Gods Of Mind

There was a man in my village called Opkagogo. This man is known or called Adu (slave). He married at the age of twenty five (25) years but after fifteen years of his marriage his wife died. That was the beginning of another page of his life. 

One day after three years of the death of his wife, a strange noise came out in the village. Every mouth of both young and adult were calling “Adu”, Adu means slave. 

But nobody spoke out what happened to Adu or what Adu happened to until the report got to chief Gago of the community. Because, Adu’s action sounds ugly and strange to people’s ear. 

It is not because they never heard such action before but Adu has never done such a thing before neither did our community heard his name in any bad thing before this time around. 

No body dare cook food that day, even some persons that were eating, when they heard what happened to Adu they left their food unfinished. 

Because this 40 years old man was very good to the whole members of the community. Not because of the position he occupied in the community but his kindheartedness. 

As soon as the report got to the chief Gago of the community he called Adugwu ( gong man) to go and call both the young and adult. Male and female for an urgent meeting. 

In less than ten minutes everybody in the community has already gathered in chief Gago’s palace to know what was going to happen to Adu. That moment, chief Gago now pointed a lady called Igo-anya to tell the meeting by herself exactly what she reported to chief Gago. 

And the lady stands up and narrated her story with her face facing down. She told the meeting that, she was raped by Adu on her way going to stream to fetch water.

Everybody in the meeting were surprised some asked within themselves “could this lady lies against this young man?" Many people believed this young lady because she is a trustworthy personality. 

The chief Gago now asked Mr. Adu to talk over this allegation. When Mr. Adu stood up he could not say anything but tender apology to the lady and the community members that he actually committed that ugly crime. 

He maintained that the action was unintentional to him and he prays for forgiveness to gods of the land, the lady and the community members.

It was after this confession that the community leader called Adukwu stood up with tears in his eyes which led many people to cry for Mr. Adu because nobody knows him to be criminal in any form.

 Adukwu said “for me, I have forgiven you and I also know that this lady and other community members can forgive you. Because, you are a good man. You have contributed to the development of this community but what about the gods of this land?” He said this shortly and has his seat.

Almost everybody began to cry because everybody in the community knows that, whoever commits such crime must be sent to the evil forest and will be killed by the gods of the land. Which had already happened to many people not less than twenty persons right from our fore fathers. 

In our tradition we believe that whenever this oddity act or rape as a crime is been committed in our community, it is capable to bring evil to happen in the community. 

It is either innocent people begin to die or every woman in our community becomes barren and there will not be rain in our community for seven to ten years. 

The major occupations in our community are: farming, plantation and hunting. Therefor, we value rain because of our farm crops and plantation trees. 

It happens like that in our tradition because every female must be taken to the Churian (gods) in evil forest to take an oath or to invoke a divine spirit as a witness regarding her future acts or behaviors. 

Every female at the age of eleven to twelve years must be taken to the evil forest by her parent and swear to the gods, that she must remain a virgin until she is legally married to a man.

Therefore, everybody was not happy about this challenge. The community members don’t want to lose Mr. Adu but they are afraid of the punishment of the gods of the land. 

The best option for us according to our believe, was to carry Mr. Adu to the evil forest and be killed for peace of the community. 

Then the traditional priest known as Akache ( chief harbalist ). Came out from the masses with chain and red color cap in his head. 

The red color cap signified danger. As at this time everybody in the meeting began to cry because of his kindness to everybody in the community. Even the chief Gago and the community leaders were not happy but they could not do anything. Because, he is not the first person to be taken to the evil forest for this same case.

According to the tradition, before anyone goes to the evil forest, the parent or the family of the offender must produce one she goat and twenty liters of palm oil along with the offender. 

As this process was going on, before the journey to the evil forest began. Some strangers came from the city with one of our indigene who live in Lagos city. His name is Udu who later changed his name to Andrew 

Some of the personalities that came with him to the city where; Samuel Andson, Emmanuel sky, Ephraim Leeons. These three white men and other African men and women came to the village for Christian Missionary Program (CMP).

As soon as they landed in the community, Samuel Andson and the group leaders decided to go and see some of the elders and chief Gago in the community to tell them their mission to the community. 

And he went along with two of his members and Udu who is now Andrew to interpret from English language to the indigenous language. Everybody likes Udu in the community because of his humility and his usual joke.

The arrival of the white men to the palace of Chief Gago was like the arrival of an angel to the community.

Samuel Andson told the elders through the interpreter that, their journey to this community is to evangelize and preach the word of God for repentance.

 He further told them that Christianity is the only religion that is free and peaceful for anyone who believes in the son of God Jesus Christ. He told them that, this program is going to last for five days. 

When he finished, one of the elders in our community stood up and welcomed them by waving his hands and he called Andrew to help him interpret to the strangers. 

He particularly told them the norms, Do and Do not in the community in that process, he pointed out Adu who committed crime as rape. He further said 

"rape is one of the major taboo in this community as you are seeing this young man there the next two hours he is going to be a dead man by sending him to the evil forest. If we can punish our own son like that for the purpose of his immorality action, therefore nobody commits such crime and be saved". 

The missionary concurred with all the conditions given to them by the community leaders.

ANOTHER CHAPTER OF THE MINISTRY HAS JUST   OPENED FOR THE MISSIONARY.

. After the missionary group left the palace, another meeting held on how to rescue Mr Adu from been taken to the forest. 

In this meeting Udu or Andrew who is a member of the missionary and at the same time member of the community stands in the missionary meeting and narrated the custom and traditions of our community.

That the only way the gods of this land will not bring calamity is when the man that do this type of evil action (rape) is been taken to the evil forest and killed. 

He also let them know that, that young man there is not the first person. Not less than twenty people have been taken to the evil forest and killed for this same act.

It was at this junction of the narrative that the white men look at their own faces and turned their faces to the narrator with strange look."What a barbaric tradition!". Said by Ephraim leeons. 

Frome here they conducted a research to know why the young men in the community rape, how many people have been sent to the evil forest and killed as a result of this action, what is their age range, and what is the method of traditional bride price in our community, and also to know if the perpetrators of the act are single or married. 

At the end of this research they found out that thirty young men in this community have been sent to the evil forest for the purpose of rape and their age range is between forty five and fifty years old. They also discovered that some of those people were single while some were widowers. 

Another thing that was exposed through their research was the method of our community bride price. In our tradition if you must marry as a young man, you must pay a bride price of one thousand (1000) tubers of yams, fifty liters of palm oil and two years old she goat.

The following day, meeting was called to the chief palace and almost everybody in the community were present both old and young men and women, adult and children and the missionaries were assembled.

At this point chief Gago called on the Samuel Andson to tell the community what he has to say. This white young man stood up and waved his hand to everybody in greeting, he said to the community through the interpreter "I am a member of this community in my heart although my color is different". 

“Since we came two days ago we have been here in this community without any external challenge. If we must have challenge that should be the challenge of our barbaric traditions and believes in this community. We as a missionaries we are not here to change your culture or your traditions but to find a solution to where challenge lies. I and my team we have found out that there is no any gods in this land to punish you. It is the gods of your heart that is punishing you. We also found out that not less than thirty people have been killed in the evil forest as a result of their evil behaviors. For how long will we continue to kill our people in this small village my people? Killing our people is not the best solution; we can only find the best solution through dialogue just as we are here today for dialogue”

Therefore, he opened up at the meeting why young men in this community rape; that they rape because of the hardness involved in our traditional marriage.

"Did your gods tell you what to collect from the young man before you give him your daughter in marriage?” No! How can you tell a young man to bring one thousand (1000) tubers of yams, fifty liters of palm oil and two years old she goat before he can marry a woman of his choice? Who collect those things and eat gods or you? Who loss those people you have killed gods or you? The only way you can overcome this raping challenge is to allow your young men to marry your daughters in an easy way. I know that the gods of the land has no hand in giving your daughter for marriage but your heart does. The best solution is to give your daughters in hands of marriage free, so that it will be easy for the young men in this community to marry on time. Through this, rape will be eliminated from this community. If you look at the history of those young men who raped and was killed in the evil forest, is either single, widower, young man or youth. When the young man has food to provide for the traditional wedding because of friends and relatives who come from other communities to eat, what do you think it can stop him from marrying the woman of his choice? As it happens to Mr. A today it can also happen to Mr. B tomorrow".

From here almost everybody in the meeting were happy with silent laugh especially the young men and women who have the urge to marry. From there the chief Gago welcomed the foreigners again and told them that, their mission to this community is a welcome development. "We have heard you, that is a very good idea nevertheless, we native of this land we are going to dialogue and see what to do" said by chief Gago.

Thank God for the life of the missionaries who were able to conduct research to know what made people rape in our community then. Those white men exposed theirself to the tradition of our community. They did not bother themselves to blame the offenders but to find the solution to the challenge.

"Gods Of The Mind" is the believe of the babaric traditions in the life of people in the community. It is the idea or believe that, there are gods. But one God I know is Jehovah.