The Evil Forest: A Traditional Model Of Fighting Corruption In Africa

Growing up we used to hear stories about the evil forest and how it was a bad place to go to. In the Igbo tradition the evil forest is a significant factor when it comes to dealing with strange happenings in a community.

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In Many epic books written by Igbo authors that has to do with their locality they do not miss out on the appeal of including the significance of the evil forest in it. For instance, one of the greatest books to be written by an African author “Things Fall Apart” which was written by Chinua Achebe the evil forest was refereed to up to 22 times giving more importance to the Igbo culture in that book.
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The evil forest is one of the oldest traditional way of doing away with strange items in the Igbo tradition or rather African tradition in a whole. This is where most of the people with strange diseases are banished to or buried when they die.

In the olden days when someone commits an atrocity he or she is banished to the evil forest this kind of instill into people the fear that they would be consequences for their actions making them to adhere to the rules governing the community.

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In the traditions of the Itsekiri Kingdom in Warri Delta State Nigeria. The Igbele is the evil forest in the Itsekiri Town where the corpses of people who were witches when the were alive are dumped for vultures to devour. When a person dies there is a consultation with the oracle of the land Ife this is known as bife after this consultation the oracles reveals whether the person died a natural death, was a witch or killed by someone else. If the person died naturally and is not a witch or wizard the corpse is given a proper burial else if the person is a witch or wizard the corpse is thrown into Igbele forest across the river. This naturally brings disgrace and resentment for the family of the deceased.

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Today corruption has eaten into the root of our being because we have abandoned mostly the traditions that makes our being and embraced the western culture which we don’t have the technology to maximize its effect. I am of the aphorism that if the model of the evil forest is adopted in treating corrupt officials it would curtail the amount of corruption cases we have to deal with in our generation. Nowadays you see corrupt officials parading the street, jumping bails and evading justice because the system is controlled by money and this is their area of strength after all, they amassed a lot of it while in office.

China was only able to make progress when it adopted the model known by its forefathers of executing corrupt officials. Today China can be said to be a world power when it comes to manufacturing. This is Africa!! and for things to work in Africa especially Nigeria it must be done the African way. We must bring back the traditions that marshalled sanity and fear of repercussion in the heart of the citizens else all efforts made to fight corruption would be in vain.

I am still your Boy Ijele and I just want to say my Mind.

STAY SHARP