Theirs was a polygamy family,their mom died shortly after giving birth to John and few years later their dad died. So they went to live with their step sister. The hardship they suffer is a story for another day.
As a matter of fact Jane used to say she wish her dad were in hell so he could feel what she and her brother were going through. Thank God she has repented from such talk, but there is still a stigma attached to her and her brother.
When they were much younger the step sibling they were staying with started experiencing some set back so she went for prayers and was told that her step brother staying with her was responsible for her woes.
So the step sister came home and asked John to confess, John who was barely a teenager then and had no idea so he kept mute. The step sister started beating him mercilessly, Jane said she was so pained she wanted to attack her step sister but she was held back and she almost died watching her brother being beaten like that.
When poor John couldn't take the beatings any longer he started to confess. They would ask him if he did so and so and John would say he did it. He confessed how he wrecked their business, made their children sick etc. And they recorded everything on tape.
After the confession they drove him out of the house, and no other step sibling accommodated him. Their mother's sister took pity on him but after watching his confession she just couldn't bring a witch abi na wizard to her house. That was how he became homeless, living on the streets in his early teens.
Let me cut the story Short because I just want to focus on just one part of his life. If I'm to tell his full story, it will have season 1-5.
He was helped by a good Samaritan and he went to school and today he is married. He got married in his twenties. Today he has a good job,a beautiful wife and children.
The stigma is still there, as they still have the tape. His village people and extended family still look at him with side eyes. I think the hero of the story is the lady that married him despite the stigma and all.
I finally got to meet John and my journalistic antenna shot up,as I'm learning work from Stella. I bombarded him with questions. Here are some of the questions I asked him.
IYA BEJI: Are you or were you ever a witch or a wizard.
JOHN.: Never have and never will be.
IYA BEJI: So why did you confess to being one? Its on tape remember?
JOHN: Iya beji I was a child then, the beatings reset my brain. At first I was saying I wasn't a witch and then the beatings increased. So I figured if I told them what they wanted to hear the beating would stop, and it stopped as soon as I said I did it. The beatings stopped automatically.(Laughs)
IYA BEJI: But what about those things you said about ruining their finances and making their children sick?
JOHN: Those were the things they were always saying at home. I just told them what they wanted to hear so they won't beat me again. And guess what they didn't lay a finger on me afterwards. Who wan beat witch? (Laughs)
IYA BEJI: I'm happy you can laugh about this now. But I want to ask how did your wife and her people accept you because I heard you are from the same community.
JOHN: I started business in school, I was trading with her family who already knew my side of the story. That was how I met her.
(End of interview)
Today Jane and John have a foundation where they talk to young people about different kinds of challenges and encourage children to speak out.
why is it that whenever there is a witch in a house its usually the maid, the cousin or somebody outside the immediate family? How come it's never the child/ children of the house?
Chai! Well that ends well
ReplyDeleteWe had an orphaned cousin who lives with us. N spiritual leaders always pointed at them as witches. The little girl aggravated her issues by threatening her classmates at school up to the extent their parents had to come report to the school. But we didn't kick them out. It's not their fault. It's a spiritual manipulation. Especially with orphaned children. They need deliverance not harsh beatings
ReplyDeleteMy younger brother was a wizard, as in proper one. We never knew, my parents suspected every other person but their little baby boy. He wrecked my elder brother’s finances, till date he’s yet to become a better person. My happiness is that he’s dead and things have really been changing for good for us . The story long, will send in chronicle some day
DeleteI was a victim. These sounds like my own story. It's today believed that sikre ( witchcraft) made me intelligent because the whole thing was; I was to be killed by my father (just like Okonkwo and Ikemefuna) but my elder brother took me away and took me to my aunt's place where deliverances were conducted on me. Some pastors would say I am a wizard while some wowould contradict. Nothing I didn't see during that period. But I learned how to read and write and became a very brilliant study. Up till today, it's believed witches made me an intelligent person. The injustice done to kids is overwhelming.
ReplyDeleteSpiritual manipulation everywhere. Kids are always the first culprit in these manipulations. That is why it is not good to let kids collect sweet or goodies.
ReplyDeleteEveryone is a suspect until proven otherwise. Very common with calabar people. Everyone in the family must be witch or wizard. I don't know why.
Why attribute it to calabar people. A lot of tribes are into fetish things. It's just sad that children are always accused of such but adults are not excluded. Some spiritual churches also say stepmother,your mother or even father.
DeleteI know one who was told it was her mother that was doing her and she shouldn't let her attend her wedding.
It's better you address the issue on ground than attributing it to a particular tribe..
DeleteIs it not on this same blog that someone would come out and say this like these are synonymous with Edo people? Now it's calabar.
Let's face facts rather than sentiments. Selah!
Many have suffered untold hardship because of false accusations .
ReplyDeleteMay we not fall victim, Amen
This child witch stigma, Helen Akpabio started it.
ReplyDeleteI swear in that movie called Witches. Where someone was shouting puff puff!!!
DeleteMy younger sis was bewitched by her class mate when she was in primary school. My Elder sis was training her at the time. So they asked her to initiate my elder sister's daughter (my niece) but she refused...na so them begin torment her oo. The day she confessed eeeh. Fear catch me. Na that Rev. Father for isele-uku deliver her las las.
ReplyDeleteThank God she was delivered
Deletewhich Rev.Father is that o?
DeleteAnd when they see real witches,they can't stand up
ReplyDeletemstcheeww
nonsense and ingredients!!!
I know of a child who they beat up like this to implicate my late grand mother,na story for another day. 4months after the death of my grandmother the boys mother with some people beat the boy that he started confessing to been a witch and was initiated by my grandmother. I was still in secondary school at that time I knew that wickedness runs in some people's blood,these people ate from my grandmother's pot.we had to cut off from them,funny enough they are family who will defend the dead. It took years for them to apologize but my family will not hear of it. Oh how I cried hearing such things about my grandmother,the fearless woman who calls a Spader a Spader they couldn't attack her when she was alive, immediately she died they came out to tarnish her image"continue to rest on grandmother "I still find it hard to forgive them.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up, we were warned severally never to collect sweets, biscuits or cookies from friends esp. classmates. Even food..
ReplyDeleteThing is, children are easy targets of evil machinations simply because they don't know how to say NO. Peer pressure is another factor.
Iya ibeji, most women will never accept that their child(ren) are being influenced, it is always another woman's child that is a witch, emere, ogbanje.
Nollywood didn't help too 😂😂
This happened to me real life by my mom. Till today I still don't believe she's my biological mother. I was beaten, stigmatized, threatened to confess for things I didn't do. My dad use to bring Ghana must go filled with cash then.my mom had a big warehouse where she was a distributor. We were taking care of over 9 people then in our house and everyone was doing fine.we are a family of 7 plus extra nine people but we had the best of everything.I don't know where my mom went to and I was pointed out as the witch in the family. I was just 10 years old then.
ReplyDeleteThis woman disgraced me, scrapped my hair,made me confess to be a witch in front of my dad after so much beating and abuse with my brothers and sisters eavesdropping at the back of their room door.I can never forget oh. I weep anytime I remember. I am in my mid thirties, married with 3 kids but it has affected my self esteem that I feel I am the one at fault anytime something goes wrong around me. I don't allow my kids to visit my mom and dad. God I was punished oh. My mom took me to a church and I was locked in there innnerroom for 7 days without food and water and I didn't see sunlight for those days. Pls is DAT how deliverance is done.
ReplyDeleteMy dad didn't do anything.I cried and stopped by making up my mind that I am an orphan.I distanced my heart from them since then. I grew up hoping she will call me to explain what happened and even apologise. For where she calls me all sorts when she feels like till I left for my husband's house.I thank God for giving me wisdom to share this with my husband. The day I brought him home to know my parents, my sister told him everything. My people,my kids will never go near them oh.Never never.even if I notice such about my kids I will explain to them and take them for deliverance with love. I feel beta sharing did. Thanks mama ibeji and Stella for the platform.
ReplyDeleteAwwwwe e-hugs Darling. Im happy God settled you.
DeleteEnter your reply...May God Almighty take you places to humble her and realize her mistake.
DeleteShe was most likely brainwashed by those fake prophets. I thank God they did not molest when held hostage under the guise of deliverance.
Na WA!
Oh dear,😢😢😢 so sorry for what you went through in the hands of people who were supposed to protect and love you..thank God you survived the ordeals.
DeleteI pray that God vindicates you and that every lips that has spoken lies concerning your life will end up confessing.
DeleteSo heartbreaking, it is well with you.
DeleteWow! This is so wrong.
Delete