There is a resurgence of ancestral and “idol worship” for prosperity in Nigeria which is drawing an increasing number of young Christians to its ranks, according to Edlyne Anugwom. In a paper presented at the Minneapolis meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion in early November, attended by RW, Anugwom noted that this resurgence, known as the Okeite movement, is particularly strong in the country’s eastern region. The movement follows an earlier phenomenon from the early 2000s, known as Odeshi, where ancestral worship was used for protection from knives and bullets. The Okeite phenomenon involves invoking particular deities and ancestral spirits for material blessings and prosperity by offering sacrifices of animal and human body parts contained in clay pots. The sacrifices and rituals are maintained by priests and are often publicized online. These practices benefit from the black market for human body parts that are often the result of kidnappings for ransom and other killings by criminals. Anugwom said that the practice of ancestral worship has changed from being an agency “of justice to being reinvented to feed the [drive for] power and wealth.”
Church leaders, both Protestant and Catholic, have been reporting increasing participation of their young, mainly male members in this phenomenon. While these participants may continue attending church, they often do so under parental pressure and don’t participate in congregational services. Churches are publicly criticizing the Okeite priests and their young initiates for engaging in these practices and for their worship of materialism and wealth, although those churches also preaching prosperity have been more ambivalent in their condemnation of the phenomenon, according to Anugwom. Aside from preaching against involvement in Okeite practices, there has also been a significant social response, ranging from demolition of ancestral sacrifice sites and imprisonment of participants to vigilante actions. For their part, young members charge that they are being drawn away from the churches because of their complicity in cooperating with corrupt politicians.
