THE MIDNIGHT JUJU

 

I was thinking this morning.... Sometime in the eighties, we lived in a 4-flats building with the landlord, in Gbiaye Street, in the Marine Quarters area of Warri. One day, the landlord had sent for my dad and complained that he had been having a problem sleeping at night because of a strange noise. He posited that it seemed someone in one of the flats had juju that came out at midnight, making this ka-ka-ka-ka sound that kept him awake. The landlord and my dad's bedrooms were separated by just a wall.

Despite assurances from my dad that there was nothing of such, the landlord sent his grown sons on a search mission to uncover the juju disturbing them at midnight. They turned my dad's room upside down but found nothing. Then they moved to the two flats downstairs and did the same, but no luck.

Though angered by their ridiculous accusation, we decided to pay attention that night to help unravel the mystery. 'You know say e no dey tay before dem dey catch winch for Warri.' We waited as everyone went to bed. Decibel by decibel, the surrounding noise went down. As the noise finally died after midnight, we listened intently, waiting to hear the steps of the juju. 'Listen. I can hear it now,' one of us said. We inclined our ears and could hear the ka-ka-ka-ka sound. We followed the sound into my dad's room again. We froze and listened. It seems to be coming from above us. We looked up and almost died of shock by what we discovered. We finally caught the juju. It was my dad's old ceiling fan.

Apparently, the ceiling fan, due to wear and tear, makes this tick-tock sound when on low oscillation. It does so all day, but no one hears it because of the noise all around. It seemed louder from midnight when everywhere was dead quiet.

Don't be too quick to jump to a conclusion. Too many Africans are fighting imaginary devils because of their ignorance. Many are too lazy to investigate or do a deep dive. If only they can quiet the noise of their prejudices. Like they say, everyone's mountain is their ignorance. Invest in developing your mind because it is a thought factory. It produces based on the raw material you feed it. If you put in garbage, you get garbage. Proverbs 4:23 says "Keep your heart will all diligence; For out of it are the issues of life."

Stay hopeful. God's got our back.

Happy Sunday!

......Just the thoughts of a certain Wey Mey