Why Believing in Juju is Worse Than Juju Itself
You probably shouldn't believe that juju exists
If your partner cheated on you, emotionally and physically abused you, and then told you it was the work of the devil, would you believe them? If you believe in the supernatural, why not? Is the devil incapable of it? Wouldn’t such a confession warrant all the sympathy in the world?
This isn’t just theoretical. A lot of Nigerians are superstitious, and not in the fun way. We all, in our little annoying ways, have serious beliefs in witches and wizards, Jinns that deliver money at night, spirits who possess people, and juju that steals glories and wealth. There are many who think these beliefs, even if false, are harmless. My argument is that they aren’t, and even if they were true, you would be better served not seriously believing them. Let me tell you a story.
When I was younger and much wiser than I currently am, I had a friend. Let’s name this friend Paulinus, because that is the sort of name that fits his character. I have never met a sensible person named like that, and Paulinus was no different. Paulinus was thoroughly Nigerian in the sense that he had all the bad habits you would associate with Nigerian culture and sadly none of the good. He lied, had a short fuse, stole, hatched stupid (but grand) criminal plans, and believed in all manner of outrageousities.
One day, as I spoke with Paulinus (you may wonder why I spoke with such an awful person at all, but I only did as my Lord and Savior Jesus did when He dined with the dregs of the earth), he told me why his life was in such shambles. The long and short of it was that as a little child, his destiny was swapped by his stepmom, and his head was filled with sawdust. You see, the reason why I can never get ahead in this life is because I need deliverance, he told me. It was impossible to argue the point because Paulinus, in Nigerian parlance, really needed deliverance. But I need to find a very strong pastor to do it for me, he said. All these other pastors are fake and they will just take your money. Or I need to get a very strong Baba to do Irapada for me.
Unfortunately, for as long as I knew him, Paulinus never found his strong pastor and never did his Irapada. The last I heard of him, he was asking for giveaways on Twitter. This isn’t to mock him, of course, but to make a point. Paulinus believed that whatever his bad behaviors were, they were caused by something else—a greater power that moved him to do extremely stupid things, a greater power that he was in a bind with and couldn’t control. And he was serious about this matter too, as I once witnessed him sleeping in a cele church to see if the byproducts of God’s spirit in the people under trances would fall on him.
While Paulinus’s story might sound tragic to you, the real tragedy lies in the why. Many Nigerians reading this article to this point would nod solemnly if Paulinus told them his sob-and-destiny-and-sawdust tale. His story certainly aligns with a lot of foundational beliefs Nigerians have about the nature of the world. We believe, at least in theory, that what Paulinus described is possible. His parents believe it too, which is why they have taken him to multiple churches and mountains to pray the stupidity away. Our churches and pastors believe it, and so do Muslims.
A man bewitched or otherwise spiritually afflicted is as Nigerian as Lagos traffic and 419. We assume that these things are concrete parts of our physical universe that we can interact with. No Nigerian church service is complete without prayers against spiritual arrows, powers in high places, generational curses, and all manner of metaphysical attachments. We believe these things. But do we really? And should we really?
If we assume that Paulinus is truly afflicted by a spiritual ailment—which has been verified by many pastors and imams—is his behavior his fault? At university, Paulinus’s behavior was punished severely with bad grades, as he was something of an idiot.
However, if he is truly afflicted by spiritual powers, aren’t his grades extraordinarily cruel? One day, after one of Paulinus’s properly idiotic criminal plans got busted, his father arrived at the hostel to beat him within an inch of his life. Throughout the said assault, his father kept saying he would beat away the evil spirit that afflicted the poor boy. We know that didn’t work because that week he was found out for cheating and stealing yet again. In light of that, isn’t the beating my poor friend received the most wicked thing a father can do to his child? It is just as evil as a man beating up a child because the child is disabled.
Importantly, the fact that Paulinus himself believed he was afflicted by spiritual agents meant that he couldn’t do the hard work necessary to change his own behavior and chart the best course for his life. He believed that spiritual problems required spiritual solutions, and that was the end of it. How could he ever make a change if he believed that a change wasn’t within his power?
We believe, at least during prayer, in the superstitious, but rarely take the logic of it to its ultimate conclusion. If you truly believe in these things, why do we refuse to accept them when people use them as excuses for their bad behavior? If your partner says their last tryst with the neighborhood harlot was caused by love charms, shouldn’t you accept the argument in good faith and seek an even more powerful love doctor to undo the charm? I am not totally ignorant of the fact that some people—perhaps even a majority of Nigerians—would accept that argument if it was made convincingly enough. I actually have a soft spot for the Proverbs 31 women who would pray for their husband experiencing such a disaster (if you are one, text me, I have some residual shege to show you). If you are one of them, good for you.
My position here is that some of us, at some level, understand how ridiculous it is to believe in juju but are too scared to take the plunge. I’ll help you.
Believing in juju is horrible for a number of reasons. The first is that it pushes you to do irrational things. The wayward husband who says that the devil pushed him into sleeping with married women in the area may seriously believe that his sexual urges are of the devil. Even I, after some badly done bedroom adventures, have managed to blame my behavior on an alter ego. How much more someone who truly believes that spirits can possess you and make you make sweet love to another person’s wife? Even during the lovemaking, such a person could delude themselves into thinking they are completely helpless against the machinations of the devil. Do you really want poor human Alfa Yusuf to resist the devil?
I recently read of a man who gave all he had to his church during his wife’s pregnancy. He was told by the pastor that God required all he had in a dramatic display of faith in order to bless him and his wife. The man believed this and donated all he had to the church. And who can seriously blame him? That is not an especially odd request for God—who ordered Abraham to kill his firstborn son, ordered Jephthah to sacrifice his only daughter, and asked Hosea to marry a prostitute—to make.
If the man truly believed in his faith and his pastor, he acted very wisely. At least this case had a pastor. What if someone comes under the delusion that God wants him to sell everything he owns to offer his pastor? Again, the best predictor of that sort of chaotic behavior is belief in juju. If one truly believes that the spiritual and the physical exist in the same plane and can interact ordinarily, then we should expect this sort of irrational behavior from them all the time!
The damage doesn’t stop there. Belief in juju isn’t only awful for intimate partners; it is also horrible for even friends. A few years ago, I heard an interesting story from an older member of my family that shocked me to my bones. This person broke up with their friend of over twenty years because they got a prophecy from a “prophet” who claimed that the friend was behind their “stagnation” in life. Since this person believed the pastor totally—and why shouldn’t they?—they stopped talking to the closest friend they had in their lives. Even my poor mom was once accused of witchcraft by someone she’d clothed, fed and housed for years. What predicts this sort of behavior? Belief in juju.
If that seems absurd, who can count the number of children who have been mistreated because they were branded as witches from a tender age? Again, belief in juju is the best predictor of this behavior. You may think you aren’t susceptible to this behavior because you are such a good person, but why aren’t you? If there is such a thing as a child possessed by witches—which many Nigerians believe exists—then such children should be maltreated, punished, or even murdered. If you already believe in the premise, why do you think the conclusion is out of the question for you? Importantly, if you have friends or partners who already believe in the premise, why do you think the conclusion is a step too far for them?
A few years ago, a Nigerian government official who was being probed for corruption claimed that missing monies, which she was being probed for, were swallowed. A lot of Nigerians laughed at that, but why? If your village people can shoot you invisible arrows, if your friends can make you join a cult through sweets, and if someone can steal your glory through sex, why can’t a snake swallow physical money? The absurdity, when put like this, is obvious. But on Sunday, many people will still arrive at their places of worship to pray against spiritual attacks and the like.
My point is this: even if juju is real, and all the supernatural events I have outlined here are possible, it still wouldn’t do anyone any good to believe in them. There is no way to falsify whether one is under the influence of juju or their regular human tomfoolery, and trying to make a distinction between both is a fool’s errand.
The safe assumption, even if one is religious (there are certainly a lot of religious people who don’t care about juju!), is to believe that these things, even if possible, are extraordinarily rare and unlikely to warrant a change of attitudes. That way, they can be free from the awful paranoia that comes with believing in it and will be free to chart their course knowing that they are the only masters of their destiny. Remember, the real juju isn’t witchcraft—it’s the illusion that we aren’t responsible for our own lives. And that’s a spell worth breaking.
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One could argue that the belief in God implies the existence of the devil, which indicates a truth in witchcraft; at least these are mentioned in the Bible, not sure of the Quran.
If one says that the belief in juju is ludicrous, then in the same sense you are saying the same about a lot of religions, because the Bible mentions multiple occasions of people being bewitched.
Dismissing spiritual realities entirely because some people misuse them is like throwing away medicine because others abuse drugs. The Bible is clear: we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6:12). But the same Bible teaches us not to live in fear, confusion, or superstition. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8), and His power is greater than any force of darkness. The problem is not belief in spiritual warfare; it’s when that belief replaces godly responsibility, wisdom, and faith in Jesus Christ. The call is not to deny the supernatural, but to walk in truth and freedom through the power of the Holy Spirit.