Tuesday, March 8, 2022

CONFERMENT


CONFERMENT
“The implanted substance was perceived to be ‘round, hairy ball with teeth’ passed on from parent to child, with all the sons of a male witch and all the daughters of a female witch being witches. The substance allowed the members to be activated into their world and also permitted the soul to engage in errands during  meetings or group's activities. The substance symbolized the source of power of a witch and the  group’s linkage to all her members.”
Dr. M.S. Jayeola-Omoyeni, Dr. Eunice M. Oyetade, Mr. J.O. Omoyeni, Witchcraft In the 20th and 21st Centuries in Nigeria


When I came across this one it reminded me of the Tungwa from Nnedi Okorafor's excellent African Futurism novel Akata Witch.

From my very basic understanding, writings of witchcraft practices in Nigeria should be taken with a HUGE grain of salt. Christianity is extremely evangelical in the country and accusations of witchcraft are leveled at the sick, unruly children, those with disabilities and mental illness.

The "remedy" for witchcraft is often exorcism and literal torture. This BBC article is eye opening.



I learned a lot of this while researching after watching a few Nigerian (Nollywood) horror films like End Of Wicked. The few that I watched seemed to just be recruitment vehicles for the Christian church. In fact, some are directly funded by churches. You CAN watch End Of Wicked if you want but I wouldn't recommend it. While not as long as some (Living In Bondage clocked in around 5 hours!) it's still extremely low budget, transphobic, poorly acted and VERY conservative.
 
On a lighter note, tomorrow's monster is an EXTREMELY weird one and actually very funny. 
 
 

3 comments:

  1. Nice, have you read the works of Jack Vance?, he has some cool creatures.

    ReplyDelete