Occultism in African Governance

[Hakluyt]

Occultism in African Governance

Daily Champion (Lagos)
COLUMN
January 3, 2006
Posted to the web January 3, 2006

By Frank Nwosu
Lagos

http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200601030334.html

For several centuries, African leaders have always had recourse to occult manipulations by which they blindfolded their followers. For instance, that the UK-detained Governor of Bayelsa in the Niger Delta finally returned to Nigeria is no longer news, but what will remain a wonder in the annals of political history and world judicial records is the manner and ease of his escape, disguised as a woman with Israeli passport. Considering how he beat the U K security apparatus and got to his village before daylight, an American observer described it as simply 'magical'.

Yes to magic. This feat was not only magical in the grammatical sense, but vitally so in both literal and practical terms. A 'knowledgeable' African woman aptly noted on the morning of the man's return that the very dresses the escaping man wore must have been 'dressed' the way occult candles are oiled before Wicca rites. Well, this may only 'seem' magical to Europe and America, but virtually every African knows that with black and African arts, appearances and disappearances are possible. By the way, who doesn't know that African political leaders immerse themselves in such voodoo that even when they are oppressing their subjects, those pitiable folks will still remain their stoutest defenders? Diepreye's escape makes it doubtless that you need more than wits, money, smartness and the right connections to rule in the jungle.

Occult involvement and spiritism are vital tools in the kitty of most black African leaders, be they political, traditional or (sad to say) religious. I used to doubt this till I encountered two highly respected senior citizens, one in the Yoruba west, and the other a full-blooded Ngwa patriot from Aba, in the eastern part of the country. A 'business rival' of the Yoruba metaphysician/parapsychologist told me that this fellow was as cruel and fetish as himself save for the latter's learned posturing which had enabled him to warm his way into the political leadership of Nigeria. Up there, he screens political appointments, business meetings, international visitors, and even dictates to their Excellencies which days are 'lucky days', and which state functions to cancel. Does this remind you of things like astrology, kabala, ouija boards, tarot cards and water-witching?

Well, in Africa, till date, these arts have not developed to where mere incantations to some disembodied spirit or issuing of command to some invisible Bromius can facilitate the accomplishment of any feat. No, no, no. Instead, raw rituals, human sacrifices, and immolation are the only route still used to attain such magical flights like Diepreye's, endless court adjournments like Chief Nwude's whose fraudulent closure of a South American bank and investment of the hundreds of millions of dollars in Union Bank remained in court for an unduly long time (sometimes, the trial judge would be so ill he could not make it to court, or the prosecution witness withdrew from the case, or the defendant's lead counsel was absent, simply absent, and there was no sanctions, or just something!); political victories like that of the Ubas and Ngiges of Anambra, which ultimately require continuous carnage, actual sacrifice of human lives through social unrest; and the affliction of paralysis a nd cardio-vascular diseases on perceived enemies without any physical contact with the unlucky targets of such injuries. This explains the bizarre scenario of headless corpses often seen littering the streets of major African cities, some of them having their vital organs cut off by their ritualistic murderers. Powers gained from these are used to cling to political office. The most astounding of this phenomenon is that the bewitched citizens are esoterically given the further burden of applauding and defending the oppressive leader that is taking them for a ride, just like Ikemefuna in Chinua Achebe's novel, Things Fall Apart, was made to carry the clay pot containing the fetish accompaniments down the narrow path where he was sacrificed by the very man he called father.

There is this story of a man that assumed office in a government agency in one of the western states of Nigeria, and froze on the seat in his very first day on duty. When his retired predecessor was contacted, he simply laughed it away, saying the new man was "only a woman", and not 'strong' enough to succeed him; that himself was only testing some of his powers. That was the end of the matter. The law does not recognize magic and witchcraft, but we all do. Then, there was also this near decimation of Federal forces who went to quell a minor uprising in the Niger Delta some years ago. It just couldn't be verified or conclusively investigated how pythons, mutant lions and other monstrous beasts appeared in the mangrove swamps of the Niger Delta to eat up armed men without the sound of a gun-shot, without the privilege of a gallant fight befitting trained soldiers.

In Nigeria of today, there are two enigmatic men who don't make it a secret that they respect and employ esoteric assistance for their welfare and progress. One is the Commonwealth heavy-weight boxing champion, Bash Ali. Mr Ali does not hesitate to pay tribute to what he cheerfully refers to as "Bendel Insurance", that is, the Benin-engendered occult powers with which any one in the world could be knocked out in a boxing or wrestling match with minimal effort from the possessor and server of the fetish. Even in television talk-shows, Bash Ali will only cap up all his boasts with obeisance to this black African art.

In the case of Diepreye's, one of his closest advisers (if not ultimate instructor and coach) is his fellow Ijaw indigene, simply referred to as Tuesday, a spiritualist. For avoidance of doubt, Ijaw take deep solace in the shelter of their local gurus rather than any outside philosophers. In 1991, my colleagues and I encountered a young soothsayer possibly in his mid-thirties who had been hired, housed and apportioned a place for a shrine behind the Asaigbene village on the banks of Taylor Creek, Nun river. Our investigations revealed that he came from a nearby community but had proven his mettle when it came to using voodoo to protect this snake-infested community. Another village covered by our voyage then was Kalama, where the juju priest uses a peeled coconut tied at the entrance of the narrow track leading to the village as closed-circuit television. He sees you, your dressing, and any companions, and confirms your name and mission before you arrive this tiny river-side settlement. Like Kalama, Kaiama, Omekwe-ama, Opruma and Opokuma, Diepreye's native Amassoma is no less 'powerful' when it comes to using the esoteric arts to protect and consolidate the conquests of their natives. (The means or victims of such 'conquests' matter very little in the liturgy of such societies).

Thus, Diepreye's Tuesday had since told the embattled Governor and his aides not to worry, that their Governor-General will soon return to Bayelsa to the astonishment and shame of his local 'persecutors' and meddlesome colonial masters. Of course, Mr. Tuesday gets more attention from the governor than any legal counsel or political advisers can ever dream of. In the small hours of the morning that Diepreye sneaked into Bayelsa, Tuesday was there beaming with smiles, sure to continue in the services of His Excellency with far better conditions of service than those impatient legislators that were already working to remove the Governor-General. Talk about conditions of service for occult -advisers of African leaders, and you remember the late Idi Amin Dada of Uganda whose spiritualist had a private helicopter and more pay than the Vice-President of their impoverished country.

Sickening as this is, it remains the most intractable problem of the Third World. The problem of inseparability of occult practice with leadership in Africa craves a study. Unfortunately, neither do our laws provide for such beliefs, nor does the average academic grant consider such outlandish subjects as Esoterism.

Shouldn't we study esoterism to understand Africa's leadership problems?

Considering the toll unregulated practice of esoteric arts takes on human lives, and the sheer fact that you just can't regulate what you're not conversant with, an officially approved and sponsored course of study on the phenomenon will be highly beneficial. While not standing brief for those who deem it a necessary tool in governance, or my one-time Professor of Art, a Benin prince, who informed us in the late '80s he was going to get his 7th Doctorate Degree in Witchcraft from a South American University, I think an in-depth study of these arts, and their interface with governance can tame the wild and invisible forces that have turned African governments into a medley of trickery and blood sacrifices. It will make these disembodied spirits, or blind elements, obey ordinary orders, follow simple instructions as we see in simple magic, and heed to decrees and commands issued them by humans rather than demanding blood sacrifices and the organs of the ritually murdered. Where as the former engenders useful inventions in benignant climates, the latter spawns the ignoble but fast-growing industry of ritual killing now pervasive in Africa.

For instance, in China, in combination with certain soil types, these arts have been used to produce what I bought in the course of this research, called Miracle Chalk. It is a poison that tears down the nervous system of living things within a couple of minutes, as the target passes parallel lines drawn with the chalk. It is said to be "low" poisonous, whatever that means!

But now, this is harnessed for good ends, as an insecticide, and not for homicide!

In the course of this research, I travelled to the Niger Delta region afresh, and felt the pulse of those who see these arts as an inheritance and their only succor in the face of the challenges posed by insensitive governments and household wickedness. At Aba, some of my respondents insisted that powers gained by esoterism are disarmed by lakes, rivers and oceans, and become ineffectual in transit across such terrains. In Asaba, adherents and inheritors of this phenomenon still hang simple calabashes tied with tender palm fronds at the entrance of their homes as booby-trap ( and how it works against their enemies!); and in the villages of Ugwunagbo, people still plant local species and variants of Aloe Vera as land-mines for any intruders to their premises armed with hurtful intentions. And does it work!

Don't let me fool you into believing that magic works alone or can ever be effectual without a combination of other sleight of hand and smart human moves. Let me also not hoodwink you into believing that magic (or the esoteric arts, to sound beautiful), can ever be successfully employed for positive ends without a counter-balancing (or commensurate payment in whatever currency demanded by the invisible facilitating agencies). In the course of time, the payment may be in form of an endless civil unrest, a war of attrition, the kind that has seized West Africa by the throat since the early 60s; when it seems to be abating in one country, it is only flowing into yet another like an evil tide. That is on the national/international level. What about the individual level? Two knowledgeable respondents I encountered in the Niger Delta area in the course of this research explained that any individual that employs the services of disembodied elementals pays via an annual ritual carnag e like a ghastly road accident or air crash, or a quarterly/monthly donation of a LIVING THING.

The writer is an alumnus of the Universities of Benin and Lagos, and Dean, Ministry Training Center, Lagos, Nigeria. http//www.ministrytrainingcenter.net

[Ahknaton]

I read recently that the meat of Pygmies in the Congo is highly prized for it's magical properties. I wonder whether White colonial governments might have been better served by throwing any pretence of "civilising" the inhabitants of these countries out the window and employing magic as a means of pacifying and controlling the population. Crowley for Governor-General!

[Fade the Butcher]

"When Stanley went upriver to rescue Emin Pasha, he described the destruction that Arab slave raids have brought to the Eastern Congo. He found mile after mile of burned and devastated villages; the bodies of dead men were seen everywhere, both ashore and afloat. In one Arab camp, he found twenty-three hundred slaves, not a single adult male among them. All the related men had been killed."

Robert P. Edgerton, The Troubled Heart of Africa: A History of the Congo, p.83

"He added, however, that the Arabs' slave raids had so completely destroyed food supplies in the area that many peoples of this region, such as the Malela, and been transformed into "perhaps the most inveterate cannibals on the face of the globe." For their part, the Malela were delighted by their diet of human flesh, describing it as "saltish in flavour, and requiring little condiment." Unfortunately for their neighbours, their search for human flesh led to widespread slaughter."

Ibid., p.83

"But the Basongye, or Zappo Zaps, as they were often known, sold slaves to their neighbours knowing that they would be eaten; they also ate their own dead. Soon after the end of the Arab War, they would work for the Congo Free State and spread cannibalistic terror across the Congo. Other societies, such as the Baluba for example, ate the hearts of virtuous or brave people to gain their strength, but they also ate the bodies of criminals and slaves to prevent them from doing evil to their masters or haunting them."

Ibid., p.84

"In some Congolese societies, people ate human flesh only occasionally to mark some particularly significant ritual occasion, but in other societies in the Congo perhaps even a majority by the late nineteenth century, people ate human flesh whenever they could, saying that it was far tastier than other meat and, perhaps suprisingly, that male human flesh tested better than female. Persons to be eaten often had both of their arms and legs broken and were made to sit up to their necks in a stream for three days, a practice said to make their flesh more tender, before they were killed and cooked. Teeth filed to sharp points werew widely thought by Europeans to be the mark of cannibals, but in some societies whose people actually were cannibals, teeth were not filed at all, and in others that did not practice cannibalism, people nevertheless filed their teeth to sharp points. As Sydney L. Hinde noted during the Arab War, the Batetela were such devoted cannibals that children actually killed and ate their parents "at the first sign of their decrepitude," but they did not file their teeth."

Ibid., p.84

"In 1907, the Bankutu people were seen by a European traveler to hunt people for food as other Congolese hunted animals. They served human flesh in "little rolls like bacon." As late as 1923, American traveler Hermann Norden reported that cannibalism was commonplace. One Congolese man reprovingly scolded him for not eating some human flesh when he was offered it: "You know the flesh of man tastes better than the flesh of a goat." A Belgian companion of Norden's admitted that he had probably been served human flesh and had eaten it unknowingly. In 1925, Hungarian anthropologist Emil Torday reported an encounter with a Muyanzi man who boasted about cooking human brains with a pinch of salt and red peppers, then dipping his bread into it. "Then he would smack his lips and run away like an imp." Missionary and explorer A.L. Lloyd reported that when a European told a Congolese Bangwa tribesperson that eating human flesh was a "degrading habit," the man answered, "Why degraded? You people eat sheep and cows and fowls, which are all animals of a far lower order, we eat man, who is great and above all; it is you who are degraded."

Ibid., p.85

While in the Congo, Livingstone saw human parts being cooked with bananas, and many other Europeans reported seeing cooked human remains lying around abandoned fires. British captain and medical officer Sydney L. Hinde, who would take part in the Free State's war with the Arabs in 1892-93, reported an incident in which a Basongo chief asked a Belgian officer to hand him a knife, which he immediantly used behind the officer's tent to cut the throat of a little slave girl he owned. He was cooking her when soldiers seized him. British adventurer Hebert E. Ward once asked a group of Congo tribespeople whether they ate human flesh. Their immediate answer was "Yes, don't you?" Later, Ward witnessed cannibalism on numerous occasions and was often offered human flesh to eat. He recalled an occasion when a young Bangala slave was killed. Soon after, the chief's son, a boy of sixteen or so, "nonchalantly" said, "That slave boy was very good eating - he was nice and fat." The Arab slavers did not invent cannibalism in the Congo and their defeat in 1893 did not end it. But their brutal raids forced some societies to rely on human flesh to survive."

Ibid., p.88

"While some Free State officials were exploiting Congolese and others tried to care for them, a constant concern of these Europeans was cannibalism. It was not simply the eating of human flesh that repelled them, but that so many people were murdered expressly so that others might feast upon their bodies. Early in the 1600s, Englishman Andrew Battel escaped the Portuguese who had enslaved him, to spend sixteen months among the Jaga people near the Congo's Atlantic coast. He reported that they preferred human flesh to their own cattle. Later, as we have seen, healthy children were stabbed to death to provide a feast for their owners, and men were known to help sick coworkers "die," then smoke their body parts for later consumption."

Ibid., p.108

"None of the Europeans were suprised that Africans on both sides of the war with the Arabs routinely cooked and ate not only the dead they found on the battlefield, but the wounded as well."

"Located several hundred miles to the north of the Congo estuary, the island of São Tomé played a crucial role in the early days of the slave trade. First sighted by the Portuguese in 1470, it soon after became a colony for exiled Portuguese Jews, expatriates, and criminals, who served their time there while supervising the agricultural labour of thousands of African slaves, many of whom would later be shipped to Brazil."

Ibid., p.15

"Perhaps predictably, some European visitors characterized the Congolese people as above all lazy, unintelligent, infantile, ungrateful, and lacking in foresight. One Belgium Catholic missionary described them as "laziness incarnate, turning their heads to nothing, becoming drunk, dead drunk . . .whereas the women and slaves, driven with the whip, work pitifully hard. A British Protestant missionary wrote, "The chief characteristics of [the Congolese] people appear to be drunkenness, immorality and cruelty."

Ibid., p.26

"That the Capuchins were anything but enamored of the Bankongo as potential Christians can be seen in these comments made by the Capuchin missionary Antonio de Gaeta in 1669:

Quote:
Devils by the deformation of their features, devils by the blackness of their bodies, devils in their souls because their wills are always fixed on evil; devils in their thinking, by continually having in mind superstition, witchcraft and sorcery; devils in their speaking, by the great lies they utter; devils in their actions, by so many grave sins which they commit; and finally, devils and more than devils, damned and more than damned, by that bestial pride, that inhuman and barbarous cruelty, which they display all the time and in every action.
Ibid., p.18

"I think we killed between eighty and ninety," M'lumba acknowledged. Sheppard counted forty-one bodies and was told that the rest had been eaten. He noticed that the cannibals had carved steaks off the lower parts of three bodies. The forehead of one decapitated person had been used to make a bowl for rolling tobacco. Sheppard say sixty women prisoners huddled together, awaiting their turn to satisfy the sexual appetites of the warriors."

Ibid. p.135

“The Congo is richer in mineral wealth than any other country in Africa. That wealth has preciously been stolen by the Congo's leaders and their cronies."

Ibid., xi

"Although its volcanic mountains, extensive swamplands, and dark, dense forests are not suitable for farming, many ports of the huge country have successfully been brought under intense cultivation, and its many rivers, including the Congo river - the world's second-longest and deepest - are richly stocked with fish."

Ibid., xii

"Independence under Mobutu brought outrageous corruption. Mobutu became one of the world's richest men while the country's economy collapsed, democracy vanished, and most people went hungry most of the time."

Ibid., xiii

"Much of the Congo basin is crisscrossed by so many wide rapidly flowing mud-brown rivers that together they make up one-sixth of the world's hydoelectric potential."

Ibid., p.3

"The Congo River itself was not only a rich resource for fish and crustaceans, but it also posed few dangers because it neither flooded nor ran dry. Because the Congo's tributaries come from both north of the equator and south of it, when it is the rainy season in one region, it is dry in the other, maintaining the huge river's even flow year-round."

Ibid., p.4

"For the first four days after independence, the cities and countryside alike were calm. Heavily armed, stern-faced, steel-helmeted troops led by white officers were watchful, well-disciplined, and in public view, there was no sign of trouble. However, on the next day, the Force Publique mutinied against its all-white officer corps, and a few days later, the men of the Gendarmerie die the same. Men of both forces inflicted shocking abuses on many of their white officers and humiliated hundreds of European civilians, especially priests and nuns. Some Europeans were tortured, and others were murdered. Scores of European women were raped. . . .

. . .While this panicked exodus was taking place, planeloads of Belgian paratroopers were landing to secure Leopoldville’s airport and to protect the Congo’s Europeans by whatever means they found necessary. There were few left to protect. Of the twenty-nine thousand Europeans in the Congo’s three largest cities on July 1, 1960, only three thousand remained by July 10."

Ibid., p.187-88

“How many of the eighty thousand Europeans who were in the Congo when the violence began were harmed during the mutiny has never been determined. Most fled out of harm’s way before the violence could overtake them, but some escaping cars were fired on, and many abandoned homes were looted and burned. After the Force Publique’s officers had been disarmed, all but a few were detained under guard. Some of these officers were civilly treated, fed, and exposed to few indignities, but others were stripped of their uniforms, beaten, spat upon, and forced to do drink the urine that Congolese had deposited in tin cups. A few were shot and killed. Some European civilians suffered the same kinds of ill-treatment, Flemings being singled out as victims because they were thought to have been especially contemptuous of Congolese. Priests and nuns were particularly targeted for abuse, often being stripped of their clothing and made to parade in public in the nude. Scores of European women including nuns were raped, several of them at least twenty times. Most of them were assaulted in front of their young children. A few of those who were raped were prepubescent girls themselves.

A Belgian government investigation took evidence from many victims of these assaults and rapes. For example, it reported that one man. .

as imprisoned for two days without food, with his wife and three children aged less than 12, under the menace of an automatic weapon. After he was freed, he was arrested again on the 11th of July, around 3 o’clock in the afternoon. He was stripped, like the others, and hit with fists, feet and rifle butts. Two of his companions were mortally wounded. For two more days, they were deprived of food and drink. Soldiers tried to drown him in a barrel filed with water, but a sergeant prevented them.

On the same day (11th of July), his wife was assaulted in her bedroom. She was hit with fists and rifle butts by six soldiers, who got hold of here and made deep cuts in her arms, of which the Commission has found traces. They stripped her of her underwear and raped her. Six soldiers held her tight and motionless, while an undetermined number of soldiers raped her. They stood in line while waiting for their turn. Her three children were present at the scene, crying loudly.

Other soldiers got hold of her daughter aged less than 12 and raped her several times.

Shortly afterwards, three soldiers again entered her room and raped Mrs. Z. . . .in turn. While one of them raped her, the two others held her motionless. Two children were again present.

Shortly after they left, other soldiers came to the house and rapes Mrs. Z. in the same manner.

These scenes continued from dusk til dawn.

Ibid., p.189-90

[Petr]

This is an excerpt from a voodoo-expose book written by Isaiah Oke, a son of a juju-adept, and who later became a born-again Christian.

THIS STUFF IS NOT FOR THE TENDER-HEARTED OR THOSE WITH A WEAK STOMACH.


Oke shows how African witches even today have connections to the highest echelons of (at least some) African societies .

(but before Whites start feeling too superior, I'd like to remind them that Renaissance courts in Europe were filled with Kabbalistic and Hermetic conjurors...)

http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0425128520/702-4827859-3694460


http://www.overthrow.com/lsn/news.asp?articleID=6003


Human Sacrifice In West Africa


Book Excerpt -- From Isaiah Oke's 1989 book "Blood Secrets: The True Story of Demon Worship and Ceremonial Murder". Juju is a religion practiced primarily among the tribesmen of Nigeria. These events occurred in the early 1980s.


"There are two levels of Juju: one for all believers, and a special one which only for those who have advanced training. One of the characteristics that all varieties of Juju have in common is the secrecy that characterizes Juju at the higher level of practice. I was undergoing the initiation to the higher level. Before an initiate undergoes any of the rituals, he is made to understand that death will surely follow if he should ever tell any of the secrets he learns. And, as you will see, my Jujumen would do their best to see to it that the prediction came true in my case.

The secrecy is so complere that one might say there is another religion, unknown to the outside world, inside the religion of Juju. For example, there are two kinds of sacrificial places. The Temple is realtively accessible and open. In our cities, there are big Juju temples that resemble Christian churches. Sacrifice of grain or of paper money or -- on some special occassions-- of a chicken or a pigeon. Temples are unguarded and unhidden; some even permit tourists to enter -- for a price -- and observe the Juju activities which take place there and which we refer to as ceremonies.

But there is another sacrificial place, usually well out in the forest, far from prying eyes and ears, which we call the Shrine. It is usually no more than a hut in a hidden clearing in what we call the igbo-awa (the secret forest). What is performed here is not the innocuous ceremony, but rather the gruesome and bloody ritual.

Our rituals are designed to appease the most horrid of our Gods. And -- becaue these gods are so fearsome -- so must be the rituals: We believe that nothing better appeases the fierce spirits of Juju than blood. We refer to this letting of blood as ichu-aja, a word which has been translated as sacrifice. But because sacrifice has overtones of charity and self-denial to Westerners, you might prefer to think of it as ritual killing, which would more accurately describe it.

Blood flows more freely than water in some shrines, but the modern Western world wants to remain oblivious to that fact. It does not want to know that we still appease the spirits of our gods with the blood of animals.

And even less does it want to know that the higher spirits demand the blood of a higher animal -- the human animal.

Many in the West want to believe that all this -- Juju, blood sacrifice, ritual killing, human sacrifice -- is something from the distant past, a relic of darkest Africa from the days before it was 'civilized' by the white man. That belief is far more comforting than the truth.

[Bill: While usually the sacrificial victims are black, in the following description of the ritual of the two hundred cuts, an older white man who has been investigating into the dark side of Juju is captured by the Juju practice and sacrificed to the Juju God. This description even disturbed me, and I have a strong stomach. The characters are "the Colonel" -- a Nigerian military man who is entreating the Gods to allow him to overthrow the government and take control, Doctor Drago -- a Juju high priest, the initaite - - our author, and the unfortunate elderly white man. Read at your own risk:]

[The Colonel] suddenly grabbed up a scalpel and thrust it into the white man's side to a depth of several inches.

The Doctor grabbed the scalpel out of the Colonel's hand and threw it to the tile floor with a clang. "Do you wish this man to go to the Orisha having died an ordinary death? Can you afford to indulge your anger if it creates such waste?" he shouted. The Colonel looked instantly regretful and almost abashed.

Drago [the Doctor] bent to study the wound. he examined it critically and made the kind of quick, competent judgement that only a man who has inflicted thousands of such wounds can do. He sighed. "Four hours. No more. We shall have to work faster than I'd planned."

He went to a cabinet against the wall and brought back several packets with red crosses on them. Within minutes he'd dressed thr white man's wound. Then he pulled a chair alongside the table and leaned to the white man's ear.

"Listen to me. You will go to the spirits in pain. They will hear you above all others because your pain will be so great. You will plead for good fortune for the Colonel. If you fail him, he will burn your body and scatter your ashes to the winds. Is that clear?"

He snapped his fingers at the Colonel. The Colonel looked insulted, though I don't know whether it was because of the Doctor's attitude of because he was obliged to do something for himself. But the ritual required the Master of the Slave Servant to bring forth by himself the vessel in which the remains of the sacrifice would be imprisoned. So the Colonel bit off his anger and went through the doorway into a small room in the back that was always kept dark.

He returned puffing under the load of a portable clothing wardrobe. He set it down just beyond the foot of the sacrifice table, where the white man could see it. It stood almost as high as the ceiling, and was made of pressboard. It was the same color blue as a cloudless sky and it had a label on it: Sears, Roebuck and Company. Such cabinets were a common sight in Drago's ile- agbara. There were probably a dozen or more just barely visible through the doorway to the darkened room. I'd always before assumed they were just shipping cases for Juju, because sometimes one the men with the fancy cars would take one of them away with him. I'd never looked into any of them because Drago had never told me to; it wasn't any of my business. Besides, it always smelled so bad back there.

Drago pointed to the cabinet. 'This is your hostage home,' he said to the white man, 'Look upon it and know fear.'

But the white man was moaning and tossing his head from side to side, though whether from the the pain of the wound or from the terror of what was to come I did not know. Drago chose not to repeat himself to the white man. Instead he reached into one of the packets he'd brought from the cabinet and produced a little white cylinder wrapped in gauze, about the size of a peanut. He twisted it open in his elegant fingers and a stringent smell of ammonia spread instantly through the sacrifice room.

But rather than simply waving the smelling salts some distance under the white man's nose, as would have been normal, he jammed the capsule up one nostril.

The white man's head thrashed wildly in an involuntary attempt to escape the noxious fumes. His screams nearly drowned out the popping noises that came from his overtaxed neck muscles. If the stainless steel table had not been bolted down, I'm sure it would have been dancing in place from the white man's exertions.

It wasn't until the smell began to dissipate that the Doctor removed the capsule. "Now," he said calmly, "You have had a lesson: You must understand all that will happen. He must pay attention to me and you must answer when spoken to. Do you understand?"

The white man glared at Drago in defiant silence. The Doctor was still holding the broken ammonia capsule, massaging it sensually between his fingers. When the white man failed to answer, he dropped it to the floor. With a sigh, he took a fresh capsule out of the packet.

"Yes!" the white mans houted, his eyes large. "Yes I understand!"

Drago smiled and patted the white man on the head. "That's good. Thank you for responding to me."

Then he broke the capsule and shoved it up the white man's other nostril.

I looked aruond the room. The two soldiers seemed to be as shocked and unsettled as I was. But the Colonel was vastly amused by the incident. ... I was surprised to see an erection bulging under the sharply creased pants of the uniform ...

He dropped the capsule on the floor and turned to look at his collection of scalpels on the tray. "It is right that you should be afraid," he said over his shoulder, "That is the purpose of this ritual, to send you to the spirits in such a state that they cannot help but notice you. Only then can you be effective in pleasing the Colonel's case. will put you in such a state by using pain. Think on this and know fear." He turned back to the table, his fingers stroking the handle of the gleaming scalpel. "You are alone ... you are lost. There is nothing you can do. Think on this and know fear ..."

The first cut made by the doctor was much more disciplined than the Colonel's wild stabbing. He set the blade just above the sternum and a bit to the left. He let it sink into the white man's flesh to a distance of perhaps a centimeter or so, just enough to seperate the top layer of skin from the underlying tissue. He drew it downward evenly in a perfectly straight line until he got to the pubic hair. I could see the skin spread back before the knife; it reminded me of plowing a furrow in a place like Georgia, where the soil is read, because a thin trickle of blood oozed up behind the blade as it passed. Without pausing, Drago went back up to the starting point. He moved the blade a little further to the left and proceeded to cut another track, as straight as the first.

Then he made a short cut up at the top of the man's chest ...

[Bill: He then take the strip of flesh and pulls it from the body. A disturbing description of the man being skinned alive follows.]

"If [skinning a man is like skinning an animal] there is no reason you should not continue to remove the strips while I make the cuts." There were tears in my eyes, but he stood cool as ever. He twined his fingers sinuously through my hair as he tried to comfort me just as though he were my grandfather.

"I do need your help ... there is much to be done and little time to do it. I know this ritual can be difficult the first time. But remember your grandfather [a deceased high priest]. Do it for his honor if for no other ..."

"Grandfather?" I said, "Surely my grandfather could never have carried out this kind of ritual!"

A smile cracked on the Doctor's face. "No? Who do you think taught it to me? Of course, the old man only did it for your village, becuase he thought it would bring your people power and good fortune. I don't think he ever did it for a client, in fact, I doubt if he ever made ten naira in his whole life from his Juju."

The vague air of sympathy disappeared and he became all business again. "Now," he said, "let's finish the job. And remember Isaiah: You can no more change what will be happening here today than that poor white man can." ... For the next three hours the Doctor cut and I pulled. As we did, the Colonel talked to the white man, which was difficult at first. But it soon became easier: The white man screamed his voice hoarse and made very little noise after the first few minutes.

I don't remember much of what the Colonel said to the white man; I felt like I was in one of those dreams where you work all night and wake up tired in the morning. But I remember the Colonel's main objective because he repeated it to the white man over and over: to eventually take over the country. This the Colonel said again and again until at last, inevitably, the white man became the Colonel's iko-awo [ghost-slave.]

It took a little less than the four hours the Doctor had anticipated. By the end, the floor was almost carpeted by the little capsules of Ammonia, as well as with empty syringes. The had contined the drugs that the Doctor injected into the white man as the ritual entered its later stages, when it became harder and harder to bring him back each time he passed out from the agony of his ordeal.

I have always told myself that the unknown white man was probably dead by the time I admistered the coup de grace. Or that he wouldn't have wanted to lie in the kind of shape he was in and that I actually did him a kindness. These are the things I've always told myself about the 201st cut, which I had to administer.

After a break during which the Doctor had coffee and the Colonel drank some French wine from a squat bottle one of his men carried, we removed the white man's entrails. That was a trivial procedure compared to everything else: a couple of quick cuts and done. The Colonel saved the liver in a plastic box that had a blue flower on its side and had a matching top which snapped in place; it looked very festive. Everything else was discarded. The hollow, skinned corpse was much lighter than it has been in life. We washed it and shoved a big iron hook through its back. Then we hung it up in the skyblue wardrobe, like a butcher might hang a chicken in the window.

The white man had been tall and his toes nearly dragged the floor of the cabinet. The Doctor told the Colonel they need to be "trimmed back" as the now empty body stretched out over time. I have heard florists advise people on the care of house plants in the same tone of voice.

The Colonel had his men carry the wardrobe out to the ambulance. I was detailed to carry the big box of spices and herbs that he would have to apply to the body weekly, to keep the insects and smell under control, until it was fully "ripe", which would take about a year or so.

Then, the motorcade set off for the airpost and long trip back east, leaving me a day older.

...

The mystery of AIDS in Africa versus AIDS in the West is that women and men in Africa get it in more or less equal numbers, while in the West, it is more common among men. Scientists have concocted many elaborate theories to explain that discrepancy, many of which depend upon bizarre secual habits on the part of the entire African population, children included. But one of the things I've wondered about is whether there couldn't be a simpler solution: AIDS is a blood disease, spread by contact with infected blood.

And who has more exposure to raw blood than a Jujuman?

We cut ourselves and we cut others. We splash blood about. We even drink it. It's part of our ceremonies, part of our rituals, part of our everyday lives. Men, women and even children drink blood -- human as well as animal -- as casually as Americans drink cola.

Could this be how AIDS is spread among us? Hos it was able to spread so fast and so far? And how it has affected our men, women and children so universally?

I haven't heard of any Western doctors or scientists who have seriously considered the possibility that our Juju rituals are responsible for the unique pattern AIDS has made in Africa. In fact those scientists to whom I've mentioned the idea dismiss it because they refuse to accept that human sacrifice is as common in Africa as it is. I can't blame them; scientists no more want the gruesome facts of Juju to be true than laymen do."



Petr

[Jimbo Gomez]

(but before Whites start feeling too superior, I'd like to remind them that Renaissance courts in Europe were filled with Kabbalistic and Hermetic conjurors...)

Petr, you're smarter than to say something like that. The Renaissance ended more than 500 years ago, and since then, we have progressed quite a bit. The africans on the other hand only learned to kill eachother with guns (which we gave them) instead of with spears in the same timeframe...

[Petr]

Petr, you're smarter than to say something like that. The Renaissance ended more than 500 years ago, and since then, we have progressed quite a bit.
Of course I know this. Why are you offended by my even-handed, fact-based approach? See this other thread on the influence of occultism in the history of Western science:

http://www.thephora.net/forum/showthread.php?t=2766&highlight=wallace

And of course there was a great occult revival among the fringes 20th century European political movements as well. In his Table Talks, Adolf Hitler stated that

"A negro with his tabus is crushingly superior to the human being who seriously believes in Transubstantiation."

TT, 12/13/41


Petr

[Petr]

"Listen to me. You will go to the spirits in pain. They will hear you above all others because your pain will be so great. You will plead for good fortune for the Colonel."

"It is right that you should be afraid," he said over his shoulder, "That is the purpose of this ritual, to send you to the spirits in such a state that they cannot help but notice you. Only then can you be effective in pleasing the Colonel's case. I will put you in such a state by using pain. Think on this and know fear."

This is like a Satanic imitation of Jesus Christ's ascent to heavens where He pleads for the sinners to God the Father...


Petr

[Petr]

Btw, has anyone seen the Wes Craven movie Serpent and the Rainbow?

http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/6305087466/qid=1136392378/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2_2/701-3779987-6878765


Petr

[Vindex]

Why are people always shocked to see blacks, being blacks.lol Maybe because the system tells them all blacks are so holy and great.

[Jimbo Gomez]

Petr, are you quoting Hitler to prove your point now? Say it isn't so.

[Petr]

Petr, are you quoting Hitler to prove your point now? Say it isn't so.
I am not necessarily quoting him in the sense that you think that I am.

(looking mysterious :p )


Petr

[Björn]

Petr, the church used magic way back in the day. You might find it handy.

[Felix the Cat]

Militiamen grilled bodies on a spit and boiled two girls (2005) (http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Congo-militia-grilled-and-boiled-victims-UN/2005/03/17/1110913739872.html)

Militiamen grilled bodies on a spit and boiled two girls alive as their mother watched, United Nations peacekeepers charged on Wednesday, adding cannibalism to a list of atrocities allegedly carried out by one of the tribal groups fighting in north-east Congo.

"Those responsible for atrocities will be brought to justice," General Patrick Cammaert, the Dutch Navy commander of UN forces in Congo, told reporters in presenting a report on abuses allegedly committed by the Patriotic Resistant Front of Ituri.

Cammaert said peacekeepers were also working to cut off weapons supplies to the group, which apparently entered the country from neighbouring Uganda.

Front Militiamen were suspected of killing nine UN peacekeepers in a February 25 ambush.

On March 1, militiamen fired on Pakistani peacekeepers and the peacekeepers fought back, killing up to 60 fighters, UN officials said.

Congo became a battleground for six nations during a 1998-2002 war that killed some 50,000 people directly and another 3 million through strife-induced hunger and disease. But sporadic fighting continues between militiamen, rebels and government troops in the lawless north-east.

The fighting there is killing thousands every month and has made it the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said in Geneva today.

Wednesday's UN report, summarising testimony from witnesses gathered over a year, said hundreds of people have been kidnapped by militias in the region and some have been killed by torture and decapitation. Those not killed are held in labour camps and forced to work as fishermen, porters, domestic workers and sex slaves.

"Several witnesses reported cases of mutilation followed by death or decapitation," the report said.

The charges of cannibalism were the first detailed account to emerge since the war, when occasional charges surfaced.

The UN report was accompanied by a separate account from Zainabo Alfani in which she described to UN investigators being forced to watch rebels kill and eat two of her children in June 2003.

The report said: "In one corner, there was already cooked flesh from bodies and two bodies being grilled on a barbecue and, at the same time, they prepared her two little girls, putting them alive in two big pots filled with boiling water and oil."

Her youngest child was saved, apparently because at six months old it didn't have much flesh.

The woman herself was gang-raped by the rebels and mutilated.

Alfani survived to tell her horror story, but she died in hospital on Sunday, nearly two years after the attack, of AIDS contracted during her torture, the UN report said.

The mother gave her account in February, but the UN waited to publish it until after her death for fear she would become a target for reprisal.

The new International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, said this week its first cases will deal with war crimes committed in eastern Congo.

[Hippias]

I used to own a cassette of Eugene Valberg's talk at the 1994 AR conference. He talked about black African's near-universal belief in magic. Valberg met a Nigerian who said he wore an amulet to protect him from danger. The negro ended up getting in a car wreck and Valberg asked him why his amulet failed to prevent the accident. The negro said the person who crashed into his car wasn't wearing his amulet. I made the mistake of listening to this in my car. I nearly went into a ditch laughing.

[Ravenheart]

This is like a Satanic imitation of Jesus Christ's ascent to heavens where He pleads for the sinners to God the Father...

Journeys into the underworld or spirit realms are described in mythologies and religions the world over, particularly in shamanic cultures. Shamanism predates Christianity, by the way.