The value of a head..
Another grisly head-trafficking story. The sooner the belief that human heads have some kind of intrinsic fetish value is challenged, the sooner the business model for these guys will evaporate. However, judging by the conversations I've had with Nigerian Christians and Muslims alike (no matter how professional, no matter how oyinbo-ised, no matter how evangelical etc.), it doesn't look like the belief in the power of the head is going away very quickly.
Perhaps this group needs to set up shop in Nigeria.
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9 comments:
Just wondering, what the value of your head will be in our market...:D
the "Value of a head". Surely you jest?!! No pun intended eh?Drinking with friends...moments of weakness... (DELETE, bien sur)
I like the fact that you touch on all aspects of living there no matter how sensitive, grizzly the subject matter (and expressing an opinion). I commend you for your honesty.
By the lack of responses, you can see you did not hit a popular topic, keep up the good work. Talking about a problem is a key step to remedying it.
@dapxin. Oyibo flesh has no value, potions made with "white meat" are duds.:D
I know I really should be condeming this action but I just could not resist^^.I always question who goes to these juju(wo)men.Where I grew up, the house of one woman ( can't remember who/what she worshipped, but there was the mural of a mermaid and a lion on her home as well as other things i cannot remember now) was always filled with flashy cars at night.I remember being in someone's car and after he had exchanged pleasantries with a sophisticated lady in a state of the car, he remarked later, "that lady buries whole cows" don't ask me how and what for, I will only speculate.
There is the story of a "mad man" that was caught in Warri with a number of cell phones and guns. When questioned he said he was not going to talk until the governor had been notified. He was taken to Asaba and that was the end of the matter, go figure. What ever happened to Clifford Orji(sp)?
Perhaps people are afraid to comment because no matter how educated/ westernised/ religious we are, deep down we Africans know that our ancestors knew something oyinbos did not? (I will hide behind anonymity in the hopes that the juju will be unable to identify and locate me.)
Superstitions are persistent things: Difficult to eradicate when established and often impervious to logic.
It's not an easy task to reason a man out of a position into which he did not reason himself in the first place.
"It's not an easy task to reason a man out of a position into which he did not reason himself in the first place..."
In that case, don't bother with education and enlightenment, the populace should remain backward, corrupted, disorganised, useless and divided. If one is not open to reason and education then all hope is lost. Let the dark ages rule forever. PHCN (NEPA), relax no need for electricity at all!
Never said the task was impossible. By all means make the effort. But realise that the changes resulting from education and "enlightenment" are usually generational (old people die and younger ones determine the new intellectual climate). Established superstitions may eventually be banished from a society but this is usually because a climate is created in which they fail to take root in the young.
And anyway, education does not tend to make the corrupt less so - it only makes them more efficient at their corruption.
Reason is not the only tool for Social Engineering, not the only Light with which to fight the Darkness. But try, by all means. Get on your horse and charge the windmills.
That was a better answer than your first response, thank you.
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