By Alhassan A. Bala
Around August – September, 2023, rumor of a gang of blood- sucking women spread across northern Nigeria to a frightening level.
The alleged syndicate, comprising mainly of women, were said to be entering residential areas and communities either asking for water to drink or restroom to use, but that their benefactors would suddenly lose their consciousness and blood, leading to their sudden death.
The event, mostly reported on social media, was alleged to have happened in Katsina, Kano, Abuja, Niger, Bauchi and Sokoto states.
In Nigeria, this can be a new issue, but for people in other parts of Africa, it is as routine as sunrise, because, in 1948 to 1949, when Malawi experienced its worst famine, people believed that bloodsuckers were moving about in cars and vans at night.
The onslaught only ceased after cars were burnt and a curfew imposed by the village chiefs.
Similar rumours re-emerged in 2002, a year in which Malawi experienced erratic rains and hunger. In certain southern districts, villagers became so afraid of mysterious blood-suckers that they left their fields unattended, while suspected vampires were violently targeted. This resulted in mob justice by villagers on suspected strangers. One killed and three others badly injured as it was reported.
There were two similar issues between the blood-sucking gang in Malawi and the one in northern Nigeria; all happened when people were going through a devastating hunger and economic hardship. Secondly, the major target were all strangers.
Authorities in most states affected said that the allegations had been investigated by the police and were found to be unsubstantiated rumour fabricated with the sole aim of promoting hate for strangers.
The issue of blood sucking women wasn’t completely over when a similar one, involving penis theft re-emerged.
A penis-theft typically involves four stages:
first the “victim” has an odd encounter, such as a stranger unexpectedly shaking his hand. Second, is the sensation of feeling of an electric shock or chill traveling to his genitals. Third, he checks his crotch and becomes convinced his penis, testicles, or both have been stolen or shrunken. The fourth step is crying “Thief!” and enlisting others to confront the suspect, sometimes with the “victim” stripping on the spot to prove his genitals are gone.
There was a time when men walked around grasping their penises to prevent theft!
Issue of penis theft is not only a Nigerian thing; in fact it happened in 14th Century in Europe.
An evil woman took a man’s penis and stored it in a bird’s nest, along with a brood of other stolen members, which she fed with oats.
After a long quest, the man found the witch and demanded that she return his manhood. She told him to climb a tree to find the nest filled with squirming penises, and take whichever one he wanted.
When he tried to take a big one, she said, “No, that one belongs to a priest.”
This story, told in the Malleus Maleficarum (1486), the most popular witch hunting manual in history, encapsulates the crime of witchcraft: witches were women who literally unmanned men. And penises pop up everywhere in witch trial records.
A witch had a lot of power over the penis. Witchcraft could make a man impotent, but only with a certain woman. A witch could turn a penis invisible, transforming an innocent man into a Ken doll. Or she might steal it completely and treat it like a pet, storing it in a box and feeding it grains.
In 1997 about seven men were killed in Ghana over alleged penis-theft.
In 2008 in Congo, urgent messages went out by radio to avoid strangers wearing gold rings in taxis, leading police to put 13 suspected sorcerers into protective custody to prevent lynchings.
In Nigeria, it is often believed that individual genitals were stolen for ritual and occultic purposes.
Although there are many theories to the issue of blood sucking and the penis theft, the former which medical experts say there is no way blood can be removed without using technological equipment, while for the latter; Kramer and Sprenger believed that penis theft was a genuine psycho-medical phenomenon.
Whatever the case it may be witches or sorcerers were usually feared, and they used a variety of means to attempt to achieve their goals, including incantations (formulas or chants invoking evil spirits), divination and oracles (to predict the future), amulets and charms (to ward off hostile spirits and harmful events), potions or salves, and dolls or other figures (to represent their enemies).
Witches sought to gain or preserve health, to acquire or retain property, to protect against evil spirits, to help friends, and to seek revenge.
The two issues may possibly be a sign of how sorcery (tsafi) is gradually eating deep into the society.
I was once traveling to Kano which I couldn’t get flight and needed to be in Kano that very day, I sat at the front seat of a car, around 8:30am we were already in Kaduna heading to Kano discussing about religion, to my shocker, the driver told me that he did not believe in Islam and Christianity as he is a follower of the African Traditional Religion (ATR).
Luckily during my university days (100-200 levels) I offered a course on African Traditional Religion, which made me to have a little knowledge about it, we had a very understanding conversation as the guy said he studied Political Science.
He claimed that very soon the ATR followers will demand official recognition because in universities, public offices, national ID, International Passport etc, there is no room for them to identify themselves.
He insisted that the number of people that believe in ATR is at the increase saying that they believe their forefathers were more protected by what they believe then now.
The recent events, although many see them as myths, but Islam and Christianity believe that voodoo and sorcery exist but the two religion are against them.
The emergence of the two events shows how some people are gradually returning to the act of sorcery for a reason best known to them.
It is high time people intensify their daily morning and evening prayers of protection against all evil including acts of sorcery by some
elements in the society.
Bala writes from Abuja and can be reached via balahassan2007@gmail.com
