If you’re Nigerian, you already know how superstitious we can get.
some of us grew up under a regime of superstitions so intense, even blinking twice at night felt risky.
Here are some common ones you’re probably familiar with:
Do not whistle at Night, hence you attract snakes or evil spirits
Someone always has one or two scary stories to back up these superstitions, and guess what, they don’t tell you about these stories at night or in the morning, they wait for nighttime, so the stories can seem very scary.
And they wonder why Nigerian kids are scared of the dark!
Stepping over someone’s leg
They told us that this was a spiritual insult. You’d hear things like “Cross me back so I can grow”
We always took this particular one very seriously, because as kids, we believed that some adults were tall, while some short, because someone crossed over them and doomed them to be short forever by not crossing back.
Forget apologies or anything you had to cross back again to “reverse the curse.” If not, serious wahala go dey
Itchy palm means money is coming (Joy is coming)
Our people made us believe that if your palm felt itchy, that was God letting you know money was coming.
They would advise us not to scratch it, unless we would scratch away the money coming our way.
So many people attest to this claiming it works till today! but hey, what do we know?
If your meat drops on the floor, do not pick it up
It is a popular superstitious belief that any meat that falls on bare ground is no longer spiritually safe for consumption.
It is presumed to have been offered to an entity we know nothing about!
Come to think of it, I think our parents just wanted us to learn that the meat falling on the ground meant it was no longer clean or safe to it.
Why couldn’t they just tell us that?! Naija elders
Do Not Sweep at Night
Elders would say, that if you swept at night, you’ll “sweep away your blessings and attract spirits that love the sound of local brooms!
Ha! They really terrified us with all these stories ooo.
As Adults now, we’ve outgrown some of these superstitious beliefs, but still, we unconsciously practice them one way or the other.
We’re scared to sweep at night, itchy palms mean joy is coming, if you have the urge to whistle at night, you do the sign of the cross to make sure you’re attracting the right spirit.
These have us made us slightly traumatized, but blessed and funny and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
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