My country! My country!! My country!!! The home of Myths and superstitions. Growing up, our parents told us a lot of myths which we took seriously then. Some of which they believe is true.
Most of the myths they told us were actually for our good, they wanted the best for us and wanted to teach us about life.
Let's start with Arodan. What is Arodan?
Arodan has no meaning. There is no object or body like Arodan. I.e it doesn't exist at all. It is just a word used by the Yoruba parents to keep a child busy whenever they are being disturbed by the child.
I remember very well when I was still small. I wasn't really small though, for me to remember. I've been disturbing my mum all day that I wanted to buy ice cream. She couldn't bear my disturbance any longer. She then asked me if I will take Arodan. She said Arodan is sweeter than ice cream. As a child that I was, I was very happy, that I will taste something sweeter than ice cream. She told me to go to Mummy Ibeji ( a friend of hers) to collect Arodan.
I ran to Mummy Ibeji's shop to go and collect my Arodan. On getting there, I told her my mum said I should come and collect Arodan. She laughed and said, " sit down, it's on its way, someone has gone to buy it". I sat down in her shop for hours expecting the person who went to buy the Arodan. Lo and behold, I slept off in her shop. It was when my mum came late in the evening and woke up I realized I was fooled.
Since that day, I never fell for the Arodan thing again. Nowadays most children already know what Arodan is, there is no fun in using the word as a parent again. They use the words amongst themselves in school. Only a few of the children nowadays don't know the meaning of Arodan.
Now to the other myths, I listed some of the things I believe are untrue. My dad does call me Thomas ( the doubting Thomas). Because whenever they tell me most of these things, I go against it and say it's superstition.
If you use a broom to touch/beat a male child, his manhood will disappear. This is completely a myth because if it is true, many males in my country will be impotent today. Mothers are good at using a broom on you when you are being stubborn.
If a little child has hiccups, if you cut a little piece of the wrapper and place it on the baby's head, the hiccup will stop.
This I believe a little bit because it once worked before. It was placed on a child's head, and the hiccup stopped. But I doubted when I did it for another baby and it refused to stop. Then I believe the former was a coincidence.
Do not use the water you use in washing your clothes to wash your legs, else you will be lied against.
This is a 100% fallacy. I believe there are a lot of people who don't do that and yet they are being implicated and lied against.
Do not talk when you are removing the feathers of a chicken, if you talk its feathers will grow back.
As a child, I talk a lot whenever we kill a chicken and my mum is removing the feathers. They had to stop by saying if I keep talking, the hair will feathers will grow back. And I always want them to finish it quickly so we can eat. So I'll keep quiet and watch as she removes the feathers. And it seems true, because sometimes I will intentionally talk, and it will look like the feathers are increasing. I believed this till I grew up and came to my senses that how will mere talking aid the growth of a dead chicken's feather.
When you want to cut a chicken's Gizzard into two, you must say - ha ha ha.
Reason unknown till today. It is just being used to fool children, no particular reason for saying the ha ha. My dad no longer does it tho. Cz the last born of the house (myself) is no longer a baby, so he needs not to fool us again.
When you see a snake (ejó), don't call it snake (ejó), call it Rope on the ground (okunlé). It will prevent the snake from biting you.
What the actual F? Calling a snake by another name will prevent it from biting you? They believe in it though, but I never believed it.
Do not eat the meat before you finish your food, eat it when you're done.
This isn't a myth, it is just how they know how to raise children in the right way, to make us contented with what we have.
If you put a dog's rheum (ipin) in your eye, you'll start seeing ghosts. I partially believe this, because I've always been scared to try it. We have a dog, I could have practicalized it, but I can't risk it and start seeing ghosts. But one part of me still believes it's a myth.
Do not spit on the floor, if you do so and another person steps on it, you'll have a sore throat
Spitting on the floor irritates people, especially when you don't rub it off with your feet. That is why they brought up this myth. And sometimes when you feel sore throat, you'll start thinking if you had spat somewhere
You know all these things are actually based on your beliefs. Though some might not be true, but if you put your mind to it and believe it will happen, it will definitely happen. That is life for you, you let your mind decide for you.
Let me see if there are doubting Thomas here as well, or am I the only one who does believe these things are real?
N:B- Everyone has his/her own opinion, but all these are what I believe to be myths. You can object or add yours in the comment section.
Thanks for reading❤️🙏
Myths exist in very culture of human race. Not only in Nigeria or Africa even European countries have myths and superstition. List of myths you wrote is quite impressive even though I'm just knowing most of them for the first time