AFRICAN JUJU: MISINTERPRETED OR OVERATED?

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The term ‘’African Juju” often referred as charms or African magic play a dominant role in the African rel belief system. If you were born and raised  in Africa, you are surely aware of the existence of local charms because in churches you hear pastors raise prayer points like “lets pray against witches and wizards fighting our lives and progress,’’ individuals that administer these charms are commonly refered as Native Doctors. In Igbo language, native doctors are called Dibia, in Yoruba Babalawo, and in Hausa Boka. It is vital to note that the practice of evil charms should not be associated with the practice of African Traditional Religion (ATR), a lot of folks when they hear juju jump into hasty conclusions that ATR is 

responsible, that is dumb. There are evil men in the churches, mosques, and every religious gathering, this is largely because human minds differ, and we all have our deeply held beliefs.

How valid is African juju? Very valid. It would be senseless to argue against the validity of juju because there are evidences that suggest its validity, for instance, retired Nigerian footballer turned pastor Taribo West noted that during his playing days he made use of local charms, in his words ‘’ Of course yes, I don’t know why people decline to talk about their involvement with charms. Football has to do with a lot of powers. When there are big events, you look at the stadium, you see people, fans invoking all kinds of things; magicians are there, voodooists are there. In my playing days, when I was ignorant, I used to get some mallams and babalawos (traditional doctors) to make charms for us, which we took to (national) camp. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. In some clubs, before every game, the president or leader of the club will give you a lucky charm to play with. They will tell you to put it in your boots or socks and play. It’s their superstitious belief; that it can help them win matches. There are some coaches who are connected to African magicians and soothsayers from Senegal, Burkina Faso, Zaire or even Nigeria. These people are consulted to give these coaches results of games even before the matches are played. These people see strange things and they can tell you with their magic and charms, what the outcome of a match will be. People believe and use it. It works for those who believe in it. I saw it, I experienced it, I was with players that used it and I used it. So, why are people denying it? There are charms and rituals in football. It still exists.’’(Pulse.ng, 2015) Also, former French footballer Emmanuel Petit noted how he ignored the words of an African juju man which led to his early retirement ‘’I had a curse put on me. After the 2002 World Cup, I was on a beach on the Cote d’Azur, there were African street vendors going around, and one came up and set out some of his stuff in front of me. He told me ‘there are rumours going around that a marabout has put an evil spell on you, people are jealous of you and a serious injury will end your career.’ I asked him what I could do to prevent this happening. He said ‘you have to kill a cow.’ At the time I thought he was telling lies but six months later I did suffer a serious injury. I did not kill a cow, and I went on to suffer a double ligament tear in my leg.’’ (The Sun, 2017).

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However, the evil use of African charms has deeply affected the African belief system as most misfortunes and failures are attributed to it. Most people in Africa now fail to figure out mistakes that led to their failure, they simply believe that juju orchestrated by their enemies is the cause of their failure. The inability to hit certain heights should not be blamed on juju, people should think less about juju despite its existence, every failure has a reason behind it which when corrected will avoid same mistakes in the future.Also, when an African is thriving in his/her chosen career or business, a lot of people will make statements like ‘’he has done juju,’’ they fail to remember how much work and effort put in to be successful. People tend to associate success with all negativity they can think of, this does more harm than good because It is equally wrong to blame deaths on juju, the life expectancy rate in most African countries is low but folks do not want to think towards that direction. Youths boost of how high their level of alcoholic consumption is, weed smoking, and all other dangerous foods harmful to their health. Alcohol intake is not bad but the level of consumption determines how good or bad it is to human health, people also workout  less and expect God to do the magic of assuring them long life. When illnesses set in, juju is blamed; Africans have to start taking responsibility for their actions.

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with the belief that an individual’s success is fetish, they refuse aids from the person. It also affects the mentality of poor individuals because they might end up believing they can only attain wealth through fetish means. Wealth and success is achieved through God’s help and hard work, stop giving successful people negative outlook.

African Juju is equally responsible for some of the misfortunes explained above which is unfortunate for Africa in this 21^st century that other parts of the world are moving forward and devising means for better living. The African entertainment industry especially the movie industry should do less movies portraying juju as cause of failures, deaths, or misfortunes because people believe what they see. Da Lion’s blog should not be discussing such topic, Africans need to wake and do away with certain beliefs affecting the progress of our continent. IT IS TIME TO MOVE FORWARD