Paul, the Octopus or Paul, the Babalawo?

The just concluded 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa sure left a lot of records in its trail. It was the first time the global fiesta will be staged on the black continent, the very first edition that any European nation (Spain) will win outside the shores of Europe.

This became a landmark when one considers that Europe has always been a leading footballing continent with world's finest players and top flight leagues dotting every spot of the continent. Expectedly therefore, Europe should have minimal difficulty producing champions anywhere, anytime on the global scene, but that has not always been the case, the best Europe achieved prior to the South African showing was to win the trophy ONLY at home.

The 2010 world cup was also a confirmation that playing at home before thousands of supporters does not matter as much as your footballing prowess. It will be the first time that any host nation would fail to make it to the second round. Bafana-Bafana made that record, thousands of deafening vuvzelas and home fans could not save the day for Mandiba's country.

Do I have to peel a healing wound to further drive home my point that the 2010 mundial was in a class of its own? Okay, indulge me a little to remind you that the tournament was the most disappointing outing for modern Nigeria in any world event. The super chickens were just too heavy to fly... Anyway, that is another issue for another day.

Although, football pundits may claim all the foregoing are bound to happen in the world's most loved game but no one had anticipated that a certain cephalopod specie, somewhere in Germany would attain the status of a global celebrity during the fiesta. The Octopus, called Paul particularly hit the limelight flawlessly predicting results of major matches in the competition. Although, Paul's meteoric rise to stardom took flight in 2008 during the European cup of nations, the animal's 100% predictions of eight different matches in South Africa gave it the real world celebrity status.

The oracle which lives in a Sea Life Centre tank in Oberhausen, Germany always makes its divination by selecting -out of two boxes containing its food- the box bearing the flag of the match-winning team. The two boxes of course are marked with the flags of any two teams playing each other in any given game.

In the six matches played by its country of origin (Germany) at the European Nations Cup, EURO 2008, Paul predicted four results correctly, only unable to forecast Germany's loss to Croatia and Spain. But in the world cup, the oracle had a hundred percent perfect predictions, capping it with Spain's emergence as the new World champions. Personally, I do not have anything against the animal or its celebrity status, my resentment particularly lies with the ways Africans (especially the media on the continent) hypocritically and gullibly joined the rest of the world to celebrate Paul.

As I write this piece, I'm still trying to remember any mysterious or strange object or animal of African origin that have enjoyed celebration. Rather, if any thing in the mould of a "Paul" emanate from this part of the world, its either its devil-sent or the devil itself! Being a Journalist myself, I have closely observed the way the octopus is being given prominence in our print spaces and airtime especially here in Nigeria and elsewhere on the planet. Although, the owners of the animal are not keeping silent on its prophetic feats, still, it seems we are crying than the bereaved?!

It beats one's imagination to discover that the Africans only joined in the celebration because, one, the animal was "German", and two, because the Europeans and other nationalities regarded as Oyinbos in this part of the world were already celebrating it. A third observation -and I think this overrides the previous two, is that, we feel because no religious leader of repute anywhere in Africa has tagged the animal as evil, fetish or even an anti-Christ entity, then Octopus Paul is normal.

This takes me further and launched me to the reality that never in history has the same euphoria that greeted Paul's predictions, been visited on any Africa's indigenous oracles, particularly the Yoruba's Ifa oracle, despite its many predictions that had come to pass in several societies and also repeatedly for ages.

The denunciation of Ifa and allies by Africans, arguably stemmed from the condemnation of such oracles like Ifa by not only religious leaders but also, imperialists. Culture Historians recorded that when, especially the Christian faith made its advent on the shores of Africa, the missionaries were stunned to discover that the Yoruba people were more than organized with their expressed beliefs in the supernatural (in particular, religions).

They could not come to terms with the fact that the people's religions were deeply entrenched among them. This became a serious problem to the missionaries more because they presumed the religion they brought (i.e Christianity in this instance) may suffer outright rejection and severely threatened by the more established African traditional beliefs.

The Historians pointed out that consequently, the need arose for them (the foreigners) to paint the indigenous faith in bad lights in order to pave a thoroughfare for the acceptability of the whiteman's religion. It was at this instance that oracles like Ifa and their allies were equaled to the devil himself; they indoctrinated the people to believe their traditional religions were unacceptable to God Almighty.

Anything -including predictions by the oracle was enmity to the Supreme Being; so they told the ancient Africans. As such, many Africans today regard predictions -except for those prophesies emanating from both the Christendom and the Islamic domains, as paganism and an abomination before God. An act held to be punishable by the creator.

Therefore, it deeply baffles me to learn that the same Africans, particularly, the supposed learned and sophisticated, who have over the years condemned the practice of predictions by any form of oracles, are making a huge celebration out of one animal-oracle somewhere in Europe. Hypocrites! What difference is there between Paul and our own indigenous Ifa? Is the octopus not the same as an animal-Babalawo or any non-human Dibia found anywhere on the black continent? If the same octopus had been discovered somewhere on the African continent, would the oyinbos have joined us to give a space (not to talk of cover pages) in their own media of mass communication? If we can celebrate the octopus this much and see nothing wrong or fetish with it, why do we ostracize individuals who profess to practice African indigenous religions in our modern society? It's high time we woke up and set ourselves free from self-imposed imperialism.

Arguably, Paul who has since retired from public clairvoyance is an archetype of the many gifts of nature for man to prepare for the future. Cases abound of dogs and other creatures being able to discern looming natural disasters in order for man to take safety precautions, but man, often than not, in his folly (usually predicated on education, religion and sophistication) regard such warnings as superstitious and fallacies.

As much as one is not in support of a return to the stone age or the promotion of ritualistic practices in modern Africa, there is unarguably the need for Africans to learn how not to follow the crowd, how to believe in things that are theirs.

Late American author, critic and political activist, Mary McCarthy once observed, a person who is enthusiastic about modern painting or truman capote is already half a traitor to his class. it is middle-class people who, quite mistakenly, imagine that a lively pursuit of the latest in reading and painting will advance their status in the world.

A word... read between the lines.