Juju For Beginners

While my counterparts in the Western world grew up listening to fairy tales, I grew up with Juju tales. Stories of how stubborn/greedy children lived forever ever after as a yam tuber. There were no princesses, castles, or price charming. We only had witches and wizards. So I learnt collecting stuffs from strangers had grave consequences and it was best to avoid them.

Still as kids we sought way we could use juju to our benefit. The earliest I could remember was in primary school when someone fart. The "owner" didn't want to claim the mess,...someone must have suggested we find the person using juju. We got a leaf and placed sand on it. The idea was to pass it round by placing it on each other's palm. The person blows it with the mouth and if it was the person that fart, the sand blows towards the person's eyes. To be honest, the result was always inconclusive but we didn't care...we always had a way to interpret how it worked.

In secondary school, there was "the concoction". It was a cream that made students "invulnerable" to a teacher's whip. It must have been the belief that made the pain bearable because at some point I totally believed in it. Whenever a student was about to be flogged she/he would run, not from the whip...but to apply the concoction.

Years later, people around me were not involved in juju to know who fart or become invulnerable to a teacher's whip. The wanted money, women, they wanted success. Juju was used as a catalyst to get these things. To be honest I don't know anyone that I can without a doubt say used juju to achieve such things but there are stories...and there are bound to be element of truth in such.

The closest experience I had was when a family friend brought a "juju man" to my house. He was like a decade older and told me about a get-rich-quick scheme and wanted me to get a huge percentage of the "capital" which I didn't have. I was 14 then, so it was understandable. After gentle persuasion failed, he decided to use a juju man to coerce me. The juju man supposedly brainwashed me after reciting incarnation and instructed me to walk into my house and bring out anything with monetary value. As I stepped into my house I was amazed, I thought to myself, was I not suppose to be unaware of what I was told to do until I had done it. I told the people in the living room what had transpired outside and they were confused. I sat and after watching tv for few minutes I walked back out to tell them I couldn't find anything with value in the house. That was actually the last time I was disturbed about the scheme. That was no doubt a reinforcement to my trust no one belief.