I grew up with an unanswered question, why certain perception about certain group of people? Do people consider the psychological effects of perception about these people? Believe one is thing that's so difficult to change over time, what's believed to be true is somewhat not exactly so but since Africa is built on storytelling which seems to be passed from one generation to another, it because difficult to correct some perception even after finding out not to be true.
Uruan are blessed with an enriched culture
I remember my days in the university, probably it was my second year, there's this particular guy, he was my course-mate but he bullies a lot, he was fond of humiliating other person especially those he knew they weren't from a high rated background as he was one from a well known political family with so much influence. Actually, I noticed that so I withdrawn myself from him and so such I didn't want to mingle much with him since he seems to be proud and pompous. One day, I went to lecture hall as usual, he came and demanded that he wants to sit on the same seat with me, since it was a long metal bench, I shifted but at some point, he demanded that I should change my seat as his friends were coming to the lecture hall and he wants to reserve my seat for them. I was actually just quiet, I pretended as if I didn't hear him but he repeated the saying again and even pushed me out,so I looked into his eyeball and told him, "I'm from Uruan, go and ask anyone and it" from that day the guy was extremely afraid of me. I was actually saying that because I knew people are afraid of Uruan people because of the perceptions the held about them.
People get more confused when they don't understand you
Meanwhile, what makes them believe or take hold of this believe/perception. Uruan people are some set of people in Akwa Ibom, they have been carried the label of “witches” for years because of their culture but there's nothing evil about culture of certain people, fast farewell before the colonialism and Christianity, Uruan was seen as a spiritual powerhouse where most people go for power and spiritual solutions, they were seen as the custodians of deep traditional wisdom, they were excellent leaders in the sacred Ekpe society, and guardians of laws, rituals, and ancestral knowledge that shaped the region, these their vast knowledge is what many people don’t understand which create fear in them.
They were custodian of spiritual solutions
The aspect of witch is not because they
practiced evil, but because these Uruan people carried something a lot of people couldn’t explain. Also, the arrival of colonialists brought further confusion as they too didn’t try to understand but rather they demonized the culture. The truth remains that Uruan people are never witches, their cultural displays is the uniqueness of their ancestors the theirs descendants became priests of, trying to protect their philosophy, and protectors of sacred truth as they're culture-bearers. And that scares some people. The word word "witch" simply means "out of power". There are differences between evil and culture, never get both twisted. I'm proud to be called URUAN MAN. Thank you for reading!