There’s an African aspect to the Western sports that have gotten more eyeballs around the world. Yet not many can see it. When Esther Egbe chatted with ex international, Taribo West, a lot was revealed.
As Team Nigeria jets out to Rio 2016 in Brazil, imagine each of the delegates wearing a waistband earlier soaked in seven litres of water from seven seas across seven continents for seven days by seven witchdoctors. They have assured the wearer of breasting the tape minutes ahead of others, and scoring many goals above their rivals.
That sounds like a fable—as far as sporting goes. But it’s real. “In my playing days, when I was ignorant, I used to get some mallams and babalawos (traditional doctors) to make charms for us, which we took to camp,” Taribo West tells the National Daily.
Because he’s now a Christian, and a Bible-bashing pastor, he can boldly tell anybody he drank some witch’s brew and carried magic rings to win football competitions in his heyday as Super Eagles’ defender. So he doesn’t get it when footballers, including his team-mates, and coaches decline to talk about their involvement with charms.
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According to the founder of Shelter in the Storm Miracle Ministries, that sort of witchcraft is acceptable and widespread in some football clubs. He notes there are coaches who are connected to African soothsayers in Senegal, Burkina Faso, Zaire, and Nigeria. “These people are consulted to give these coaches results of games even before the matches are played,” he says. And these clairvoyants can divine strange things—accurately.
Club owners also do it. They give you luck charms before matches. “They will tell you to put the charms in your boots or socks, and play,” said Pastor West. Although he wouldn’t state the matches Super Eagles won using charms, the ex-defender confirms he used it, his friends did, and he saw it work. It failed sometimes, though.
Since nobody has the nerve to flaunt their charms in the face of their umpire, witchballing will ever remain controversial. It will also get more rampant as sporting now turns out a cut-throat competition, and preparation gets more desperate.
No doubting what an anxious Team Nigeria can do, especially when juju is a lot safer than steroids.