The history of how colonization affected The Igbos and their ancestors
“If African witchcraft was so powerful, why did it never protect the Africans from colonization?” This is what they continue to say to make us hate our own fathers. They want us to believe our ancestors were powerless and blind. But that is a big lie.
What the white man called “witchcraft” was never witchcraft. It was our early warning system. It was Afa, Dibia, Divination, Healing, and Protection. Our diviners were like our CIA and our prophets. They saw the invasion before any village chief saw a white face. The problem was not that they did not see. The problem was that our leaders refused to listen.
In Kenya, Syokimau of the Akamba warned of “strangers with funny skin who will bring an iron snake that will tear through the land” – that iron snake was the railway. Mugu wa Kibiro of the Kikuyu saw white people like butterflies coming from the ocean. In Congo, the great Prophetess Kimpa Vita said the European missionaries and traders were poison that would exploit the land. Among the Xhosa, Prophetess Nontshetse saw the total cultural destruction the British would bring. They spoke clearly. Our people turned deaf ears.
Even in Igbo land, our own Dibias prophesied it. The Dibias of Nri Kingdom in the 1700s told of pale spirits coming from the sea with sticks that spit fire and thunder. The Afa diviners in Awka and Arondizuogu warned that a new trade would come that would not take palm oil but would take our sons and our gods. At Arochukwu, some priests of Ibini Ukpabi warned that the white man would not come to worship our Long Juju but to destroy it. But our Igbo chiefs and warrant chiefs saw profit. They saw mirrors, guns, and gin. They chose new goods and guns over the voice of their own Dibias. That is how they opened the doors wider.
Colonialism did not win because our spirituality was weak. It won because of superior guns and superior organization. No Afa, no charm, no Dibia could stop a cannon. What they could not defeat with guns, they defeated with lies. They demonized our medicine as witchcraft, renamed our priests as wizards, and even used our own converted sons to burn our shrines and silence our prophets.
So when next someone asks you why witchcraft failed, tell them this: It was never witchcraft. It was medicine. It was protection. It was knowledge. It was African science. The colonizers helped destroy it, but our own leaders who chose greed over prophecy helped them. Never forget our prophets. Never insult our Dibias.
