The belief in Nigeria that there are months of the year particularly marked by demonic forces has been influenced by a combination of Pentecostal and indigenous African beliefs, writes Nduka Udeagha in the Journal of Religion in Africa (online in April). What are called the “ember months,” marking the end of the year, are associated with disastrous occurrences and demonic forces, bringing about general fear and unease among Nigerians. The belief was originally influenced by the indigenous religion of the Yoruba people, where the calendar was based on this tribe’s belief in the movement of celestial bodies, such as the sun and the moon, and their effect on agriculture and other aspects of social life. These beliefs were imposed on the Gregorian calendar, where the last four months of the year were named after numbers rather than Roman gods and events, with their etymological ending in “ember” in Nigerian. The belief that the ember months were a time of jinxes and misfortune involved beliefs in a supreme deity, ancestors, spirits, divinities, and forces, the latter three of which can be evil as well as good.
The introduction and growth of Pentecostalism, but especially African Initiated Churches (AIC), led to interpretations that these spiritual entities had malign intents and purposes. Udeagha writes that recent spiritual warfare teachings from prominent Pentecostal churches and evangelists (such as Daniel Chika Okpara of the Shining Light Christian Center in Lagos, Apostle Joshua Selman of Eternity Network International, and Pastor David Ogbueli of Dominion City) have focused on the ember months as a time to seek special protection and ministry against evil spirits. Udeagha writes that these churches have intensified a fear of the ember months among Nigerians, who already saw them as full of dangerous occurrences, from car accidents to untimely deaths. Social media has only spread and popularized the linkages between such occurrences and spiritual forces, providing often vivid and lurid video feeds of misfortunes, along with advice and information on remedies, special prayers, and vigils to ward off these influences. Udeagha concludes that more attention should be given to how the popularization of the ember months shapes security concerns and key spheres of Nigerian social life, particularly the way Pentecostalism intersects and conflicts with Islam in the country.
(Journal of Religion in Africa, https://brill.com/view/journals/jra/)
