Forgotten Dairies
Abiku And The Scripture -By Peter Ojelabi
Philosopher now started thinking that is it a sickness which was not discovered then that was killing them and they tag it Abiku? You know everything about Africa is spirituality, we believe in something which is not tested.
In vain your bangles cast
Charm circled at my feet
I’m Abiku
Calling to the first
And the repeated time
The above was the excerpt from Wole Soyinka poem titled “Abiku”
Who is Abiku? Abiku is a Supernatural child that died to be born again, according to some belief, Abiku literally born to torment the parent and no matter the effort they will surely die.
No wonder Soyinka in stanza three of the poem write, ” So when the snail is burnt in its shell,
When the heated fragment, brand me
Deeply on the breast – you must know him
When Abiku calls again.
Though the existence of Abiku have not being proven scientifically beyond reasonable doubt, however the signs that shows their existence can not be neglected.
For example some years back I came across a woman narrating her ordeal with someone concerning her struggling with this strange child early of her married life,
Before the shackled was later broken, she said, I have had seven children earlier on that died exactly five years of age, I was told those children were Abiku, and I started making atonement to avoid reoccurrence, when I gave birth to my fourth child, we then put a mark on her laps so she won’t go again, unfortunately she died but to my surprise when I gave birth to the fifth child, she was born with the same Mark at the same spot… Here I realized there is truly this metaphysical being called Abiku
How true this can be? Remember I said it has not been proven scientifically, in Igbo language it is call “OGBANJE” chinua Achebe spoke about it in his landmark story “Things fall apart”
Now let go to the Christian scripture, I wanted to use four people as an example, two in old testament and two in the new( Elijah, Jezebel,John the Baptist and Herodias)
John the Baptist was described as Elijah to come( Jesus himself said this Matthew 11:14 And if you are willing to accept what I say, he is Elijah, the one the prophets said would come) more so Herodias was also described as Jezebel, what is this correlation with the aforementioned metaphysical being?, did John died to appear again? How about Jezebel? Or is just a mere description?
Remembered, there were many things that happened in the old that are testament to things that happened in the new.. Are you doubting? Let use Jonah as an example ( Jesus said as Jonah was in the belly of fish for three days…..) That was a testament that happened in the old.
If that of Jezebel is mere description what about John, recall that there were many prophet before Elijah so also before John and none of them is being linked. Okay let all assume it is just a coincidence and prophecy coming to fulfilment ( pardon me for going into the scripture)
What is really the motive of this being? What is their reason of existence? Meanwhile the rate of Abiku has drastically reduced since technology has taken over.
Philosopher now started thinking that is it a sickness which was not discovered then that was killing them and they tag it Abiku? You know everything about Africa is spirituality, we believe in something which is not tested.
Well, I’m still thinking out loud about the real truth of this supernatural being, you can as well let us know your opinion about Abiku in anyway on the comment section.
Peter Ojelabi writes from Ogbomoso
