Reflections Without Mirror
The Slave Traders vs Eda (conversion of dead people to use as labourers)
A leading and renowned artist called me to send his rejoinder to the last piece that I published on 14.10.2023. He asked me a question as to whether I knew what was called ‘ EDA’ something that turned or changed to another thing. (Using dead people as labourers in the farm)I told him to explain, and then he started telling me his observation about something that was uncovered by Late Kola Olawuyi, who used to anchor ‘ Iriri Aye’ on the radio many years ago, Kola was an investigative journalist).He died many years ago, and of course, many people were suspicious of his untimely death due to the fact that he exposed many dark secrets through his invetigative journalism. The incident, he said was popular around Kogi State. He said there is a spiritual way by which those who involved in spiritism cultivate the use of dead people for farming, and it was those dead people that they use to cultivate their very big farms through spiritual means. My man explained to me how a young boy discovered that his father was one of those who were part of this dark scheme. The father sent him to an errand one day, and by the time this boy came back, the father had gone out. The boy decided to go to the farm to look for his father so as to deliver his message. On getting to the farm, he could not find him. He saw a gourd full of water inside the farm hut that his father used to wash his face every morning, and as a young boy, he was inquisitive and decided to wash his face also. As he opened his eyes , he saw some people working on the farm, people that were dead that he knew, he was afraid and he ran back to the town and told people how he saw those that were dead working in his fathers’ farm. The boy has just uncovered one of the evil ancient scerets of Spiritism cum Medium.
When the person telling me the story paused, I said I have heard something similar before but what a wickedness and abuse of spiritual power. I told him it is evil but he answered me by asking a question on “how is it different from the slave traders, the Europeans who came to Africa to take our forefathers as slaves to Europe and America?”
I agreed that both were actually wicked, but one was at the extreme level of wickedness than the other, and those who killed and converted the spirit of those they killed for use in the farm were extremely wicked in my opinion.
However, I said the western slave traders were wicked but better than those who killed and used the dead for labour in their farms. For example, the children of the slaves are great today on the surface of the earth for those who survived the trauma of slavery and fought for their freedom. But there is no remedy for those who were killed an used as labourers in the farm. They can not marry anymore or reproduce at all, they will continue to toil and there is no rest from their labour. The only service they were compelled to render was labouring in their killers’ farm. This appeared to me like money rituals since the reason they were using them is to make money at the end of the day. There is still a continuty of this in another dimension all over Nigeria, particularly when we look at the ‘Yahoo Boys Plus and Girls’ and the way they are using people for rituals to make money. The soka incident in Ibadan is still fresh in our memory where people were kept in a dungeon, and their body parts were sold to men in high places in Nigeria for one ritual or the other.
Some of our politicians and some of our leaders in government are no different from slave traders or those who are involved in ‘Eda’. The money that is meant for the citizens of the country is embezzled or siphoned abroad by a few people. In doing this, they are sending people to their early graves through hunger, starvation, accident on bad roads, poor hospitals, insecurity and human rituals as well.
When I was discussing this piece in the office, a friend told me that there is nothing that exists as ‘Eda’ as there is no scientific evidence in support of using the dead as labourers. I responded by telling him that there were mysteries in this world and science has not been able to answer many questions too. For example, the majority of scientists deny the existence of God, yet we know God exists and that he created everything. The ressurection of our lord Jesus christ remains a myth to those poor scientists.
Even if we have no scientific evidence of using the dead as labourers on the farm, we can say authoritatively how our leaders in Nigeria are sending their people to their early graves through corruption and stealing the money that was meant for good projects that can alleviate the sufferings of the people . In the military, the money that was meant to buy weapons to be used against terrorists is being embezzled, and ordinary soldiers were being mauled by the terrorists due to lack of weapons. Only God knows how many of our young officers have been sent to their early graves on account of corruption by their commanders. Even the compensation that were meant for those who were dead in active service were not paid to their families, it was rather stolen by their commanders. The civil servants are being paid low wages that do not commensurate with the level of work that they are putting out for the country. They cannot feed their children or live in a good house or afford house rent, they cannot afford hospital fees and so the mortality rate is very high in our land. Some of our leaders are no different from the slave traders or the ‘Edas’. There is a need for a total change in our country. How is it that the son of a blacksmith did not possess hoe? With the abundance of God’s given natural resources and man power in Nigeria, our country should be better than this. Let there be an end to this modern slave trade and ‘ Eda’ in our land. Let us join the develop world with modern mechanised farming to develop our farms. Let there be a stop to shedding the blood of innocent people.
Niyi Aborisade is a lawyer, a Human Rights Activist and a historian
