The Bizarre, the Frightful and the Pious Superstitions

By Rodrick Chinodakufa

Among the breath stealing natural wonders of the vast, wild expanse of the universe loom mysterious places, beliefs and practices perverse with myths, legends and dogma which prove that nature and humans are never less than impressive.

Superstitions that are as strange as they are fearsome and beliefs that one event is the cause of another without any physical process linking the two are firmly clung to as if lives depend on such.

"The Bizarre, the Frightful and the Pious Superstitions" looks at how human dependence on superstitions is so strong. Grab your copy and find out why lives have been lost in defence and against superstitions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: RONICA KRISTIEN
• Release date: Apr 20, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201048754

Rodrick Chinodakufa

Rodrick Chinodakufa is a family counselor, life coach and a journalist whose passion is to help create a better functioning home environment and help individuals realize their full potential.

Book preview

References

1.     Catechism of Catholic Church, Libreria Editrice Vatican's 

1994, 2676

2.    Edward J. Hanna, Purgatory The Catholic Encyclopedia

vol 12, p 575

3.   W.E Addis and Thomas Arnold, A Catholic Dictionary,

P. 767.

4.  Pharos Journal of Theology. 98.2016

Chapters

Bizarre Superstitions

Frightful Mountain That Swallows People

Pious Superstitions

Bizarre Superstitions

The human tendency towards superstition is strong. People develop personal superstitions: someone passing an interview with certain clothes and from there on the clothes are lucky. A footballer may be convinced that certain colour of shoes make him play excellently.

Communities are also seeped deep in their own superstitions. The belief that one event is the cause of another without any physical process linking the two holds sway among most African communities and some  Christians.

Christianity and African Traditional Religion (ATR) beliefs may be poles apart but superstitions, though they are different, hold grip in both religions.

Superstitions that induce the mouth to gap and eyes to pop with surprise as well as rib hurting funny are common in Africa.

Some of the superstitions, waived away by outsiders as inconsistent with the known laws of science and logic and as being untrue and irrational are the way of life in many African societies.

While some African superstitions are homogenous others are only peculiar to certain communities of the continent. Superstitions are enormous in their variety.

Interestingly, superstitions in Christianity have torn apart the religion. Beliefs firmly held as means for salvation by some denominations are dismissed by other denominations as mere superstitions as they are heretic and heresy because they are unbiblical.

History records lives lost as intolerance of dissenting Christian superstitions fester.

Both ATR and Christianity are the most followed in Africa.

While 86 percent Africans are Christians belonging to various denominations, 11 percent adhere to ATR also known as folk religion, two percent are non affiliated and one percent is Muslim.

Superstitions might be considered to be inconsistent with rationality, divorced from true science  with synonyms such as unfounded beliefs, credulity, magic, sorcery, fallacy and delusion thrown about, but they are held on to dearly by those who believe in them as if their lives depended on them.

I don't know why I broke our tradition that forbids the sitting on a burning log. I now suffer the consequences. My husband is dead, wept one young woman, a firm believer in folk religion widowed after just four months of marriage.

Said one Christian devotee: My brother, a taxi driver always went to work with the portrait of St Christopher on the dashboard and the day he didn't take the portrait he was involved in an accident that left him crippled. How do you explain that?

As a journalist I have been to places littered with strange beliefs, hair standing sights and sacred places that made me quake in my shoes and sweat rivers of fright.

Superstitions are also prevalent among various cultures across the globe. People in the USA, for example believe that rain on the wedding is bad luck. Spilling salt foretells that bad times await. Placing bread upside down is considered bad luck in France and the number 13 is bad luck in the same country while the number four is ill luck in Japan. The same country also believe that a black cat is good luck if it crosses your path which is the opposite of the Indian belief that a black cat crossing your path is bad luck.

Writing on her Facebook page, one woman asked: Am I haunted by my own superstitious failings? I avoid walking under ladder to avoid ill luck, I throw salt over my shoulder to ward off bad luck among many other behaviours that are making my life miserable.

Folk religion adherents argue that there is nothing wrong with African superstitions as they provide explanations to strange occurrences, which is a coping mechanism amid disaster, empower people to control their destinies or to predict the future and encourage good behaviour among members of society.

Now dear reader, allow me to take you on a trip filled with the shocking, credulous, mouth and eye widening beliefs including  bizarre and frightful places as well as pious superstitions in both ATR and Christianity.

-Let us start with the African world view and with why the mourning young woman above thought a traditional prohibition she broke years back caused the death of her husband so early in their marriage.

You see, a child is brought up with the stern warning that sitting on a burning log angers ancestral spirits and would result in the misfortune of having their future spouse dying when the marriage is still very young. Some curious children though may decide to ignore the warning in the absence of elders.

-Each clan has its own ancestral spirits. These are the spirits of the dead relatives looked upon to help individuals and families in any situation under the sun.  The ancestral spirits as well as totems are responsible for protection against all forms of bad luck and taking care of the needs of each member of the clan.

Only adults become ancestral spirits after death. After a year of one's death rituals are performed to bring back home the spirit to