Picture this with me:
It is 7pm in Lagos. Mama is sitting on her plastic chair outside, pressing her phone. Her son just called — he lost his job again. She sighs, looks up to the sky and says, “Ahh, it is those people in the village. They don’t want him to rest.”
Two streets away, Chinedu didn’t pass JAMB. He studied, but the questions were tough. At the family WhatsApp group, his uncle types: “Someone has buried your destiny. We need to go for deliverance.” Nobody is asking if the school was underfunded, if there was no electricity all week, or if exam anxiety got to him.
This is how it goes in many African homes. Something bad happens, we don’t investigate, we point fingers at “them”. Job loss? Them. Sickness? Them. No marriage at 32? Them.
Why does this feel so normal?
Because “them” gives us comfort. When life is confusing and painful, “village people did it” is a full answer. You don’t need to think, cry, or feel like a failure. You just need prayer points. But if the problem is stress, lack of skill, or bad health, then your hands are not tied. You can sleep. You can learn. You can go to the hospital. You can try again.
What if the enemy is not in the village? What if the enemy is stress, fear, and the story we keep telling ourselves? And what if calling things by their real name is the first step to freedom?
Why “witchcraft” became our first answer
So if in reality “village people” doesn’t explain our problems, why did all of us agree to use it? It is not because we are foolish. It is because “witchcraft” solved four human problems at once:
- It is faster than thinking and our brain loves shortcuts. Psychologists call it “cognitive laziness”. We call it “I just want peace”. “Witchcraft” is a one-word answer.
- It protects our pride. Let’s be honest. Nobody likes to say, “I failed” or “I don’t know”. But if you say, “village people tied me” you are a victim. And victims get sympathy, not blame.
- We grew up on stories, not on science. Our grandparents were wise, but they didn’t have hospitals, Google, or psychology. When a child got sick, they said “spirit is disturbing the child”. That made sense then, but we still take bedtime stories and make them hospital diagnoses.
- The Church and “men of God” agree. Let us not lie. Many pastors, prophets, and deliverance ministers built a whole industry on “witchcraft”. If people are scared, they will bring money for “special prayer”. That is how the business works.
The bottom line is, we didn’t invent “village people” because we are wicked. We invented it because we are human. We hate “I don’t know”. We hate shame. We love quick fixes. We trust authority. But once we see why we chose that answer, we can choose a better one.
When we call everything “witchcraft”, we stop fighting real problems. You can’t pray away stress if you still work 18 hours. You can’t break a “curse of delay” if you don’t learn a skill. You don’t always need to fight demons. Sometimes you need sleep. Therapy. A new skill. A doctor. A budget. That is power.
The damage of blaming “them”
When “village people” is our answer for everything, it costs us more than we think:
- Families break. Brother stops greeting brother because “you bewitched my child.” Mother and daughter-in-law become enemies for life. We lose people we can never replace.
- Money wastes. Aunty sells land to pay for “3 nights deliverance” and “special anointing oil” of ₦150,000 gone. But her child’s school fees are ₦40,000 and unpaid. We keep paying to fight what we can’t see, while real problems grow bigger.
- No growth happens. If every business failure is “embargo”, you’ll never ask: Was my product bad? Was my location wrong? You don’t learn, you just wait for the next prayer.
- Fear raises our children. A child grows up hearing “don’t go out at night, witches will catch you.” That child is now 30 but still afraid of their own shadow. Anxiety becomes normal.
- We miss real solutions. Malaria is caused by mosquitoes, not by curses. Go to the hospital, take drugs, clear the gutter. When you blame invisible forces, visible problems stay untouched. You can’t fight smoke and ignore fire.
Keeping culture, dropping fear
Let me be clear: I’m African. I love our stories. I love proverbs. I love that we respect mystery. Humanism is not saying, “become oyibo and throw away culture.” No. Humanism says, “Think clearly inside your culture.” How we do that:
Keep the wisdom, drop the fear. Our elders said, “Know your enemy.” That is wise. But let us know REAL enemies: poverty, ignorance, corruption, bad health habits, laziness. Those ones you can see and fight. Don’t waste energy fighting shadows.
Ask questions. Before you say, “it is spiritual attack”, pause and ask: Does my phone have a virus? Do I need a new skill? Can a doctor help me?
Separate story from science. It is beautiful to say, “my grandma’s story warned me about greed.” That is culture, that is wisdom. But it is dangerous to say, “my cousin died because my uncle sent witchcraft”. The story is inspiring. Science solves.
Take back your power. If it is “village people”, you are helpless. You just wait and cry. But If it is lack of a skill, you can learn it on YouTube for free. Naming it right gives you your power back.
We can still pour libation and respect ancestors without believing they’re killing us.
Conclusion
“Village people” gave our parents an excuse when life was too hard to explain. Fair enough. But humanism gives us responsibility today. You are not tied. You are not cursed. You are not “delayed by ancestral covenant”. You are a human being, living in a tough but understandable world. Systems are broken. Yes. But they can be studied. They can be navigated.
You are not powerless. You are just human. And humans can learn, heal, and grow.
By Ijeoma Adeniyi