(PART THREE) A DISCOURSE ON MYTHS AND BELIEFS FROM NIGERIA

Myths and beliefs from Nigeria is taking a look at certain supernatural manifestations that are a part of the myths and traditional beliefs of the Nigerian people. This is the second part in the series. You can read previous parts here;
Part 1
Part 2

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THE ONE THAT FLIES AT NIGHT CONTINUED.

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My experience with the witchcraft myth has been limited as I have never had a personal experience so commonly expressed by those who claim to have experienced it.

I will share with you story and again leave you to judge for yourself the truth of it.

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THE EXORCISM OF A BED

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Due to teenage exuberance, I had been moved from my previous secondary school to a boarding school ran by the state government. The school was located in a quiet farming community and the school was a vital part of the community.

_{Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.}

On resuming classes, in the school, I heard the muttering and stories about witches troubling students in the hostel. If you had gone to a boarding school, you will note that strange happenings are a popular part of school boarding house lore. Every school has their own peculiar haunted room, ghosts or sounds that make students scared to leave their beds at night. This school was no different, or so I thought.

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The school also had a vibrant scripture union unit with a president who preached as if he owned a pulpit and tithes reached him from all over the world. In fact, he was already being called pastor as at the time I resumed the school. He had a body of students who looked up to him and who set about redeeming the school from the hands of satan, so to speak.

Not too long after I entered the school, two brothers resumed the school. Both of them were given one two tier bunk bed to share in the same dormitory; the elder one was to sleep on the bottom bed while the younger one was to sleep on the top bed. To the surprise of the dormitory prefect, these two brothers never slept in their beds. When it was lights out, the two brothers would be found sleeping with their friends in their tiny bunk beds.

When the brothers were questioned, they claimed that their bunk beds were under spiritual attack. They claimed that since they came to the school, anytime they slept on their bed, they were squeezed and choked and basically disturbed by witches. This was the story I later heard when questions began to arise after the incident which I am about to share.

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WAEC had started and I was trying to read a text book on Christian Religious Studies, a subject whose classes I paid little or no attention to. On that afternoon, I decided to join two of my friends in their dormitory so we could read together . Their dormitory turned out to be the same as were the two brothers had their bunk beds. In fact my two friends had their bunk beds directly opposite the brothers’ haunted bunk beds.

_{Photo by Nicate Lee on Unsplash.}

I had not settled in to read for two minutes when the Scripture Union members who were boarding school students came in. They had bibles and they seemed to be prepared for something. I watched them curiously as they walked around the haunted bunk beds. They soon started praying and speaking in tongues. My friends and I looked at each other then we dropped our books and settled down to watch the mystery.

After the prayers, two of the members sat on the bed and started talking with us. They said they had come to drive the curse or demon or witch away from the bed and that they had faith. One of my friends simply said;

”Trouble dey sleep, yanga dey go wake am.”
-(Trouble is asleep, know-it-all wants to awaken it)

This my friend was not a christian but practiced a traditional African religion, thus he had a healthy respect for fetish stuff and for the supernatural. The boys mocked his fears and he went silent.

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The afternoon was hot with a solid wall of heat slowly draining the air from the surface of our skins. The heat made us drowsy and soon each of us started collapsing on our respective beds in sleep.

In my sleep, I had this feeling like someone was calling to me but I could not be sure; suddenly with a scream, one of the boys on the haunted bed jumped up and stared around widely, his breath coming in gasps.

He said he had not been able move any part of his body. He claimed that shadows had stood around him and had bent over him. He said as the shadows bent over him, he had felt a very heavy weight settle on him. He said it was so heavy he had not been able to breath. He explained that he had been calling my name but I had not heard a thing. Those who were awake around said he had called me only once but he claimed that he had called me several times.

The two Scripture Union members ran away from that bed and never came again to try any sort of exorcism.

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In that same school, the hostel prefect punished some junior students for misbehaving and one of them told him that he would see; a statement that connotes a plot of revenge. Two days later, he fell sick with boils all over his body. He was rushed home immediately.

_{Photo by Christian Newman on Unsplash. Edited using my Infinix Hot Lite Android phone.}

Some weeks later, another student who was close to the hostel prefect came to sleep in the hostel prefect’s bed. In the middle of the night, he jumped up from the bed screaming that he was being choked by someone. The hostel prefect’s bed was abandoned from that day until he returned back to school some months later.

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The weirdest part about the first story is that it occurred in the afternoon, a time not popularly noted for witchcraft activities. Also the preoccupation with certain beds. It is as if the beds were the cursed item and whoever slept on them faced the wrath of whoever or whatever had charmed it. Again, it is just speculations, right?

This story does not prove anything but it asks the questions, the first one asked. Is there a supernatural realm where both evil beings and good beings walk? Are there really witches and are they as evil as it is depicted in the stories above?

I do not have the answers. I just have experiences to share.

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TO BE CONTINUED

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We will move on to the next supernatural event when we meet again. Do share your opinions and thoughts on this topic. I would really love to hear from you.

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_{Hey folks, this is Oskilo's blog and he would love to read your suggestions on how to make this blog better serve you. He would like to know what you, his reader, think of the content so do not forget to leave a comment; you just might have something he needs.}

Peace,

©warpedpoetic.