There are Christians in many urban centers both in Nigeria and abroad who have never been back home to their villages for decades. Not themselves nor their family members. The fear of their village is so morbid that even in the urban centers or countries where they have taken residence, they do not attend or associate with their village meetings or community development associations. They will not give their children vernacular names or even allow them to learn or understand their native language or culture and tradition.
Though people have diverse reasons for this withdrawal, chief amongst them is, the fear of witchcraft. Most of the people who indulge in this malaise usually have a tale of an unsavory experience which occurred to their parents, themselves or a member of their community that left them with the indelible impression that their villages are covens of witches and wizards that must be avoided.
The irony about this fear is that, like an absurd goblin, it is hovering over the head of mostly devout religionists (Christians/Muslims), who continually tell us that the God they serve is the most powerful force in the world. Is it not then a sharp contrast that a person wearing the most impenetrable bulletproof, is living in perpetual fear of another man bearing a Dane gun?
Every culture and tradition has a celebration or cultural summit that frequently returns every true son and daughter of the soil home to connect with the elements of the land. The Jews have the Passover or Pesach which celebrates their freedom from over 400 years of slavery in Egypt. The Chinese have the Shangyuan Festival. The Japanese celebrate the Omatsuri. The Indians celebrate the Pongal and Holi festivals, amongst others. In South Africa, they have the Reed Festival and in Saudi Arabia, they celebrate the Al-Janadriyah festival. Etc.
All these are occasions that bring natives back to base, both to celebrate, strategize, negotiate and ruminate on the development of such communities as well as fulfil some spiritual obligations. So if a person who claims to have Christ, the most powerful force in the world, is afraid of village people who have “juju”, which God is then more powerful?
If another person who is wearing juju can go to the same village with open chest and not be afraid of anything and you who is born again cannot, do you really have a God?
If a poor degenerate juju man or woman can scare you and your children and take over, and drive you away from your homeland even with your Jesus power, give me one reason why I should take your evangelism serious?
Is the witch or wizard that wants to kill you such an unexposed village demon that does not know the road from your village to your urban residence, or is there distance in the spirit world?
Is the power protecting you in your urban center residence so limited that it cannot follow you to your village, or is that power simply afraid and incapable of matching your village witches?
Or simply put, are the village witches stronger than your God?
If not, try to attend your next village meeting and discuss the development of that village. It needs your input.
Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo, Publisher of CrossRiverWatch and a rights activist, is a Cross Riverian and writes in from Lagos.
NB: Opinions expressed in this article are strictly attributable to the author, Agba Jalingo, and do not represent the opinion of CrossRiverWatch or any other organization the author works for/with.
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