Three Nigerian “witches” just got beaten by a midnight downpour. They are, Siminalayi Fubara, Nyesom Wike and Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in ascending order. Last Thursday, 18 September, there was an initial apprehension in Rivers State over whether its reinstated governor, Fubara, was “coming home.” An earlier excitedness over the end of emergency rule got momentarily dampened. Apprehension however dissolved when Fubara’s nemesis, FCT Minister, Wike, proclaimed that indeed, Fubara was coming home. The frenzy over Fubara “coming home” was similar to “It’s coming home!”, a phrase taken out of the 1996 song, “Three Lions”, composed for England as it hosted the Euro ‘96 tournament. It symbolised a dual meaning; that football would return to its England birthplace, being the country where modern football was codified in 1863, as well as hope that England would win the trophy. English football fans have since owned the arresting phrase, now used to assert England’s leather game superiority.
For Zambia and its recent history, “It’s coming home!” goes beyond football. It symbolises what can be called cadaver politics, the politicisation of burial grounds and indication that, for African leaders, political considerations, rather than public interest, are most times key drivers of policies made to look like the interest of the people.
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In Zambia, the ghost of this political consideration dressed to look like public interest was unintentionally exhumed last week. By the way, if you thought witchcraft was otiose, Zambia proved us all wrong. A court in Old Man Kenneth Kaunda’s country sentenced two men to two years imprisonment. Their crime was attempting to use witchcraft to kill current President Hakainde Hichilema. Arrested in December 2024 in an hotel, they were found in possession of charms which included a live chameleon, a red cloth, an unknown white powder and an animal’s tail. Zambian Leonard Phiri, 43, a local village chief and Mozambican Jasten Mabulesse Candunde, 42, were thus convicted under the Zambian Witchcraft Act passed during colonial rule in 1914.
The prosecution averred that the two were hired by a fugitive former MP, Emmanuel ‘Jay-Jay’ Banda, through his younger brother, Nelson, to bewitch President Hichilema, under the pretext of treating a sick woman. In their defence, the duo, known during the trial in Lusaka as “Juju assassins”, claimed they were not out to assassinate the president but were bona fide traditional healers. Said Magistrate Fine Mayambu in his ruling, “The two accepted ownership of the charms. Phiri further demonstrated that the chameleon’s tail, once pricked and used in the ritual, would cause death to occur within five days… It is my considered view that the convicts were not only the enemy of the head of state but were also enemies of all Zambians”.
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The Zambian witch trial is interesting because President Hichilema once professed a zero belief in the efficacy or existence of witchcraft. Interesting also because witchcraft and occult reasons featured prominently in conversations over Hichilema government’s protracted legal battle against the burial of his predecessor, Edgar Lungu. Lungu had died in South Africa last June during treatment for undisclosed ailment. His last wishes were to be buried out of Zambia, He specifically barred his predecessor, Hichilema, from witnessing his funeral. The feud between Hichilema and Lungu began even before the former roundly defeated the latter in the 2021 election. It later spiraled into a row enveloped in wild accusations of witchcraft.
A Pretoria court initially ruled in the Zambian government’s favour that, “in the public interest”, Lungu’s remains should be repatriated to Lusaka and given a state funeral, against the wishes of the family. As if Zambia had won a trophy, “It’s coming home!” became famous among Zambian government regime fawners. Among governing party supporters and officials, “It’s coming home!” was wildly circulated on Facebook, indicating that the corpse of Lungu was coming to Zambia. Sishuwa Sishuwa, of South Africa’s Stellenbosch University, also a Zambian historian and senior lecturer in the school, put the burial politics in focus when he told the BBC that it was an indication “that political considerations rather than public interest are the key drivers at play”. The court eventually ruled that Lungu could be buried in South Africa and was so buried at the Christ Cathedral Church, Johannesburg.
In Nigeria, Fubara’s “coming home” last week is being perceived beyond the public display of euphoria by Rivers people. To them, it is comparable to the downpour that soaks the clothes of a witch at midnight. So, when an African witch gets beaten by a midnight downpour, what happens? Engaging Juju music maestro of the 1970s/80s, Prince Cyril Bamidele Abiodun Alele, popularly known as Admiral Dele Abiodun, erected the witch jigsaw puzzle, as well as problematising it. The downpour that soaks the clothes of a witch at midnight gets buried in silence, (Òjò t’ó pà’jé l’óru, t’ó bá dé’lé kò ní lè sọ…) he sang.
In Zambia and its former British colonial outpost neighbours like Malawi, Zimbabwe, just as in Nigeria, there is a widespread belief in occult practices. Many politicians resort to it for influence and existential survival. In his allocutus, Agrippa Malando, counsel to the two convicted witchcraft apostles in Zambia, attempted to turn the table around. “The President said he doesn’t believe in witchcraft and that witchcraft doesn’t exist. If the Head of State himself dismisses its existence, then surely the court can extend maximum leniency to my clients,” he argued.
As human beings, we cannot divorce our lives from metaphysical thinking which includes the existence or non-existence of witches. Indeed, the metaphysical can be an explainer of the physical. The duo of Lesiba Teffo and Abraham Roux, in their “Metaphysical Thinking in Africa” in The African Philosophy Reader by Coetzee P. and Roux A,, (1998) asked, “why does lightning kill people and destroy property? Why are some people successful whereas others, despite their efforts, fail? Why do innocent and good people become ill and die?” To them, seeking to make meaning of our lives and understanding the world we live in and its realities are legitimate human quests. It is the quest to bring scholarly light to bear on hidden wisdom. It makes an analysis of the place of occultism and metaphysics in Africa a necessity.
In traditional African thoughts, witchcraft is associated with nocturnes, among other unflattering features. Reverend H Debrunner did a study of witchcraft among the Akan tribe of Ghana. The research work was made into a book with the title, Witchcraft in Ghana, (1961). Among others, Debrunner said that, apart from flying at night, one other major identifier of African witches is their upside-down symbol. In other words, witches stand out for their inverted positioning at night. Writes Debrunner: “Before they leave the body, they turn themselves upside down… They walk with their feet in the air, that is, with head down, and have their eyes at the back of the ankle joints.”
In Africa, nighttime also got popularised as a predominantly fixed period of witches’ activities. A Yoruba saying which affirms this and underscores witches’ absence at night, says, how many nights does a witch stay in bed that she is asked to contribute to the purchase of bedding? Admiral Abiodun then pursued the imagery of the witch beaten by rain further. In his song under reference, the musician asked, per adventure the witch, at daybreak, intended to report the encounter of her soggy clothes, (T’ó bá dé’lé t’ó bá sọ…) the question then becomes, where was she by the time of the downpour? (ibo ló ti wá?).
The African witch also moves backwards so that she can move forward. As a symbol of witches’ social inversion, the Ewe, a West African ethnic group who are predominantly found in Togo, Ghana and Benin, speaking the Ewe language, with roots in the historical Yoruba Oyo kingdom, believe that when a witch walks upright, “she has her feet turned backwards.” This can be found in the book with the title, Africa: The African explains witchcraft, published in 1935.
When Fubara addressed Rivers on Friday, he spoke like a penitent little brat. He thanked President Tinubu for his “fatherly disposition and decisive intervention”, flaunted his decision not to approach the court for decision on the emergency rule as penitence and praised his tormentor-in-chief as “our Leader,” finally submitting that “nothing has been irretrievably lost.”
Yet, many have likened what transpired in Rivers State from 19 March to last Thursday, between Fubara, Tinubu and Wike to a downpour that soaked the witch at midnight. Apart from the tiff being a spat between a godfather and godson, it has been said that it is a battle for both Rivers’ electoral soul and huge funds. In a fury against a party which rebuffed his quest for its vice presidential slot, Wike’s 2023 presidential election’s mowing down Rivers votes, said to be in favour of Labour Party, for APC, won him placement in the heart of the party that eventually won the presidency.
Wike’s achievements since becoming FCT Minister and his yeoman’s defence of the presidency have hoisted him as a Villa dependable ally. However, his coleric mood-swings and ability to tip over at little prodding must have warned the presidency that it could not afford a Wike’s imperial hold on Rivers. This, it is said, explains Tinubu’s cheetah-speed intervention to impose an emergency on Rivers. It came in the nick of time, at a moment when, for Fubara, the most beautiful cloth was not capable of salvaging public ogling at his Omoye’s nakedness; the beautiful lady having already walked naked into the marketplace. Wike had heavily shellacked him and his governorship was ready for the morgue. So, shrouded within the belly like the fact of the witch’s soggy dress is whether Tinubu imposed emergency on Rivers as a statesman or an ordinary political chess-game master who sees votes and not democratic progression of Rivers State.
When Fubara told Rivers last week that “nothing has been irretrievably lost,” he was merely being smart and not clever. Other than being a figurine at the The Brick House from now till 29 May and bettering his personal lot, everything is lost for Fubara. If Wike controlled Rivers by 60 per cent before the emergency, now, he holds the state by the jugular, with about 95 per cent. The witches have successfully sucked the blood of their victim, leaving its carcass. To make a recourse to Africa’s perception of witches and its symbolism of blood, HW Robinson, in his “Blood,” published in J Hastings’ 1908 Encyclopedia of Religion and ethics holds that “life is the blood and vice versa”.
According to Hastings, “when the blood left the body, it carried the life with it.” Among Ghana’s Akan people, it is believed that the witch is a vampire who can kill “by sucking the blood out of a person.” One of Wike’s most adored songs, which he gleefully sings, is “Enye ndi ebea, enye ndi ebea” (give this to this part and give to the other part). It espouses the Igbo principle of equity. With the configuration he got now in Rivers State post-emergency, how equitable is the wealth of Rivers? Apart from the House of Assembly that had always been in his kitty, Wike emerged from the emergency with Rivers local governments inside his pouch. Wike seems to have become the proverbial witch who kills and you cannot see blood dripping from his lips; the witch who kills and does not need the vulture to eat the entrails, the lord of nocturnes.
From my study of Wike’s politics, what I see is a crude but deft political player. He combines the deadliness of a hyena, this animal’s loath of any animal sharing its spoil, with the calculative instinct of a male lion. Wike, also like a lion, hunts his prey afresh, seldom feasting on stale meat. He is brash but possesses the remembrance of an elephant, all of which he puts in the service of his political executionist agenda. Anyone who stands in opposition to him would need to possess higher grits, rougher inclination and more deadliness. Fubara was apparently too laid back, too feeding bottle-like in political approach as against Wike’s political artillery firepower.
While the witches have finished sucking Rivers blood, leaving its carcass, the greatest losers are the people of Rivers State. Democratic governance was still like a dodo within the six months that Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas was Administrator in the emergency period. No one will ask him questions on what he did with the people’s money, in cahoots with the National Assembly oversighting him. Wike is happy as he now has Rivers inside his kitty. Tinubu is guaranteed one million votes. Ibas is chubbier. Yet, the people are transfixed, wondering where their redemption would come from.
In his ruling, Zambian Magistrate, Fine Mayambu, considered the witch convicts “not only the enemy of the head of state but… enemies of all Zambians”. The witches who fed on the blood of Rivers during the emergency period cannot be said to be friends of the people of the state. Like Debrunner said of African witches, what the witches have ensured in Rivers now is an upside-down situation. Upside down, Fela Kuti reminded us, has its meaning, too. What they did, like the African witch, was to move that state backwards, under the pretext of moving it forward. As the Ewe say, all we can see of Rivers is, “she has her feet turned backwards.”
Festus Adedayo is an Ibadan-based journalist.
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