Juju are ironically the rich and powerful members of society. Many Nigerians suspect that the rich and powerful obtained, and maintain their privileged status with the assistance of ultra powerful Juju practitioners. The growth and popularity of “prosperity” churches, with prayer and sermons centred around economic success, should also be seen in this context. Many educated Nigerians (even those living abroad) partake in rituals involving the dead, ancestors’ spirits, and blocking the entrance of evil spirits into this world.

Juju and Politics

It is instructive that allegations of evil manipulations of Juju often arise in the context of regime change. New regimes in Nigeria often derive legitimacy by denouncing their predecessor. Who remembers the lurid stories about the alleged use of marabouts, and human body part rituals that followed Abacha’s death? Remember the Uba/Ngige scandal in Anambra state? The alleged video of Abia state Governor Theodore Orji at a shrine? These stories were accompanied by lurid tales about
the use of Juju.

Does Nigerian society’s reflexive tendency to explain events in the context of the supernatural provide metaphors and discourses about the public’s perception of corruption and the acquisition of power? Nigeria is a society where some people get very rich, very quickly. The super-fast accumulation of unexplained wealth from unaccounted, invisible sources, leads to the suspicion that it cannot have been obtained without supernatural intervention.

Juju and Religion

Other instances of Juju also pose more fundamental questions about the nature of Nigerian religion. Religion existed in Nigeria before the arrival of Islam and Christianity. However these Abrahamic religions reinforced, but did not replace the pre-existing indigenous African beliefs. Nigerians believed in evil spirits long before the advent of the Koran and Bible. However what seems to have happened is that Nigerians hold the words of their holy book in their front pocket, and supernatural indigenous beliefs in their back pocket. It seems that traditional religion is the option of first recourse and Juju is kept in a box marked “please use in an emergency”. Belief in evil spirits, Juju and magic seems to have been incorporated alongside traditional Monotheistic religion. The existence of these supernatural forces have been re-explained in Abrahamic religion; as being caused agents of the devil.

The “new” religions have not supplanted pre-existing Nigerian animist beliefs. Instead the apparent omnipresence of Juju in Nigerian society speaks volumes about the manner in which Nigerians have “customized” Islam and Christianity to conform to their pre-existing world view. Events in a Nigerian mosque or church service would be very unfamiliar to a Muslim or Christian living in Riyadh, London, or Rome.

As Nigeria’s middle class grows, and IF the spectacular wealth differential between rich and poor becomes smaller, it will be interesting to see whether belief in supernatural traditional forces will also diminish.

So I repeat my question….do you believe in Juju?

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija