My name is Ikechukwu (God’s power in English). I hailed from the town called Abagana in eastern part Nigeria: which implies I am an Igbo/Ibo by tribe. Abagana is made up of nine villages and much kindred. My kindred is Akanogu. Although Abagananians people from Abagana generally do not kill nor harm the specie of python known as Ball Python, the Akanogu accord special privileges to the python .The Akanogu people are custodians of most of the Deities in Abagana and each Deity has many Ball Pythons and one python must be roaming within the boundary of the Deity’s forest while others roam further and recently they fall prey to foreigners living in Abagana especially those who believe that the meat of python is delicacy and those from Abagana who believe that they are special Christians and therefore must dispense with sacredness of the Ball Python.
The killings are always bone of contention between special Christians and the custodians of the Deities.Then average Christians who are not at home with such killings dare not complain because their pastors are likely to frown at such.
Personally, however, Python is always something to be treasured and respected. I can recall still the story by my mother that when I was seven months old She slept off only to wake up and saw Ball Python laying his head on my chest and funniest thing about the whole scenario is the fact that I was laughing! Then my mother called my grandmother from paternal side. The grandma then called the Python nnenwanya, meaning woman, and then she spread her right hand towards the snake and the snake coiled around the hand and was taken to nearby bush.
During festivities the Pythons are always seen eaten oiled tapioca within the neighbor of the particular Deity. And The Sacred Pythons are always constant visitors to and residents in our house. Go to the veranda during the night or packing store you are likely to see our Sacred Ones majestically foraging for rodents.
