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Nigeria is a blessed country with diverse culture and tradition thus the existence of many beliefs passed on from generation to generation and some said to children as moonlight tales.
Personally, I see most of these beliefs as funny and outrageous beliefs probably believed by most people based on ethnic backgrounds, mindsets and of course too many Nollywood movies😂
I'll be sharing some of these funny beliefs and my personal experience here so, sit tight, grab a cup of juice and laugh with me but above all, get delivered from beliefs like this that has proven to affect proper reasoning😊
Are y'all ready? Cos I am about to crack ya ribs🤣
FUNNY RIB-CRACKING NIGERIAN BELIEFS
- While growing up, whenever we lose any milk teeth as kids we were told to throw them on the roof where lizards won't be able to reach them. This meant that if lizards supposedly ate them, we won't grow back our teeth.
I was a firsthand victim of this belief too. I so believed and was always scared whenever I threw my tooth on the roof. Most times I will end up watching the roof to chase away lizards.
I still don't understand why the belief till date. I guess it's just a kids' game or meant to scare us.
- Crossing a pregnant woman's leg: This belief is one of the major ones you see around here. Many believe that when you jump over them, they will end up giving birth to a child that resembles the person. The only way to cancel this is to ask the person involved to jump over you again.
I mean, who thinks like this?😪🤷♀️ How will someone jumping over a part of your body automatically alter genetics?😂😂
I recently had this same experience. I entered a public transport going to meet with some of my friends back in Lagos. I sat close to a pregnant woman who sat down spreading her two legs maybe because she was tired or feeling pains.
I got carried away listening to good music before I could notice that the driver was almost leaving my bus stop so I had to quickly alight. In the cause of this, I had to jump over the woman's leg. She quickly shouted at me calling me to come and jump back. I didn't even turn back to look at her twice as I was shocked people still believed in this even in this present age😂
You are shocked too, right?😂 There are other beliefs too centered on pregnant women and they just have no logical reasoning.
- This next one is meant for the guys. While growing up, there was this popular belief that if you touch a man with a broom, it will cause his manhood to have stunted growth and render him impotent.
This always gave the ladies the upper hand in a way😂 especially when you get into a fight with them and they carry a broom, the man will end up begging to save his precious manhood.
Hilarious, right?😂😂 I still wonder about the hidden power behind broomsticks and their magic. Maybe Science is yet to discover it, who knows?🤷♂
- My Mum is the number 1 culprit for this next one. I grew up to see my Mum's mood change anytime she mistakenly hits her leg hard on something most likely a stone. One day I had to ask and she said it was a signal that something bad might happen.
You need to have seen my surprised look and the way I laughed rolling on the floor😂
I still can't believe my Mum would believe such a thing but thank goodness I know better.
- Finally, this next one was actually caused by watching too many Nollywood movies. We grew up watching Nollywood films that gave us the wrong idea about so many things.
In all their films, the witch always turns into a cat most especially black cats. This gave almost everyone the wrong impression that all cats are witches transformed into animals.
Cats became extinct because people chased them away and even killed them thinking they are Witches, especially with their beautiful shiny eyes.
I still wonder how a pretty pet animal like cat became everyone's enemy till date. Only a few see cats as a pet and even when we see cats around we first have this defensive nature.
All thanks to our movie Industry and the wrong impression they gave us😂
Finally...
All these beliefs are so funny but yet some people still practice them to date. Thank goodness for Education, mindset change and Exposure from the Western world.
There are many more funny and weird beliefs going around and still passed down to the next generation but I feel it's our job as the exposed ones to correct them extensively.
Beliefs form a huge part of our life as humans and can shape the way we think, relate and in general affect human productivity.
Naija🏳️ I hail oo!!❣️
Thanks for reading. Much love😍
This is my entry for the OCD community boost contest. You can get more info about the contest here.