Python: The Goddess Living With People Under Same Roof

CYRIACUS IZUEKWE

It might sound strange but it has been confirmed that in some Igbo communities that people harbour and live with pythons under the same roof as they were seen as goddesses of the land.

Being seen deities, they were given different names in the communities such as Eke, Nwadiala, Nnanyi, Ikputu, depending on the level of reverence in a particular community.

P.M.EXPRESS reports that the snakes were revered in the land to the extent that if they were mistakenly killed, the killers were said to be considered to have committed murder; something abominable and must perform certain rituals to appease the gods to avoid calamity in the land.

Apart from appeasing the people and the gods through certain rituals, the killer must conduct a proper burial ceremony just as done for human beings which included buying coffin, clothes, digging grave, buying palm wines, alligator pepper and kolanuts etc to make for a decent burial.

P.M.EXPRESS investigations revealed that the sacredness of the pythons were so deep to the extent that it cut across both the traditional worshippers, Christians and other religious beliefs, in as much as such persons were sons and daughters of the soil in such areas.

P.M.EXPRESS gathered that such communities where those beliefs were still sacred were communities in Aguata and Idemili Local government areas of the Anambra State. Some of the towns mentioned in Aguata included Umuchu, Uga, Amesi, Ekwulobia, Umuomaku, Achina, Aguluezechukwu, Akpo, Igboukwu, Nanka and many others.
It was also gathered that in Idemili Local Government area, it was also a taboo to kill the pythons in towns like Obosi, Abatete, Ideani, Umuoji, Ogidi and others.

P.M.EXPRESS gathered that there was a mystery between the python and the people which can be traced to the days of their forefathers and the people had imperial proofs to show and believe.

Some of the leaders in the communities visited told P.M.EXPRESS that the pythons do not harm the people where they were considered as deities despite the fact that they were poisonous and can cause death when they bite victims.

One of the community leaders in Umuchu town, Ichie Peter Aginam attempted to offer an explanation on what happens between the people and the python which he described as a bond he was unable to trace its origin. Ichie Agina said that when the python mistakenly bites a son of the soil, it will sigh and the poisonous venom will immediately be neutralised and it will not harm such person.

However, Ichie Aginam revealed that it was not so with the people from communities like Umunze town in Orumba North Local government area, where such bites may result to death for the fact that they do kill and eat the python. Ichie Aginam was unable to trace the genesis of the affinity between the python and the people but described it as a bond that has not been broken.

When asked what will happen if one kills the python and secretly buries it without informing any person, he said that strange calamities will befall such person, he will be forced to confess and perform the required rituals. Ichie Aginam further said that despite civilisation and development, that the people still held the belief and avoided going against but concluded that it was not idol worship.

However, some of the people do not maintain such beliefs. Some said that it was an old belief that had been overtaken by modern events and as such was no longer prevalent in some communities. Some others said that they will not deliberately kill the python as a form of confrontation against the belief because they do not know the secret behind the relationship between it and their forefathers that made it so.