The Fight of Gods and Spirits
Africa is a diverse continent, rich in great cultures and traditions. Africa is the cradle of humankind — evolution started in Africa. Africa is adored by many for its great landscape — the topography, wildlife, climate, etc. However, there’s always one side of Africa that is less often talked about in the media or elsewhere.
Sorcery and witchcraft are real issues in Africa. Nigerians, where the practice still prevails with enormous effects, have done a great job at depicting it in their films. However, the practices are hugely underlooked by foreigners and a myriad of natives with less information on the history of ancient African communities.
One reason why the field is often underlooked and unexplored is because of the lack of a practical way to explain it. Very few people, if there are any at all, can explain the forces behind sorcery and witchcraft. The people performing the rites and rituals, the “wagangas”, operate at an added dimension — they can enter the world of spirits and use the powerful spiritual powers to manipulate the world. Because humans are not typically designed to communicate with the spirits, the very few who can do it have the power to control some aspects of life that a typical person can’t — such as evading or passing death to others.
Renown African ancestors and warriors — such as Mekatilili — could foresee enemies and communicate with their ancestors for best methods and techniques to counterattack. By consuming certain herbs and chanting certain words, they could enter the higher dimension of life — of the spirits. Of course, the process involves a lot more that can’t be covered by someone who hasn’t experienced nor largely explored the field of cultures and spirits.
A lot of Africans, like me, who have witnessed the effects of sorcery and witchcraft are often frightened and afraid of the forces. As a result, the frightened people find comfort and safety in even higher forces — those higher than spirits in the hierarchy of being — the Gods.
The fight then proceeds to those higher than us in the hierarchy of beings — the Spirits and Gods. Humans are then forced to just wait for the outcome — we can’t watch nor observe, hear nor feel. More often than not, the outcome manifests itself as death or loss of an item very dear to a person, family, or clan.
Let’s say Tom and Ted belong to a clan and Tom seeks answers from God while Ted consults the Spirits for answers, and they get into a conflict over a piece of land. Tom will pray to God to hand him the piece of land (by making Ted see things as Tom — so they can share perspectives and dissolve their differences), on the other hand, Ted will consult his spirits. From there? Let the best possible outcome manifest itself — the outcome is often measured in the number of mysterious activities that combat the two conflicting parties — deaths, abrupt mental disorders of the family members involved, etc — as a result of the Spirit forces involved.
It reaches a point of rivalry between faith and natural forces.
What if one party doesn’t believe in the existence of Spirits or Gods? For example, devotees of Christ find it hard to admit the existence of Spirits, and even if they admit that the Spirits exist, they strongly believe that their God can’t be defeated by the Spirits.
Let’s say that Tom only believes in God — He is the ultimate creator of the universe and controls everything in it. Ted on the other hand only believes in the existence of Spirits (because he has tested and experienced its powers). The fight will continue until the best side wins. But because our God is a caring one, He often never kills our enemies — He loves every single one of His creatures. Spirits, on the other hand, are often destructive — Christians will sometimes call them evil. As a result, the Spirits will cause mass destruction of the nemesis. In our case, Ted’s forces will try to find ways of destroying Tom while Tom’s God will try to protect him from the evil forces. Offence or defence?
It’s a hard fight that goes on and on and on, often leaving huge destruction on families and clans.
The ability to communicate with Spirits is heritable.
What if one party (say Tom) neither believes in Spirits nor God while the other party (say Ted) is a believer in Spirits or God? Will Ted’s forces affect Tom? Well, I’ll say that depends. It depends on the history and lineage of Tom. If Tom’s lineage has a history of believing in Spirits or Gods then higher the chances he will be affected. This is because Tom’s past generations invested a lot in believing in the Spirits or Gods — including the sacrifices — that the belief is encoded in their DNA. Breaking that code won’t happen just on Tom. It will need to go further — perhaps 50 to 100 years, depending on the length of Tom’s lineage and their history with the belief.
To summarise the above paragraph, I’ll use Yuval Noah Harari’s concept in Sapiens about ancient cultures and how ancient empires were contaminated by those cultures while at the same the contaminants influenced the empires and the present-day communities:
“Even if we were to completely disavow the legacy of a brutal empire in the hope of reconstructing and safeguarding the ‘authentic’ cultures that preceded it, in all probability what we will be defending is nothing but the legacy of an older and no less brutal empire.”
