Growing up as an African child without hearing lots of superstitions is just impossible. Most of these superstitious beliefs are pure lies by our African parents just to protect us as children. Y'know, sometimes it can be a bit hard explaining some things in details to the kids, and so our parents just get creative with ideas to scare a child away from doing a particular thing, but as they grow older, it becomes easier for them to understand, and perhaps imagine how foolish they were to believe their parents for such lies.
Just like every other child, there were lies told to me by my parents, which I believed wholeheartedly, and when I found out it was untrue, I questioned my parents for not coming straight to tell me how it is, but then I realized that they only meant well for me.
The first lie from my grandmother was that once a man touches me in any part of my body, I become pregnant immediately. Eii! You needed to see the fear in me. Pregnant? Like, how can I turn to a mother as the child I was? That night, grandma sat me down to talk about this; it turned out to be a very long night for me. The next morning I was going to school,I didn't bother to greet any human being that looked like a man so as to avoid any of them touching me š. I couldn't even imagine having my tommy shooted out.. lolz
Grandma saw that I was developing into a woman gradually and used that superstitious belief to scare me away from men. To the point that when my cousin brother visited and touched me while greeting me, I nearly developed high blood pressure that month, thinking that I would become pregnant. I remember sharing my fears with some of my childhood friends too, and they were all scared on my behalf. Thinking about it after I was taught some things in biology during my senior secondary school, I realized that grandma lied! I didn't hesitate to question her, and of course she saw that I was set to understand the real truth considering my maturity then, and she took her time to educate me better. I must say that such a lie was just necessary for growing up a child girl, but then I look so foolish for believing it in the first place. š
Secondly, I remember my childhood days and how much I cherish eating rice and never liked any other kind of food, especially veggies. All attempts mom made to get me into eating varieties of meals proved abortive, and then she came up with a creative lie. She told me that eating rice daily can be dangerous, as it will get to a point where the rice š¾ plant will start germinating from my head, and wherever I go, everyone could see rice growing from my head. As a child with a tiny brain, I believed her and was afraid of having rice growing in my head. I stopped requesting for daily rice and started eating all kinds of my meals available at home. This lie really helped me to get other nutrients in other foods that my body needed, and by the time I found out that mom lied after all, I even thanked her.
Surprisingly, my kids didn't believe in this same lie when I told it to them, especially my second son. As an African mom, I have been trying to apply the same superstitious beliefs I was made to believe back then to my children nowadays, but they appear to be smarter. My second son, who is so picky, started rejecting different foods except rice, and I told him that soon, rice will grow from his head. His response was something else, and I felt like a fool instead, hehehe. He said, Mummy, how can rice grow from my head? Is there a soil on my head from which it can grow? Lolz! Can you just imagine this little boy challenging mom's creative lie? Well, I didn't succeed; he proved me wrong with his little brain, hehehe š.
This is my response to the Hivenaija weekly prompt. Get in and share your story with us š¤
Images were created using meta Ai