The Wealthy are no Witches extracted by Chimex.
The Wealthy are no Witches: Towards an Epistemology and Ideology of Witchcraft among the Igbo of Nigeria.”: Text of a Lead Paper Delivered by Damian Ugwutikiri Opata at the Professor B.I.C. Ijomah Centre for Policy Studies and Research, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, at the Princess Alexandra Auditorium, UNN, November 26, 2019
“Positivism is a position or approach that holds that the scientific method is the only way to establish truth and objective reality. Can you imagine using scientific method to carry out research on witches? The positivists would conclude that witches do not exist because the scientific method does not yield any tangible results on the nature of witches (Balege, Chilisa, 39).”
Let me start by thanking the organisers of this conference with an unusual theme for inviting me to present a Lead Paper. I thank God that all the controversies surrounding the organization of this conference seem to have been settled. It is unfortunate, though, that such controversies arose at all. What with endless varieties of alleged manifestations of witches and wizards in contemporary Nigeria? Diviners and seers in the indigenous traditions many a time find that witchcraft is the source of the problems of many people who go to consult them. Pastors, prophets, seers in the foreign religions, charismatic priests of variegated persuasions very frequently use perceived attacks by witches and wizards to put fear in the minds and hearts of their various congregations. What of drug peddlers who double as pastors in small and big buses binding and casting all the witches and wizards that may attempt to wreak havoc on drivers, passengers and buses people are travelling in? Unfortunately, even in the University of Nigeria, here at Nsukka, the venue where many (“spiritual patriots”?) did not want this conference to hold, one finds that classrooms and open spaces in hostels and other places are on Sundays and on specific evenings filled with pastors and aspiring pastors also casting and binding witches and wizards. As Johaness Merz rightly observes:
“There is a major trend in diabolizing and reducing witchcraft to demonic possession in order to make it into something more readily addressed by the Bible, and thus more accessible within a Christian framework. In doing so, however, witchcraft, which is traditionally believed to be an impersonal and usually internal power, is misrepresented as an exorcisable evil spirit (1).”
usually internal power, is misrepresented as an exorcisable evil spirit (1).
Witchcraft may or may not be exorcisable, and I wouldn’t know the true situation, but I understand the desire by the Christians opposed to this Conference to totalize and sequestrate, and, perhaps control the discourse on witchcraft. Unfortunately, it cannot be pigeonholed as a religious discourse, not to talk of being only a Christian exorcism discourse. So, I thank the organisers for the choice of this topic in these spiritually troubled times. And I thank them for their doggedness in ensuring that this conference took place.
How does one talk of a phenomenon like witchcraft? Is it a scientific phenomenon? Is it superstition? Or is it the line of least resistance that people resort to when afflicted with problems they cannot easily explain? Is it a form of technology? Chilisa Balege, in the quotation that I have used to introduce this paper is concerned about the methodology that can be used to study witchcraft. In my opinion, he is not really against the application of positivism as a science to the study of witches. He is only stating the standard opinion of positivists. Many of the various protesters against the holding of this conference show concern about how the interrogation of witchcraft is possible, and even wonder whether the speakers are witches and wizards, especially as some of them appear to be of the opinion that one needed to be a witch or wizard to be able to speak on it. As it is, therefore, a major problem in studying witchcraft is that of methodology? I am majorly concerned with its manifestation in Igbo world view. Thereafter, I will examine its representation in selected folk tales from across Nigeria, examine how it could be identified, relate it to its ideology and conclude.
On understanding the concept or term witchcraft among the Igbo
It is within the realm of cultural studies that the phenomenon of witchcraft can be adequately studied among the Igbo. This would involve a foray into religion, sociology, anthropology, folklore, and all manner of herbal and healing practices. This immediately suggests that it is not a purely religious affair as many of the protesters against the conference believe. It is very clear to me that its meaningful understanding cannot be found in Igbo religious practices alone, for there are healing aspects of it that have nothing to do with any religion at all. But first, what is witchcraft called in Igbo? First, it is good to acknowledge the fact that the phenomenon ‘witchcraft’ exists in Igbo cosmology and worldview. The two words usually used to translate witchcraft into Igbo language are amosu and mgbashi. Mgbashi as a term is mostly restricted to parts of Nsukka Northern Igbo and some parts of Udi. Terms used to talk about it are: ita amaosu / ita ngbashi, and iri amosu / iri mgbashi, ida amosu, and ima amosu.
The origin of witchcraft among the Igbo is difficult to unearth. However, Chika J. B. Gabriel Okpalike refers to a very doubtful account of its origin as adduced by John Umeh. According to him:
“In this paper, Amosu is derived from the word “Komosu”, depicted as the mythical image of God’s wife. Amosu as essence of humanity is the spiritual connection with the source of Igbo emanating human-spirit often referred to onyeuwa – the cosmic child of uwa in the process of Ibiauwa and Ijeuwa … Amosu is a Vital Principle, mystica semina, Latent force, and everyone has it. Amosu is a spark in everyone going by the Igbo world view and the myth of Komosubehind it. The morality of the actions of human beings depends on what each of them used the Amosu potency in him or her for (78).”
Umeh draws from Igbo cosmological foundations for his depiction of the wife of God. Talking about what he names the uwa mbu, ‘First World”, he says:
“It was a monolithic place of, ‘inter alia’, true knowledge, idyllic happiness, supreme wisdom, complete wealth, perfect mercy and great power. It was a plane of perpetual Divine Light and of melodious music. All lived together without compartmentalized structures called buildings (uno). There existed only one building – Obi Chukwu – God’s holy of holies of [sic] a building or a sacred house. It was a four-sided building into which no being or creature or Spirit other than Chukwu was allowed entry. Not even Chukwu’s wife, Komosu (3).”
Umeh does not emphasize the issue of Komosu, except to say that she was lured into peeping into God’s forbidden abode, an incident in which “a flaming gold tongue of fire of creation escaped and broke the monolithic world into pieces” (4). Of course this led to the death of God’s wife. Indeed, the subject of Umeh’s book, in two volumes, is very germane to a proper and situated understanding of the concept of witchcraft. These books, After God is Dibia: Igbo Cosmology, Divination & Sacred Science in Nigeria, Volumes 1 and 11, provide a very significant background to the phenomenon of witchcraft. The expression “after God is dibia” prioritizes the idea that in Igbo cosmology the herbalist is next to God, perhaps in an existential hierarchy. Of course, it is common knowledge that deities and ancestors are higher in the cosmic chain of the Igbo world, but I believe that the statement arose to indicate the monumental importance of herbalists in providing healthcare and healing services to human beings. Witchcraft is intimately connected with not just metaphysical and esoteric knowledge, for those who eyes have not been opened, but also with the understanding and exploitation of the potency of herbs. It has also a lot to do with innate existential potentials.
“While one may not disagree with Umeh about the calamity attendant on Komosu being persuaded to peep into the house of God, it is pertinent to acknowledge the Igbo saying that it is human beings who make the world good or bad. The term amosu is used to refer to a person who has extraordinary psychic powers or as an explanatory paradigm for many phenomena not easily understandable through normal ways of knowing. It can be used to describe a person in a negative or positive way. Used in a negative way, it portrays a person who deploys a certain form of what is considered supernatural knowledge or talent or gift to cause misfortune or death to others. When used in a positive way, it refers to a person who deploys such knowledge, in this context, foreknowledge, to abort any designed misfortune against his or her person, or even of other people. It could also be used to refer to a person who has close to perfect expertise in a profession or occupation. This could be regarded as figurative. Ita amosu / ita mgbashi would appear to exclusively refer to a person who deploys supernatural knowledge for evil purposes. Iri amosu / mgbashi would appear to refer to a person who has imbibed or acquired such type of knowledge. Thus, the expression onye a riri amosu, literally, this person has eaten amosu may be construed as neutral, because the sentence does not indicate to what ends the person would put such knowledge. However, this tends to be used in contexts in which a positive meaning is intended.
Okpalike provides a lot of insight into witchcraft practices among the Igbo. According to him:
“The commonest form of witchcraft among the Igbo is the sucking of the blood of the victim by the witch-vampire. Evidences of people waking up to cracked skin in the form of shallow cuts abound. Such cuts are almost always associated with witches. “What the witch sucks is not the physical blood but the ectoplasm of the blood. The ectoplasm is the magnetic life energy of the blood.” [Arazu]. Without question, most Igbo believe that these witches visit their victims in the form of rats, bats, lizards, cats, and even cockroaches.”
“In another dimension of Witchcraft-claims, many times, people have approached the present researcher with the report that some kind of a shadowy figure was pressing them during sleep to the point of suffocation until they struggled free from it (they sometimes pray themselves out too). This kind of experience they call ’attack’ and attribute to witchcraft. The idea of ‘attack’ among contemporary Christians is even more than this but whenever the word ‘attack’ is used, most times it refers to witch menace. Some dream of sex with faceless creatures, wake up at orgasm and are saddened and melancholic about it; an experience commonly attributed to witchcraft and recently to demonization of the spirit called Succubus. Illnesses of various kinds defying every (affordable / available) medical remedy are attributed to witchcraft and certain kinds of individuals blamed for it (62).”
Okpalike mentions some other alleged instances of witchcraft that involve misfortunes in business or any other career one is engaged in. The list of other such misfortunes is vast.
The difficulty in understanding the real meaning of the term amosu among the Igbo is that it is closely associated with a cluster of other terminologies that relate to supernatural knowledge and skills. I use the term “supernatural” knowledge with great caution and reservation because what may appear ‘supernatural”, to one person, as used in this context may be “natural” to another. Whenever I am in with my friend who uses kola for divination, he would always cast it and say, ‘don’t you see what it says”? But I understand next to nothing of the catalogue of meaning available to him. Amosu is related to such other terms as ogwu, ifu uzo, igba afa, isa anya, dibia, etc. When amosu is translated as ‘witch / witchcraft’, one may begin to think of ‘magic’ ‘sorcery’ ‘charms’, ‘juju’, ‘spiritism’, soothsaying’, etc. When one takes a leap to modernity, issues of ‘remote control’ and all the science and technology associated with it begin to ask for linkages and connectedness. Ogwu seems to embody all the ideas signified in the different Igbo terminologies here mentioned. There are such aspects of it like: iri ogwu, taking medications; ida / ime / igwo ogwu, engaging in production and practice of herbalism, igwota ogwu, procuring charms for one reason or the other, etc.
Amosu in the negative sense is the use of supernatural power to change oneself into another medium in order to carry out an evil design. In a positive sense it the same use of supernatural power to protect one’s interest. One can acquire such powers through training, apprenticeship, or ritual performances. One could be born an amosu, and one could be inducted into it through gifts that are eaten in real life or in dreams as many of my informants claim. Induction into amosu is usually for negative purposes, and many a time it is said to be linked with otu, a type of spiritual juvenile or adolescent cult group. The phenomenon is linked with different notions of visioning or “seeing” beyond the normal human capacity. There are plants and animals with perceived powers which people can tap into, and they begin to see beyond the normal. One only needs to take a trip to where roots, herbs, and animal parts are sold in different markets across Igboland to confirm this. Indeed, this could form the theme of another conference if religious bigots and fundamentalists would not kick against it.
I have been deliberately using the Igbo term amosu rather than its translational form as ‘witchcraft’ in English language. The inadequacy of this translation results from the fact that within the Christian tradition, witchcraft is integrally associated with the Devil. In my book on Ekwensu in the Igbo Imagination: A Heroic Deity or Christan Devil? (2005), I clearly established that there is no conceptual equivalent of the Christian Devil in Igbo cosmology. Indeed, Ekwensu happens to be a heroic and benevolent deity that is strongly linked with truth and morality. The implication of this is that within a context of morality, there is a difference between ‘witchcraft’ and amosu. This largely accounts for the reason exorcism is a major way of dealing with witchcraft among Christians, while among the indigenous Igbo it is largely through herbalism, divination, and occasionally a resort to ritual and sacrifice as an accompaniment to herbalism. It is within this context that one can understand and sympathize with protestations and opposition to this conference by some Christians and Christian groups. Two books: The Malleus Maleficarum (translated as The Witch Hammer) by Heinrich Krammer and James Sprenger, published 1486, and The Discoverie of Witchcraft by Reginald Scot, published 1584, all monumental in size, show the close linkage between witchcraft and the Devil in Christian thought. The first one is said to have served as a guide during the Inquisition, and the second one appears to address issues of ecclesiastical law that were in use during the trial of witches in medieval England. That the protesters have not left this way of thinking and belief is not surprising.
The fact that God in Igbo world view and cosmology is withdrawn from human reach, and has totally devolved his power and authority to deities, divinities, and ancestors, shows also that amosu cannot be appropriately understood within a Christian God paradigm. Indeed, it is not essentially a religious phenomenon. As Gregory Ejiofor Adibe has aptly pointed out;
“Magic, sorcery and witchcraft should not be part of religious practice. God should not be commanded in religion. In Igbo traditional religion when magic comes to play, it would no longer be a religious practice. The problem of the spirit that is invoked in magic remains a problem to all and sundry” (188).”
In other words, any epistemological attempt at understanding the phenomenon of amosu among the Igbo must be sought away from the Christian and purely religious understanding of witchcraft. This does not mean that there are no similarities between witchcraft as understood by Christianity, and amosu as understood by the indigenous Igbo. For the indigenous Igbo, amosu is not regarded as superstitious. It is taken for granted. This is why the technology for mitigating its effect is very abundant. This is also why there are ways of detecting its operations, especially that of the negative one. A phenomenon which a people recognizes as existing in their society must, by that very fact, have ways in which it manifests, understood, and contained. Indeed, any word that exists in a society or community has something it refers to and captures.
Okpalike has already demonstrated some ways in which the Igbo understand amosu, even though he uses ‘witchcraft’ most of the time. The final proof and evidence of the ways amosu operates is known in the effectiveness with which various experts connected with the phenomenon deals with it. These ‘experts’ include diviners of all colourations, seers of all colourations, and priests and priestesses that minister to various deities across Igboland. There are also the issue of pastors and prophets of all colourations who attribute their powers of exorcism to the Christian God. I strongly think that the social and technological apparatus for a good epistemological understanding of amosu is best found in divination, ifu uzo, that is, ascertaining the future, and surprisingly in dreams as largely understood within an Igbo context. Before exploring these tools, let me first reflect on the depiction of ‘witchcraft’ in selected Nigeria folktales. Folktales are fictive models that communicate knowledge through what Viktor Shlovsky calls ‘defamiliarization”. Shlovsky affirms that, “The technique of art is to make objects “unfamiliar,” to make forms difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception because the process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself and must be prolonged” (2). If one added the notions of allegory and verisimilitude, it can be clearly seen that folktales convey hidden meanings, even if they are ultimately didactic, as many would argue.
Witchcraft in folktales, Igbo and beyond.
The folktales selected here are not necessarily Igbo ones, but they are all from Nigeria. Yes, folktales are no history, but they constitute the earliest forms of oral documentation in non-literate societies. They are set in earliest times when society was really idyllic, and there was a very deep interconnectedness between human beings, animals, and other existential entities. Esoteric and supernatural aspects of knowledge were easily available and accessible to all and sundry. Human beings, animals, and other entities had deep spiritual potentials and were deeply interconnected. A survey of Nigerian folktales shows that the phenomenon of witches, wizards, magic, and sorcery feature prominently. Unfortunately, the versions I have are in English, and I wouldn’t know what witches were called in their originating tales. Using Bukar Usman’s monumental collection of Nigerian folktales in two volumes, I was able to read about one thousand four hundred and fifteen (1415) tales. There are one thousand seven hundred folktales in the collections. Sixty-four (64) folktales mention the concepts: witch, wizard, and witchcraft. However, there are very many other folktales that feature the activities linked with magicians, spirits, sorcerers, monsters, old women, and wicked stepmothers whose activities resemble that of witches and wizards in the texts.
But let me start my illustration with an Igbo folktale entry in M. O. Agugu’s EZENNUNU (Akpa akukoifo ndi Igbo). In this collection of Igbo folktales, there is a very insightful entry titled, “Ka amosu siri bido n’uwa”; meaning, an account of how ‘witchcraft’ originated in the world. The first sentence of the story is very insightful: “O nwere ufodu na – asina amosu di njo ebe ufodu na – ekwu na o dighi njo.” This simply says that there was a dispute about whether ‘witchcraft’ is good or bad (evil). This led some three children to go to an old woman to find out the truth. The old woman asked them to repeat the following day to receive the answer to their request. When the children returned home, they told their parents the outcome of their journey. Their parents who did not know about the mission of their children asked them to carry a bundle of firewood when next they would repeat their visit to the old woman. The old woman was pleased, and gave them the required information there were seeking. To paraphrase the story, amosu originated as a gift from a woman who was killed by a co-wife. A man had a wife who fell very sick and there was no medical help the husband sought everywhere he could that healed her. The woman later died. But before that, the man had married another wife, and despite instructions from the husband that she should respect and treat the first wife kindly, this second wife maltreated the first wife. The second wife reluctantly placed a piece of cloth in the grave of the first wife, as custom demanded. One day, the second wife asked the children of the dead woman to go and collect water in a big stream during a time people do not go to that stream, and this despite the husband’s warning against sending the children to collect water during such periods. The dead mother of the children appeared to them, and consoled them because they used to cry while going to the stream. Their mother gave them the cloth the second wife placed in her grave. She asked them to give the cloth to their father, adding that the man should wash his hands after giving back the cloth to his second wife. That was done. At night, a big python emerged from where the cloth was and killed the woman and her two children. The story ends by saying; “Mgbe nke a mechara, umuaka ato ndi ahu we ghoo amosu, na – ahuzi ihe mmadu nkiti apughi ihu. Wee si out ahu kuzibere ndi mmadu amosu” (83). In other words, after the death of the second wife and her children as a result of the bite from the big python, the children became ndi amosu, and were enabled to see what ordinary human beings can see. They then started teaching people this art.
What emerges from this story is that amosu originated as a critical mass of knowledge to prevent oppression and maltreatment of vulnerable people. My findings from the folktales from Bukar Usman’s collections show that there are malevolent and benevolent witches and wizards. I also find that these witches and wizards could assume different ontological features. Human beings could easily transform to animals and animals into humans. Malevolent witches and wizards kill, deform, and frustrate human progress. Benevolent ones defend the oppressed, stand for justice, and help the marginalized and the oppressed. What is more significant is that there are more instances of benevolent acts of witchcraft than malevolent ones. Indeed, only about five or six of them depict the negative use of witchcraft. The insight I draw from the study of these folktales is that amosu is a knowledge empowerment of people, especially the vulnerable ones, to fight oppression and maltreatment and thereby defend themselves and render the enemy, usually, people of a higher social status, impotent in dealing with them. But as the Igbo say that the world is good or bad because of the activities of human beings. Some persons who are naturally wicked acquire this power to oppress people.
Gregory Adibe says this of sorcery and witchcraft:
“Sorcery is defined as bad or illicit magic. Awolalu and Dopamu (19979: 246 – 252) are of the opinion that one who uses bad magic is a sorcerer and anti-social as the entire art is offensive. The practitioners of such are evil minded, feared and hated. They harm, disfigure or kill their enemies or that of their clients. This they perform through the use of invocations and incantations, making of dummies of victims to be harmed and ritually operating on them with simulation, sending of poisonous things: food or animals to victims.”
“Witchcraft is another dreaded ritual that has two opposing values: illicit or licit. The illicit practice is used as in sorcery. The practitioners have psychic power: knowledge of issues in advance, knowing the minds of people, seeing people at a distance, hearing voices and getting messages from the spirit world at will. They can operate in a dream and in reality. Their intention materializes just by willing it, under psychic influence (163).”
Adibe does not discuss the licit dimension of witchcraft, but since he says that it has two opposing sides, illicit and licit, one thinks that the licit side is good and positive. The very important thing is that there is a consensus among scholars that amosu has both negative and positive dimensions. Fortunately, the powers to oppress and subjugate people are not as effective as they are perceived. If they were, and given the alleged pervasiveness of amosu attacks, there would be no progress at all in the world. Indeed, the negative practice of amosu is not a normative phenomenon among the Igbo. Adibe quotes Ezekwugo who talks about the karmic consequences of practicing the negative dimension of amosu. According to him:
“Ezekwugo (1992: 62 – 70) posits that great dibias and overlords who were wicked and evil in the past left a devastated and wretched heritage. They went against the law by not being channels of positive life and enhancing actions: as they should have used their privileged positions for advancement of cause of justice and promotion of the holy name of God (188). ”
This issue of consequences for the negative use of power, supernatural, psychic or otherwise is very important. I have it on authority that persons who negatively use such powers sooner or later lose it. There are instances I would not want to mention here. What is even more insightful is that many of them who practice the art in a negative way, especially if they are affiliated with a deity, are even afraid to tell lies, not to talk of extorting money from clients. One of them who is my friend, Olisa Pius Okonkwo, a great herbalist and uncommon seer has to pray and pray whenever he divines for people so that what he sees is the truth of the matter under consideration. Mr. Okonkwo who works with Adada Nwabueze of my town, Lejja, Nsukka Local Government Area in Enugu State, Nigeria, is usually even afraid to receive extra money when he charges for work he does. He is always putting into consideration whether the deity will get angry if he takes extra money beyond what he has charged. He always says that Nnenne, the tem with which many of us refer to this amazing deity, may penalize her. It is only when he is told that the extra money is dash that he accepts the money, and one can notice some hand movements from him as if he were pleading with Nnenne to allow him accept the dash.
Before going into how witchcraft can be identified, let me relate a story usually told by Professor Chimalum Nwankwo. According to him, the crops cultivated by her grandmother were always eaten up by cows, goats and sheep belonging to other people in her community. Despite repeated appeals to owners of these animals to rein in their animals, they refused to do so. She was compelled to go to her paternal home to complain. One of her uncles, a herbalist, is reported to have imbued her with the power to turn into lion in order to repel attacks on her farm. After she had turned into a lion several times, and killed several animals, people did not allow their animals to go to her farm again. According to Professor Nwankwo, the woman continued to have this power till the outbreak of the Nigerian – Biafra Civil War, when the uncle called her and told her that the power she was given was only immune to dane guns, but not to machine guns. Consequently, he disabled the power he had given her. One can also add that recently, there have been three reported cases of lightning striking and killing several cattle in Ogun State of Nigeria. There are still speculations about the cause of this, and investigations are on-going. Let us await the outcome of the investigation.
Identifying amosu ‘witchcraft’ among the Igbo
There is no easy and generally acceptable way to do this. However, as I pointed out earlier, divination, ifu uzo, and dream visions help in identifying instances of negative manifestation of amosu. It is to be noted that people usually do not consult diviners to ascertain the cause of their success and wellbeing; it is only in cases of series of incredible misfortunes that defy solutions that people take to consulting diviners. In 1993, I published an article titled: “Paradigms for the Re-Establishment of African Science” in Uche: Nsukka Journal of Philosophy. If I recall correctly, I had argued that divination is a science in its own right. I hinged my argument on the fact that it is predictive. A scholar who has carried out intensive study of divination in Africa, and who himself a diviner, Wim van Binsbergen, in an answer to the question: “What is divination?” argues as follows:
a. Procedure of knowledge production which meet the following criteria
b. They are institutionalized within a particular historical culture, i.e. they are repetitive, socially shared, and show a tendency to persist over time;
c. Actors – as should be clear from the explicit acts as well as, more implicitly, from demonstrable analogies with other forms of religious behaviour in their society – see these procedures as involving forces beyond human control;
d. Through these procedures the actors seek to obtain information which is not available by direct sensory perception;
e. These procedures involve the use of specific material apparatus (hence, ‘material’ or ‘inductive’ divination – as distinct from incubation, trance etc), often a random generator (e.g. a die, or multiple elements such as pebbles or sticks falling in an uncontrolled fashion or an insect moving in an unpredictable way) is the heart of the apparatus;
f. Coding procedures through which outcomes of the random generator access the interpretational catalogue;
g. Construction and operation are subjects to which may often be highly formalized
h. The various values (c) which the apparatus can produce (C larger than or equal to 2) are interpreted by reference to a catalogue of divinatory meanings which may be mentioned or written out (11).
This is the most elaborate definition of divination I have seen. John Umeh, a Distinguished Emeritus Professor of this university, and a very famous diviner, does not offer such an elaborate definition. However, he has this to say about a particular form of divination whose “material apparatus” is Ukpukpa. According to him:
“First, it is the most scientific of all the divination methods as far as the state of scientific knowledge stands in the world today, and so, those who are obsessed with having scientific explanation, even for metaphysical complexities, issues and realities which our present day science have not yet developed fully into understanding, can more easily learn and appreciate this form of divination. Secondly, this form of divination has its own language which the Igbo people believe to be not only the oldest Igbo language but also indeed the oldest language in the whole world (Umeh 11 83 – 84).”
Indeed, I am a personal witness to Professor Umeh’s expertise in divination. I do not recall the exact date, but it was in late December 2009. My father was very seriously ill at Akulue Memorial Hospital, Nsukka. I had earlier gone to a diviner who told me that it was that illness that would claim my father’s life. Professor Umeh brought out a twenty-leave exercise book. He would cast the ukpuka, and write down what he read. After close to an hour, he folded his “material apparatus”, put it away, opened the exercise book, and started crosschecking and interpreting his transcriptions. After another close to thirty minutes, he took a piece of nzu, white chalk, drew a straight line on the floor, and said: “Enyi m Nwoke, this line represents the boundary between the living and the dead; your father has crossed over to the land of the dead”. Upon my question whether anything could be done stop his death that time, he said: “the crossing is final.” I came home a sullen person. About four days after, my father died.
I have elaborated this much on divination to show that it is a reliable instrument for investigating what cannot be proven by resort to conventional human experience, and that is apparently not amenable to conventional scientific method of the North Atlantic region of the world. I have consulted diviners on many occasions; the interpretation of many proved correct while very many others turned out to be wrong. I think that it is because of this that the Igbo say: Dibia gbachara gi afa, I gbara onwe gi; meaning that when a diviner has divined for a person, the person should also divine for himself or herself. This presupposes that such a person should rationally consider and re-examine what the diviner has proclaimed. This is not because divination is not a reliable source for obtaining needed information; rather it is the case that expertise of diviners vary from place to place. Honesty is another factor; some diviners may see nothing but would say anything to ‘earn’ their money. But this also happens in normal investigations in life. Many a time one goes to do a medical laboratory analysis, and he or she is said to have one ailment or the other. The person may go for another medical laboratory check and be told a totally different thing. Like in divination, the system itself is a reliable one, but the expertise of the Lab Technologist, or the “material apparatus” used by the person may not be adequate. The point I want to make is that expert divination is a reliable source for validating a phenomenon like witchcraft.
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