I'm sorry to bring you this graphic image but I think we need to talk about this. A Twitter user @spicybebe shared the photo above on Twitter, and according to her and certain other Nigerian Twitter users, she is a bird which fell from a power line in the Oshodi part of Lagos and turned into a woman by the time she landed on the ground. Confusing, right? Is it even possible?
A mob immediately gathered calling her a witch and it took the intervention of police men or the poor woman would've been lynched. Hmmm...
I'm still very sceptical of accusations of witchcraft in Nigeria, especially since women are usually the major victims, and mostly older women. If you ask me, these occurences of 'supernatural' or unexplainable events could well be attributed to physical illness, or mental health issues.
Like in this scenario, some said the fact that her skin is peeling is proof that she is a witch. According to the theory, her bird form was burnt by the live power line and her human form bears the burns.
You want to know what I think? I think this poor woman left her home, was probably even driven away from her home by relatives when she manifested this peeling skin illness. The relatives may have even accused her of being a witch too, and chased her away.
I hear you ask, but is there a peeling skin sickness? The answer is yes and the name is Desquamation - the loss or shedding of the epidermis or outer layer of the skin. This can be a form of skin cancer or caused by various toxicities. According to healthgrades -
Peeling skin can be caused by direct damage to the skin or by a wide variety of mild to serious diseases, disorders and conditions. Peeling skin can affect a small area of the skin or the full body and can occur in all age groups and populations.
So back to our sick woman of Oshodi. She is confused and weakened by her sickness, and wanders around usually during the night when it is cooler. Probably, a part of her also understands people are turned off when they can see her clearly in daytime. But at night, she becomes another hungry, mad woman to be thrown a morsel or given some distance as she scavenges from bins.
Yesterday, something different happens. She has unknowingly wandered to one of the busiest parts of Nigeria and there is no where to hide as morning comes. Trying to make her way to a corner, someone sees her and raises an alarm.
The first person that sees her doesn't know where she came out from, she is unusual and scary, and being a typical superstitous Nigerian, the next logical step becomes that she fell from the sky. The person tells that to another person who looks up, sees a power line, and links the burns to electricity burns. The third person of course says, she must have been a bird on the power line before falling, and so the story goes.
I'm using this avenue to ask for someone who can in all honesty say that they saw the particular bird that fell from the sky or the power line, and watched as it turned into a woman.
In fact, since this is not the first story of this kind, I'll like to see a any video or pictures of those initial moments from all those stories when the animals transformed into human beings.
If not, can we begin to think more rationally about these cats/birds/women that are supposedly witches?
I hope the woman in this story has been taken to the hospital and would be adequately taken care of. I'm open to helping anyone interested to follow up this case and offer aid to this woman.
Respectfully, I disagree with your theory ma. I have seen cases of a woman hanging on a high tension wire where ordinarily nobody can clime no matter how monkey like the person is. I have seen another perched on banana leaves, this is no circus show. Most of these things are real
ReplyDeleteRespectfully, I disagree with your theory ma. I have seen cases of a woman hanging on a high tension wire where ordinarily nobody can clime no matter how monkey like the person is. I have seen another perched on banana leaves, this is no circus show. Most of these things are real
ReplyDeleteBut birds don't get electrocuted sir (at Okoawo BlueGate). Since you have seen a woman hanging on a high tension wire, as you have said, did you ever see a bird also hanging from a tension wire too? I mean at anyt point in time? If not, let's look at it this way; Africans think of the possibility of a bird turning into a human. They interprete this imagination as witchcraft and play it out in reality in the form of any OLD woman who has suffered the pains of neglect from friends, family or relatives. On the other hand, the western world thinks of the same possibilities and play them out in comic characters as Batman, Spider-Man, Cat woman etc.
ReplyDeleteI have seen birds electrocuted but that is not to say the woman they claimed is a bird that turned to a human, i don't believe in all that crap. just as the writer of this story said, i like to see the video where the bird turned to human being. you see, this life is full of rumors most time people just say what they did not see as if they saw it. i was on a bus one day on my way to work. we saw a crowd of people gathered together, one of the passengers on the bus asked someone in the crowned what happened here? the guy answered i don't know but it's like someone tried to kidnap a little boy well its not confirmed yet. immediately my co passenger pick up her phone and called someone telling the person that they just caught a pastor trying to kidnap a little boy. you see why i said there so many of these things that are not true?
ReplyDelete