Many people accuse native doctors of deceiving the public but I do not join them in the blame game. I have never seen nor heard about a native doctor forcing himself on anybody. People go to them. If these people stop patronising them, nobody will complain of being deceived by them. They do not even recommend themselves. After telling those that patronize them their problem, they will tell them to go to a very powerful native doctor to do the rituals for them. It is the person, who will say, “Baba, I don’t know any other powerful native doctor but you. Please, do it for me.”
I read about a man who was suspecting his wife of committing adultery. He travelled to his village to consult Baba for confirmation and for him to reveal the culprits and to stop his wife from doing that. That was where he missed it. No Baba can stop sexual indulgence. The Bible says that if we know the truth, it will set us free. This freedom is in every aspect of life. I am a living witness to that. Nigerian ladies and US ladies have done their utmost to seduce me sexually but they failed woefully. They failed because I am a child of God, after surrendering my life to the Lord Jesus since 53 years ago.
Does that Uncle know the Lord Jesus? Has He set him free? Is he free from sexual indulgence? Is the Lord Jesus a member of his family? What effort has he made in teaching his family the Word of God? Has he been praying for his wife and children? What was the attraction of this native doctor to him? Is the circumstance of that native doctor better than his that he went to him for help? If a man cannot help himself, can he help another person? Imagine what it cost him to travel to his village to consult the native doctor!
After telling Baba his problem, he told Uncle to go home and come back after two weeks, and that he should bring a handful of sand from his compound. It was possible that the native doctors might have the ability of knowing the hidden conduct of every one in Uncle’s family, who stepped on the sand. After two weeks, he went to his village to see the native doctor and give him the handful of sand. In their usual manner, after making incantations and seeing ugly things, Baba asked him, “I don’t know if you can handle this issue after hearing what is going on in your family?” Uncle told him to go on to announce what he saw. “The two boys you have are not your children, someone fathered them. Five men are sleeping with your daughter. Your wife is pregnant for your younger brother,” the native doctor announced to him.
Baba was surprised that he was laughing all through instead of weeping. I recall, when I was in the primary school, as we assembled in our main auditorium on the closing day. We would be listening in great fear, as our Head Master announced our examination result, especially during promotion examinations.
The class monitors were never afraid because they had managed, somehow, to open the result sheet. Uncle, like our school monitors, had his hidden reason why he was not worried right from the scratch, no matter what the native doctor saw or did not see.
One of the beauties of Christianity is that God, in His wisdom, announces the result of any situation to His children before the event. These are successful results. It is like knowing the result of a soccer championship before the match. He assured David of his recovery of his things stolen by the Amalekites plus jara, before he fought them. It was so.
I suspect strongly that Uncle must have asked Baba to confirm that the sand he had brought was what revealed where those evil things Baba detailed took place and Baba would have acquiesced gladly. In a just reprisal, Uncle asked him quite strangely, if he could handle the situation if he told him something about the issue on ground. “Go ahead and say it,” Baba told him, without imagining or suspecting anything. “As I was rushing from my house to keep our appointment, I forgot to get the sand in my compound. I couldn’t imagine meeting you without any sand. I had to get it here, I mean the sand, at your compound,” he told Baba. The native doctor, having been taken unawares and realising the implication of what Uncle had revealed, shouted in bewilderment, “Jesus Christ!”
It was a case of a judge being tried by a suspect, or a teacher being examined by his student! It brought out the truth that native doctors may have some powers but they do not have absolute power like God. With ordinary sand, the native doctor was able to know the evil practices, going on somewhere. It was strange that the power he had could not reveal to him that the sand given to him was taken from his compound and not from Uncle’s compound. This explains why some of us have decided to serve the Living God, Who knows everything. Secondly, the power that Baba had could not reveal to him also, the evil things that his wife, daughter and younger brother were doing in his house. Imagine!
Some native doctors for sure, possess some powers, while some of them exploit the emotion of the people that patronize them, especially, women. In those days, their consultation fee was one shilling. You would drop the money at the feet of the native doctor and the proof that he could handle your problem was based on his ability to tell you why you came to see him. Clever guy, Baba would pretend to be whispering things to himself such as: “Early death is not for me but for my enemies; I will not suffer because of my kindness; My goat will not eat my enemy’s piece of yam; If I don’t wish the death of someone, nobody will kill me and my children…” He would continue until he would hit the target, the thing that brought the person! Aunty would shout in delight: “It will not happen to me. Mummy Mary, what evil thing have I done to you? Since my husband married me, you have wanted me dead. I serve you and respect you as the first wife of our husband…” Baba would then exploit her reaction.
Clever guy, Uncle would pretend as if he did not hear her. He would continue to consult his oracles or would pretend to be doing so before telling the person assuredly why he came.
After listening to the native doctor and observing his gimmicks, my Uncle, Nath, pocketed the money he and his mum had dropped at Baba’s feet and left. His mum wept, pleading with him to drop the money before he did so. Through a just reprisal, Uncle had forced Baba to shout, ‘Jesus Christ’. May he know Him personally!
For further comment, Please contact: Osondu Anyalechi: 0909 041 9057; [email protected]
