Introduction
We are living in a world where even though we tend to run away from natural-fear(s)[1], the society creates fear(s) for us directly or indirectly (artificial-fear(s)[2]). To this fact Desh Subba stated it clear that, “life is directed, conducted and controlled by fear,” which though does not presuppose that one should subscribe to fear but serves as a clarion call for us to raise eyebrow on this phenomenon fear.
This article is a fearological reflection on the notion of ember months (September, October, November and December) especially in Nigeria where some religious sect uses it to induce non-personal fear, interpersonal fear[3] and inculcation of fear culture on people’s way of living within this period. It aims at uncovering how the notion of ember month affects the psychic conditioning of the people so as to defear folks suffering from the emotion (fear) especially within the Christians denomination.
Explication of Terms
Defearing: To defear is to make one fear free. Just like deconstruction. The concept “defearing” is a composition of two terms ‘de’ and ‘fear’. De which is derived from the Latin preposition de-(meaning undoing, reversal or removing) and fear (an anxious feeling).
Ember month: The last quarter of the year ending with the suffix ‘ember’ like September, October, November, December.
During ember month there is always this tendency for people to strive towards achieving more success so as to beat financial constraint so as to celebrate Christmas in a luxurious way. For while everybody are struggling, the religious people are not left out. Everyone wants to mark this celebration by showing his people that he/she is not wasting time in the city or place of work (this is peculiar to those who live in the cities (mobility of labour) and migrants) who visit the village occasionally.
The religious sects especially the occasional churches that springs up like supermarket with the inscription “worship with us” on their sign post normally come up with fliers, banner and texts inviting people to programs titled “operation fight those fight against you,” ‘cancelling every spirit of ember,’ “blood sucking demons of ember month will not see me”, ‘my blood will be bitter for any ember month demon’, “my head will not be used for any sacrifice in this ember month”.
Some of those captions raise a question in the mind of any critical minded person; are there spirits meant to work only on ember month? Why should these programs come up now? Are there demons that operate only in ember month? Or is it the actual time for the religious program to be profitable?
These programs come up as a result of praying for people not to be use as rituals during this period. People sow seeds to the men of God even when they have little to live on but instead of receiving message of peace and love which serve as an antidotes for fear so as to toe that path of fearlessness, they receive messages that is characterized by fear which will make many to even receive the Saviour in anxiety and pain. In all honesty, the type of messages or preaching’s given by some pastors makes people to live in fear of the neighbor and above all seeing the good in people to be bad. By doing so, they kill the “I-thou” relationship preached by Jesus Christ, Martin Buber and Emmanuel Levinas.
The information they are inundated with are often projected in the dream. And as such, the dreamer begins to capitalize on his/her dream. In some cases the one shares the dream(s) with the so called men of God who create more confusion by creating more fear(s) that ends up in what I call fear-societal-disintegration[4].
Fear leads to societal disintegration because it is contagious. If someone becomes afraid of something, this fear has a tendency to spread to others, who in turn spread it further.[5] It is very easy to spread because humanity is confronted by powerful destructive forces that threaten our everyday existence. In this ember –fear, there is always two predominant fears that make people grieve or act as cowards without calling to mind that fear could also be a sale tool especially in fear cultured society.
- Fear of Death
It is truism that death is inevitable. Every human person should strive towards accomplishing the existential calling (purpose) than wasting time trying to be like Mr. this or that. Protecting the self and achieving nothing can even make one to do anything humanly possible to be.
Although life is the chief value, the interestingness of life is that which is successful. By that I mean in the sense of achieving your purpose. Fear of death during ember month comes as a result of non-personal fear; fear that comes from a particular person, individual or private situation,[6] (it is created) intra-personal fear; fear that occurs within the individual mind or self like failure, inadequacy, impropriety,[7] resulting from cultured fear conditioned by religious leaders and get quick money syndrome.
Thus, understanding what one wants, setting up strategic goals, and working towards it religiously in the spirit of fearlessness will be a way of being alleviated from this ideological mishap. It is pertinent to note that the ember months are like other months. Seeing it as different from other months or characterized by some sort of evil happening is a category mistake. Hence, people needs to own up to responsibilities as we recall the words of Augustine which says, “pray as if everything depend on God and work as if everything depend on you”. You will live better fearless than in fear. Life is more than fear, for fear is part of life consciousness. It is a cosmic force that helps in awaking consciousness in humans. Paying attention to some of these fear symptoms which as a result of wrong approach to reality (FMS- Fear Management System) can lead to what R. M. Fisher calls a kind of building fear-identity[8]. This is why he (Fisher) encourages us to pay more attention to fearlessness which will help us to be more responsible in decision making so as to conduct our affairs properly.
[1] Fear posed to humans by natural occurrences e.g natural deserters
[2] Fear that comes from human inventions either ideologically or otherwise
[3]For non-personal fear and interpersonal fear, A philosophical cum psychological Approach, (port Harcourt: EY&SONS, 2016), P.g23-26
[4] Confusion in the society which is as a result of fear
[5]S. Lars, philosophy of fear, (London: reaction books ltd), 2008, P.11
[6] K.A. Osinakachi conquering the beast fear, P.23
[7] K.A. Osinakachi P.25
[8] R. Michael Fisher, Ethical Referent to Fearology, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KE6TGirOIc
Comments
Thanks OAK for sharing initial thoughts on this project of yours to defearing [1] a part of Nigerian culture and its myths. This piece reminds me of the piece OAK shared on the "wicked beast" and the image he posted https://fearlessnessmovement.ning.com/forum/fear-the-wicked-beast-a... some time ago--the photo of the 'man' dressed up in evocative dress and movements going down the streets in his country (village)... and, even though I have no context of direct experience in interpreting what is going on in this first post, there is a sense of it being an encounter event (ritual?) in the streets of Nigeria (rural) whereby the dramatization raises "fear" to a concentration. OAK wrote a poem accompanying that image.
Now, in his Embers posting I see OAK pursuing this same kind of theme of some aspect of Nigerian culture that is a concern to him, and doing it as a philosopher and fearologist, whereby he seems to me to utilize again bright, colorful and dramatic letters and symbols in his post. These I find are indicators or mirrors of the dramatic and ask us as reader of the images to attend--and concentrate our attention. They provoke in their boldness, like the photo of the dancing costumed man in the streets, fear but also something else. OAK is in my view intuitively in touch with use of aesthetic (arational), magical-mythic, if not poetic and imaginal modes of expression to make his point, to get our attention and to rehearse (perhaps) the very powerful imaginal aspects of the very phenomena he is examining in his Nigerian context. Again, I see Kalu not making the cultural values and behaviors or myths 'bad' per se, but merely that they need to be questioned from a fearological lens. Ultimately, he seems to be examining the way "fear" is constructed, used, and moving and moved and controlled within cultural productions, rituals, formulations of everyday social (and religious) practices, which have psychological, sociological, anthropological, economic and spiritual impacts on his people and the fate of the Nigerian nation (if not on Africa as a whole).
There is so much I could say about his piece "Embers" but will hold off and await OAK's further research and writing on this. In brief point of summary, it seems to me that OAK is studying in Nigeria the 'competition for souls' (via mis-uses of fear) that goes on in so many nations and cultures. That is, where powers of a society are competing, implicitly and explicitly, for the control of people and this may be corporate powers (i.e., get people to buy more products for capitalist gain), government powers (i.e., get people to be more active and "doing" rather than "being" because that is supposedly how to become successful, and/or win more votes for the next election in political sphere using propaganda), religious powers (i.e., win more converts, more souls, grow and be the 'winning' religion of the land).
I am so glad to see anyone (e.g., like OAK) take on the responsibility to defear their culture(s) and nation(s) because this has to be done (uniquely) from people situated in and living amongst those cultures and nations. The researcher and fearologist in those cultures and nations has the finest grade of nuance and "in-touchness" with what is going on there. I also think this defearing is required in every culture and nation around the world. So, I look forward to more doing this kind of fearwork(ing) and the sooner the better. We also can help each other do this work from other cultures and nations, by providing support and having dialogues and sharing our work. People in other cultures and nations can also bring a unique perspective to other cultures and nations in this process of consciousness raising.
Notes:
1. Defearing for OAK is much like dephilosophy for Desh Subba, and like my fearanalysis (Fisher).