Daily Independent (Lagos)
Hakeem Jamiu
3 February 2009
opinion
Nigerian newspapers last week reported the story of an armed robber who after snatching a Mazda car, backed a wall and 'transformed' into a goat when being pursued by vigilante men.
The vigilante men apprehended the goat and handed it over to policemen, who later paraded it as an armed robbery suspect. The police initially promised to arraign the goat but later made a U-turn to say it did not believe the story that it was a man that turned into a goat as this was not open to scientific enquiry. The latest about the goat was that it has been sold for N300 and the case closed.
I disagree with police claim that the theory of a man turning into a goat is not open to scientific enquiry because there was no better opportunity to subject the matter to scientific enquiry than the police had when the goat was in its custody. By selling the goat, the police have denied humanity the opportunity of digging into Yoruba science, technology and mythology. The action of police in selling that goat is suspect. Why did they rush into selling the goat and why for as low as N300 naira, an amount that cannot buy a good chicken? It is suspected that a relation of the robber-turned-goat might have bought it!
The Police in Ilorin should stop pretending they don't believe juju (African charm) exists, because they always display purported charms recovered from armed robbers and hoodlums after arrests. Besides, most policemen patronize herbalists, alfas and pastors for one spiritual power or the other; so why are they now saying they don't believe a supernatural power exists that could turn a man into a goat, more so when they didn't subject this case to empirical investigation? Commissioners of Police should ask the Inspector General if he doesn't believe in the existence of witches and wizards. Can science prove it? Are dreams scientific? In Dublin, there is a holiday for the celebration of witches and wizards annually, and this is a developed country. When the Ilorin goat was paraded on television, one eye witness who spoke to newsmen on the matter said he saw the man when he turned into a goat and he said to him in Yoruba, Saliu, wo ibi too ba aye ara re de? (Saliu, see where you have found yourself?) If this account is true, the police ought to have followed that lead in its investigation. It means the eyewitness knew Saliu, who turned into a goat. The police ought to have gone to Saliu's house and conducted a search for stolen goods and to know whether the said Saliu still exists or if he is actually the one that turned into a goat. If they found Saliu at home, they should have done certain things to the goat to see what effect they would have on Saliu. It is believed in Yoruba mythology that when a man turns into a goat, sheep, cat, snake, tiger, hen, earthworm or any other object, whatever harm is inflicted on such object is felt by the man and if the object is killed, the man or woman dies. Why did the police not do this to ascertain the veracity of the story? It is not enough to say the story is unscientific, when the police refused to prove it.
This matter brings us once again to the issue of the existence of supernatural powers or otherwise. Stories had been told of how notorious robbers like Ishola Oyenusi used to disappear when policemen were on his trail. When Oyenusi was eventually executed by firing squad, eyewitnesses regaled us with tales of how bullets didn't penetrate his body until a certain ring on his toe was removed. It is common today for members of some ethnic organizations and politicians to claim to have anti-bullet charms called ayeta in Yoruba, and these are of various types. There is one that would not allow the bullet to fire, one that would divert the course of the bullet away from the victim, and one that would cause the bullet not to penetrate the body of the victim. I hasten to say, however, that all these are just claims, as I cannot confirm the efficacy of any. Notwithstanding, they could not all be hoaxes. What I have witnessed concerning the efficacy of juju, that is close to empirical proof, is with traditional bone setters who would break the bone of a hen and use it to set the bone of a human being. It is so wonderful that as the hen's bone is healing, that of the human being heals as well. Another frightening experience was relayed by the late talented comedian, Gbenga Adeboye, who said he once slept and dreamt of eating meat and, behold, his mouth was full of meat when he woke up! I don't know how science would explain this.
The late Yoruba presenter of strange stories, Kola Olawuyi, likewise once told a story of how a poisoned incision was made on a fish in Lagos and the fish was thrown into the Atlantic Ocean but found its way to a river in London, where it was captured along with other fishes for sale in the market. Astonishingly, the fish was bought by the person the poison was intended for who resided in London. He ate the fish and died! Late Hubert Ogunde, in his epic films Aiye, Jaiyesinmi and Ayanmo, exhibited almost to the point of conviction the existence of supernatural powers. He especially proved that it was possible for a human being to transform into an animal, as the witches in his films transformed into birds and cats. There was a scene captured in Lagos in 1994 by a popular tabloid where a bird was reported to have turned into a woman while it fell down from flight under a bridge. The scene attracted passers-by and journalists who took pictures of the bird. In 2008, a similar incident was reported in Port Harcourt where a vehicle hit a woman and the woman was reported to have turned into a cat. One peculiar feature about these incidents is that none was recorded when the transformation took place and this leaves a lot of room for speculation such that they remained at the level of hearsay.
What should be done is for us to take more pains to investigate this kind of incidents and dig into what combination of herbs can lead to disappearance of a human being or object. There are many traditional devices that can cause disappearance, according to traditionalists. For example, there is 'egbe' (lift) that can cause somebody to disappear from a scene of trouble or when an accident is about to happen, only to reappear somewhere, safe. The only problem with this is that the person may find himself on top of a tree or inside the lagoon if the juju malfunctions, as reportedly happened to a popular monarch in the South West in the 1960s.There are others like afeeri - causes disappearance, gbetugbetu - causes the enemy to fall down, aluwo - hit and fall down, owo - respect, abamoda - magic, magun - thunderbolt etc. As a people, we should not just dismiss the existence of these charms since we can find out more about them with a view to making them more empirical and thereby making them more universal. Who says an American or a Briton would not be interested in buying a charm that can make him disappear from a troubled spot to a safe haven? And if we know the combinations that can cause somebody to disappear or turn to a goat like the Ilorin case, we can also know the combinations to bring such a goat back to a human being to facilitate easier prosecution. We should stop throwing our values away for the simple reason that science cannot prove them. What baffles me is how we pretend that these things don't exist while most people patronize them clandestinely.
Jamiu is a media consultant and columnist
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