It is a culture in Nigeria to teach growing kids to stay away from strangers as occultists are believed to be everywhere. Sometimes, even family members are suspects.
The portrayal of this issue in Nigerian movies began with ‘Living in Bondage‘ in 1992. With a sequel on its way now, ‘LIB’ was about men who want to get rich quick through a cult following. Different cult Nigerian movies now use the same structure as ‘LIB’.
However, from these movies, we began to see that all cultism activities are not of the same form.
In fact, there are numerous versions that people practise in Nigeria and not all of them require members to kill their loved ones for money rituals.
There are those where the voodoo leader requests that a person be buried alive. We also learnt the dark magic activities could manipulate a person to sit in a room and puke money.
Learn more about the different ways cultism has been portrayed in Nigerian movies.
‘Widows Cult’
A group of widowed women decide to take power into their hands to deal with the family drama that follows after a woman loses her husband. They call themselves ‘Socialites’ and for them, it was about their security and that of their children.
For real, customs in Nigeria demands way too much from widows more than it demands from widowers.
Some would ask a woman to go to shrines to prove she didn’t have a hand in their husband’s death. Some women will be asked to bathe and drink the water used in bathing their dead husband’s body.
The extended family seizes all his assets, and sometimes make the women sleep with the corpses. They call it traditional values and women are not entitled to anything. This is what ‘Widows Cult’ brought to light.
‘Issakaba’
In the late 90s and early 2000s, a cult group called ‘Bakassi’, who brutally kill people they caught in criminal activities rose in Nigeria. Sam Dede and a number of good Nigerian actors made a movie ‘Issakaba’ out of their story.
The strange thing about this cult group is that they know who is innocent and this is the point where people ask how.
They each carry knives infused with voodoo and black magic. When placed on the bosom of anyone brought to them, the knife either stays neutral (innocent) or turns red (guilty). ‘Issakaba’ was a big hit in Africa and ‘Bakassi’ was later banned in Nigeria for being barbaric.
‘Coronation’
People sometimes join fraternities that uses voodoo powers to alter the event of life. By so doing, they can manipulate and achieve big social positions like Chieftancy titles. Close family members of this person begin to die from the effect of voodoo and charm. In the end, the person pays the ultimate price of voodoo because magic always comes at a cost.
‘Dogs Meeting’
Secret cult members are believed to give money away to the poor in the name of alms. In return, the wellbeing of these people is stolen using black magic. When they get back to the cult house, they use what they have stolen to enrich themselves more.
‘Dons in Abuja’
In this movie, they call themselves the venerable circle. Like in ‘Living in Bondage’, they present their loved ones for unclean spiritual activities in exchange for money.
