On my first trip to Nigeria in 2005, I spent over a month teaching English at a government junior secondary school for girls in Benin City. Every Wednesday someone would visit the school and preach in the name of Christian faith to the children before classes. One Wednesday I listened to the message presented to the children. The woman preaching warned them that some of their schoolmates could posses “juju” (devilish spiritual powers), which could cause them or their family members physical harm and even death. She went on to say that the only means of defense was prayer and faith in the Christian God. In short, instead of receiving a message based on the Christian principle of “love thy neighbor,” the girls were told to distrust everyone around them, even those closest to them.

During my second trip to Nigeria in 2006, where I conducted research on the topic of the “ritual killing” of human beings, it became apparent that the message of distrust presented to the school children was by no means an isolated incident. After conducting over thirty interviews in Lagos, Ibadan, and Benin City, I came to the conclusion that Nigerian society suffers from a lack of trust among many of her citizens, and this distrust influences and is perpetuated by beliefs in the supernatural.

This essay presents my reflections on the gospel of distrust as it plays out in the idiom of the ritual killing of human beings. Before proceeding, let me state clearly that I am an “outsider” to Nigerian society and only have limited experience in the country. For this reason, all of my judgments and conclusions should be received critically. It is my hope, however, that my perspective can somehow enrich the dialog on the topic of “ritual killing.”

Ritual Killing

In Nigeria, “ritual killing” is a colloquialism that refers to the use of human body parts to summon Gods and supernatural powers to intervene in the physical world. While there is a portion of the Nigerian public that believes in ritual killing, which will be described in more detail below, others reject it as baseless “superstition.” For the remainder of this essay, I refer to the Nigerians who believe in the power of ritual killing as “believers,” those who do not as “non-believers,” and those somewhere in the middle as “the undecided.” [1] This essay focuses on what ritual killing signifies for the believers.

What Nigerians generally refer to as “native doctors” is important in understanding ritual killing. Native doctors specialize in mediating the human and spiritual realms by using human body parts. Believers maintain that native doctors can use human body parts to summon the powers of gods who then provide patrons with such things as wealth, power, protection from enemies, cures to illnesses, longer life, and so on. An important point to be made is that unlike non-believers, believers do not doubt the ability of native doctors to mediate the physical and spiritual realms. Believers are therefore presented with the following choice: either solicit native doctors and become rich, powerful, healthy, and so on, or reject these material benefits out of moral conviction. Clearly, this choice creates a moral dilemma, which non-believers are not presented with because they do not believe in the power of native doctors. In short, for believers the decision on whether or not to solicit the work of a native doctor is based on morality, not skepticism.

With the decision to participate in ritual killing, which requires acquiring human body parts, being a moral dilemma for believers, it should not be a surprise that buyers exist. Indeed, there will always be people willing to abandon moral principle for wealth, power, and other selfish ends. Likewise, it should be no surprise that suppliers exists with buyers ready to part with large amounts of naira (Nigerian currency) for anyone that can provide human body parts. Given the absence of skepticism, basic economic theory is easily satisfied as demand creates supply; the result being a market for human body parts.

The existence of a market where supply is created through kidnapping, killing, and dismembering humans is breeding ground for fear and distrust among Nigerians. It should be stated that many of the stories surrounding the ritual killing of human beings are unsubstantiated rumors. Nevertheless, there are incidents, such as the infamous Okija shrine case in 2004, where headless bodies, skulls and other remains of dead humans are found by authorities. Such incidents indicate that the fear of being a victim of ritual killing among Nigerians is well-founded.

But regardless of whether or not individual stories about ritual killing are true, I found that the general discussion surrounding the topic reveals a pervasive lack of trust in Nigerian society. This insight becomes clear when we consider how the discussion on ritual killing is infused with references to traditional beliefs in the supernatural, Christianity, corruption, political and economic power, and other salient features of Nigerian society. I explore the connection between some of these features and ritual killing in the following sections.

The Gospel of Distrust

An important finding from my research is that one of the prevailing denominations of Christianity in Nigeria, Pentecostalism, encourages Nigerians to be suspicious of peoples’ successes and personal misfortunes because ostensibly they often come as a result of ritual killing. To understand how I arrive at this finding, we need to explore the connection between Christianity, traditional supernatural beliefs, and ritual killing.

In Nigeria, Christianity provides space for traditional beliefs in the supernatural to maintain “existence.” Instead of eliminating traditional gods from the pantheon, for believers the Christianization of Nigeria only relegated traditional gods as agents of the devil. As previously stated, such agents can be wielded by native doctors to provide for their patrons such things as wealth, power, and protection by offering these gods human body parts. Believers claim that what is provided by these devilish gods only lasts for a short period and that there is always a price to pay for summoning their power. For example, native doctors can be informed by these gods that the patron must sacrifice the life of a close relative in order for their wealth and prosperity to be sustained.

According to believers, only the Christian god can provide long-lasting prosperity with no price to be paid, however patience is often required as He waits to see who will be tempted by the devil. Given this belief, it is no wonder that various forms of success are attributed to ritual killing. The forms of success could be anything from profitable business to high fertility to good health. Moreover, believers see ritual killing also an explanation for misfortune. For example, sickness, infertility, and poverty may come as a result of someone who uses the power of ritual killing to inflict pain on a foe.

In short, what followers of Pentecostalism and other Christian denominations learn is to be suspicious of others’ successes and personal misfortunes as they may be a result of participation in ritual killing. The implication is that distrust is easily spread, particularly given the difficulty of verifying the source or cause of success and misfortune since “physical eyes” cannot be relied on to see what occurs in the “spiritual world.”

The Politics of Ritual Killing

It is assumed by believers that most of the Nigerian political and business elite participate in ritual killing in order to actualize political and business ambitions and to protect themselves against opposition. The association between Nigerian elites and ritual killing reveals a well-founded belief that political and economic power in Nigeria is often achieved through corrupt and illegitimate means. However, for believers the source of power to engage in corrupt practices in the physical world comes through summoning corrupt and devilish supernatural powers. Non-believers disagree.

For non-believers, the belief that political and economic power is achieved and maintained through corrupting supernatural forces only makes addressing the problem of corruption more difficult. Non-believers maintain that this belief represents Nigerians feeling of powerlessness in stemming corruption and making the government more responsive to citizens’ concerns. Thus, the belief leaves no viable means of changing the political situation in the country, particularly when we consider the proposed solutions coming out of Pentecostalism.

As previously stated, Pentecostalism, as preached in Nigeria, spreads the idea that outcomes in the physical world come as a result of the spiritual world. Accordingly, since the root cause of Nigeria’s corrupt political and economic elite is spiritual depravity, spiritual means must be used to change things in the country. To fight back, religious leaders arm Nigerians with the “power of prayer.” But for non-believers offering prayer as the primary solution is equivalent to supporting the corrupt status quo; addressing the problem demands concrete action.

Humanism as a Way Forward

Through working to make the Humanist philosophy an “aspect of Nigerian culture,” the Nigerian Humanist Movement (NHM), with Leo Igwe as its Executive-Secretary, is challenging the beliefs surrounding ritual killing and other forms of religious dogmatism and occultism in Nigeria and Africa at large. According to this philosophy, instead of understanding the world through inherited religious doctrine or “superstition,” humans should rely on reason, experience, and shared values. Moreover, humanism asserts that humanity is better able to find solutions to the world’s problems by promoting individual rights, freedom and responsibility as well as social cooperation and mutual respect.

According to Igwe, the NHM is working to integrate the humanist philosophy into Nigerian cultural through. Most importantly, the movement provides space for Nigerians, whether they be agnostics, atheists, or believers, to express openly their doubts regarding religion and other unchallenged assumptions about the nature of existence. The movement is also fighting for Humanism to be placed on government school curriculums, alongside the extant courses on Christianity and Islam. According to Igwe, the current curriculum trains students to defend a religious perspective, either Christianity or Islam, and as a result, Nigerian children are discouraged at an early age from asking questions which challenge mainstream religious and supernatural beliefs. Furthermore, the movement is set on establishing a national center in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, where it can better influence legislation and the general political discourse in the country.

In my view, the efforts described above challenge in two important ways the core underpinnings of ritual killing – specifically the assumption that personal success and misfortune as well as political and economic power are associated with the supernatural. First, providing a space for non-believers and the undecided to voice their views openly on the topic is a necessary step in encouraging the believers to question the validity of ritual killing. Secondly, encouraging rational interrogation of religious dogmas is a necessary step in weakening the link between Pentecostalism (and other Christian denominations) and ritual killing. It is my belief that these steps can only help create possibilities for Nigerians to better challenge political and economic corruption and combat the pervasive distrust plaguing the society.

[1] One thing should be made clear. While I do not know the proportion of the believers, undecided, and non-believers in the Nigerian population, based on my research the believers by no means appear to be a small and insignificant portion of the population.

Stephen Roblin is an American who worked as a volunteer with NHM last year

This is a revised version of the article, which was submitted by the author on 19 July 2009 -- Ed.