jayriginal: I have a personal experience of this kind of matter. I served in Anambra State so I am familiar with the consequences of killing an Eke. After the school I lived in was a thick bush and then a dibias home.

Now, right from camp, we were warned not to kill snakes. We were told that if we suddenly come into our rooms and see a snake on our beds or pillows, we were to carry it by hand and throw it into the bush. If we were afraid, we were to call an indigene who would remove it for us. If we were brave enough, we could sleep with it still on our pillow.

We were assured that the snake was harmless and would not attack. We were told that if we killed the snake, we would have to bury it like a titled man. It was taboo to kill eke.

All the while, goose pimples were sprouting from the girls and cries of "blood of Jesus" rent the air. We were even told of notorious communities were we had to be extra careful in case we were posted there. For the avoidance of doubt, Eke is the royal python.

Some months into my service, on our way to the tap, one of the lady corpers spotted a snake which quickly squeezed itself into a locked garage. Peeping through the cracks, we saw this thick snake chilling. We began to speculate because when we heard python, we expected something really big. I remember as a child my grand mother would tell me how pythons use palm trees to measure length. This wasnt as long as a palm tree but it was no ordinary snake. It was long and fat. Thick!
We couldnt get at it so we let it be while we wondered how long it had been living with us and what it had been eating. Then we saw the school gardener and brought him to the garage. As we told him about the snake, the first thing he asked was "na Eke?". We said we didnt know because we had only heard but we had never seen one. He looked into the garage but by then the snake had hidden itself. Then Mazi (that was what we called him) said very clearly "if na Eke, kill am and cook am. If una no go chop give me, I go chop". We asked him if it wasnt taboo to kill Eke, but he shrugged it off.

Later my friend and I went outside the compound to buy some stuff and we asked the man selling stuff if Eke could be killed as we were told otherwise in camp. He said that it was old tradition and it doesnt hold anymore. He said people kill and eat Eke (though he didnt volunteer to eat it if we killed it).

Its important to note that these were all indigenes resident in the area.

My friend and I went back to the school fortified in the knowledge that if we see the Eke, we could kill it. We didnt see it that day, or the next, or the next . . .

Sometime later (weeks after), at about 9pm, the remaining female corper in our lodge (the other had passed out) came running "Gudugudu, Barri Wonder, something is making noise near my room". We went to check it out (we had no electricity) and our torch showed a snake struggling under a barrier. Its a bit hard to describe. I will just say that the snake tried to crawl underneath a fence like thing and got stuck. Its head and neck went through but the body couldnt pass. It could neither go forward nor retreat so it was thrashing about and making a racket.

Quickly we ran to our secretarys house to borrow cutlasses. As soon as she heard "snake" she was so frightened. She gave us the tools and locked up after us. We went to the snake and hacked it until it stopped thrashing. For good measure, I doused it with kerosene but didnt set fire since most of its body was out of our reach. By climbing over the wall, we could see the other part of its body but we couldnt reach it.

In short, we dealt mortal blows on the reptile. There was blood everywhere and we left it for dead.

In the morning, we went to the spot and there was no snake. Just blood. So we climbed over the wall and looked and there the snake was. The snake we left for dead astonishingly wasnt dead when we thought it was. By morning it was dead though. What happened was that the snakes head was flattened by the blows we dealt it and so in its throes, it was able to retreat finally. Imagine our shock when we looked in the daylight and found out that it was the very same snake we had seen some weeks earlier.
Without being told, we knew it was Eke!

We went to return out tools to the secretary. She asked if we killed the snake and we said yes. Only then for the first time did she ask if it was Eke. We looked at ourselves and said "no". Then she became boastful. This same woman who almost ran up the wall into her ceiling the previous night told us that if it was Eke, we ought to have called her and she would drive it away. Then she started telling us how Eke used to eat her eggs and she kept warning it. It got to the point that one day, she flogged it with a cane and told it that if it came to eat her eggs next time, she would kill it. According to her, Eke never bothered her again.

After her lengthy narrative, she took Kolanuts and threw them around our lodge and asked us to remove some wood and zinc as these were hiding places for snakes.
When school started that same morning, we went and reported ourselves to the acting Principal.

The man was befuddled. He asked "did you kerosene it" and we said yes. He was downcast. He started thinking aloud. He said "what was Eke looking for in the lodge? Is Eke not supposed to know that you are strangers. Eke dont suppose to come here". Then he said he wished he could have been there so he would remove it with his hands and throw outside the compound adding that a five year old child could have carried the Eke away. Then he tapped his head (like papa Ajasco) and muttered to himself. He was in a severe dilemma. He wanted to retrieve the body of the snake but he feared sending a student to do it lest that student be seen by other students and then the gist gets to the community and then his corpers are in hot soup. Then it seems he fancied his chances of defending us against the community because he kept telling himself that he was a first class citizen of the community.

He also told us of a nearby community, some church school or something, how Eke was found in the girls bathroom. He told us that Eke would never attack a stranger or an indigene but that if Eke sees and Abakaliki man, Eke will attack him. The reason he said was because Abakaliki men kill and eat Eke.
We then told him that Mazi and the man that sells things outside the school told us to kill the Eke that the tradition no longer held. He was disgusted and said that they said that because they were christians. Then, he told us that if Eke is crossing the road, cars stop to let it pass.

In the end, he asked us to keep the matter quiet. The snake was left there in the enclosure next to ours and because of the size of the snake, its decomposition kept the air in the lodge foul for the better part of two weeks.

I have not embellished neither have I exaggerated.

My take is that there is nothing special about the Eke. Nobody knew we killed Eke except the principal to whom we reported ourselves. The reason Eke is "harmless" is because nobody attacks it. If you raise a chicken from a chick, if no one attacks it, it will not fear humans. Ive seen chickens like that. They walk up to you and are not moved if you shoo them. No one attacks Eke in the community so it has no need to defend itself.
I dont believe that Abakaliki crap as a snake has no means of knowing who is from where.

Now if the Pastor was an indigene of the place, he could have been more discreet, but he probably taunted the indigenes with the death of the snake. It kind of reminds someone of Benson Idahosa destroying idols in Benin City.
He did what he did because of his religion. Its not everyone that reacts kindly to snakes so I can understand his killing it, particularly as the bible talks about crushing snakes with the heel of the foot. He shouldnt however have waved his "sacrilege in their faces" as I feel he must have done.

Nice write-up!

jayriginal:

Maybe you should stop being rigid and read again.

I had a mindset before posting but after reading every post here (including yours), my mindset changed and thats why I took the pains to share the story. I didnt type all of that for fun or for exercise.

A snake is not a pleasant creature to be around (for a lot of people). Remember too, we had consulted indigenes on the matter and they had assured us that it was a dead tradition (we soon discovered otherwise).
The difference between us and the pastor is that we did not gloat about it. Our safety was our primary concern.

Stop being judgmental.

The question is: How do you know that the pastor gloated about what happened?

What I see here are people jumping to conclusions because a pastor is involved...

We should not let our personal ish with Christianity get in the way...

striktlymi:


The question is: How do you know that the pastor gloated about what happened?

What I see here are people jumping to conclusions because a pastor is involved...

We should not let our personal ish with Christianity get in the way...

He must have gloated. I wasnt there but the inference is very strong. How else would the community have known? If he had buried the snake quietly this probably would never have occurred. If he did not gloat, he must have been indiscreet.

jayriginal:

He must have gloated. I wasnt there but the inference is very strong. How else would the community have known? If he had buried the snake quietly this probably would never have occurred. If he did not gloat, he must have been indiscreet.

You were not there but you KNOW he MUST have gloated? Very sound reasoning indeed...

striktlymi:

You were not there but you KNOW he MUST have gloated? Very sound reasoning indeed...

hey stop yapping there, remember you said this

striktlymi: Good day peeps,

The story is rather funny...are the elders saying that they are now without a god since their god has been killed? [size=15pt]What happened to the usual shout of allow the gods to do their own fighting?[/size][size=8pt][/size]

Anyways, seriously now...the pastor should have been quiet about the whole ish and warn his folks to keep it to themselves that would have prevented this dilemma he finds himself in.

I believe he is right to have taken the action he took because he has a right to protect his family from any harm...indeed it is only proper to respect the traditions of the people but this situation he found himself is really a tight one...the snake came to his house and threatened his kids...

why not let yahweh do his talking too.

the pastor must pay.

striktlymi:

You were not there but you KNOW he MUST have gloated? Very sound reasoning indeed...

Yup, like this.

striktlymi:
Anyways, seriously now...the pastor should have been quiet about the whole ish and warn his folks to keep it to themselves that would have prevented this dilemma he finds himself in.

Do you have selective amnesia?

jayriginal:

Yup, like this.

Do you have selective amnesia?

Don't make me doubt your ability to comprehend...

striktlymi:

Don't make me doubt your ability to comprehend...

Dont make me doubt you have a brain.

jayriginal:

Dont make me doubt you have a brain.

So you do not know the difference between gloating over something and the comment I made?


This is wonderful...

striktlymi:


So you do not know the difference between gloating over something and the comment I made?


This is wonderful...

Im tired of playing with you.

Learn to read.

Enjoy.

jayriginal:

Im tired of playing with you.

Learn to read.

Enjoy.

Bye!