Wild mix
Witches prey on bandits, dreaming of immortality and invisibility.
In early July in Nigeria have killed 26-year-old witch doctor, who made a talisman against bullets, hung around his neck and offered to shoot him. Nothing strange in this country, the police appreciate charms more than armor, and combine local hackers are stealing money through the Internet with gloomy rites. “Ribbon.ru” to understand the peculiarities of the Nigerian magic.
Buba “Saliks” from the Nigerian city of Maiduguri spread their wares before the militias who are fighting the Boko Haram:
This removes the bullet, showed it one last talisman. — This will hide you from the enemy. With it, you will see the first of those being hunted. And this tremble and rocking, when danger is near.
Buba nine years he studied with the grandfather of magical craft. 20 years later it brings him a good income. Daily Beast writes that each amulet for the militia, he could earn 150 to 200 thousand Naira (25-35 thousand rubles). In peacetime it is fed therapeutic drugs for malaria, typhoid and eye diseases, which are ordered by local residents.
In Nigeria, many still believe in the efficacy of traditional magic. Politicians pay healers for supernatural protection from the machinations of the opposition, the merchants buy the means to attract customers. The magic does not shun even the Christian priests, dreaming of a big flock.
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The magicians have amulets, potions, powders and incantations for every occasion. Some guarantee an increase in earnings, while others make a person invisible, the third save of his wounds. Love potion, of course, also exist.
However, some tools require abstaining from sex or certain foods, but have to endure: magic requires sacrifice.
Many of the recipes were in Vogue in colonial times, and even earlier. Descriptions of similar amulets are found in the works of anthropologists who studied the beliefs of the peoples of West Africa in the early twentieth century. Since then much has changed, and sorcerers had to adapt to a new life.
The guys from Bakassi
Amulets against bullets were in Vogue through the fault of the armed group “Bakassi Boys” (Bakassi boys), which operated in the South-East of Nigeria 20 years ago. Unlike other gangs, she was not robbed, extorted money and sold drugs. Her specialization was illegal, the fight against crime.
Local residents tired of rampant crime and willingly pay the “Bakassi Boys” to catch violators of the law, which does not touch the police. The gang had the support of the Governor, and preferred methods of the medieval Inquisition. Caught, the thieves cut hands, and on the city squares arranged public executions without trial.
Activities and “Bakassi Boys” and alleged criminals, which they hunted, was a crazy mixture of tradition and modernity — a magical amulets, and a shotgun.Acebutolol Babson, author of “Charms against bullets, lie detectors and street justice”
The gang was obsessed with magic and did it without a single step.
During the interrogation, “Bakassi Boys” hung on the neck of the robber got necklace charms that are creating the language and do not allow to lie. It was believed that the magic will force him to confess. The other method is somewhat similar to “Hammer of witches”: when the crowd of people to the chest of the suspect has made a ritual sword, if the skin is flushed, he is guilty of bloodshed.
As for amulets against bullets, the “Bakassi Boys” they become a mandatory part of equipment, like a Kalashnikov.
They were called “Odesa” — in the language of the Igbo people, common in those parts, the word means “invincible”.
Soon the custom was adopted by other armed groups, bandits and even the guards.
Battle magic
The militia, who come back to Bebo “Saliks”, confident that his potion has saved their lives. One of the soldiers told an American journalist that before the fight with the Islamists of “Boko Haram” they bathed and drank of the protective drug, sewn into the seat of a pickup truck mascots and amulets were placed in the pockets. Bullets riddled the car, but the people were not injured.
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The Islamists, too, disdain not the magic — in war all means are good. In 2013, Boko Haram took a trip to the land of the Yoruba for the production of amulets against bullets. A terrorist organization planned to provide up to 10 million Naira (2 million) and promised a generous reward to those who bring them good healers. Later destroyed the camps of the Islamists was found abandoned charms.
Charms against bullets and is often used by law enforcement officers. “Nobody wants to die, so they take them for extra insurance,” explained the Nigerian publication Punch, a prominent cleric of the religion of IFA, Ifame Elebuibon.