The Yoruba culture is deeply rooted in a lot of superstitions that people still believe in, even in this day and age. As a kid, I actually believed some of them, but as I grew older, I realized they were just a facade.
The first one that comes to mind, and probably the most common one, is the superstition about stepping over someone. They say if you step over someone, it brings bad luck and could even stunt the person’s growth. To reverse it, you have to step back over the person and let them move their legs before you pass again. I remember believing this so strongly as a kid. If anyone ever dared to cross over my legs, I would just get angry and insist they step back over me to fix it with immediate effect.
The truth was , I wasn’t even the only one who took it seriously—there have been alot of times that i witnessed arguments and fights break out over this same issue. People believed in it so much.
But as I grew older, I started questioning these belief. How could stepping over someone bring them bad luck? It didn’t make sense to me at all. Yet, these beliefs were passed down from generation to generation, and people just accepted them. There’s also another aide to this superstition that says if you step over someone especially a pregnant woman, you might give birth to a child that looks or acts like the person you crossed. I remember crossing over a friend once, and he just said, 'Cross me back, I don’t want to give birth to a child that looks just like you!' I just bursted into laughter because, by then, I realized how ridiculous and funny it was.
However, the worst superstition I ever believed in was the idea that whistling could attract snakes. Back then, if someone whistled near me, especially at night, I’d immediately walk away, with the mindset that snakes would come crawling out of nowhere. The strange part is, I never even tried it out myself —I just accepted it because everyone around me did. The fear was so real that I made sure to never whistle myself, thinking it would attract snakes into my house or wherever I was.
Then one day, in high school, I decided to test it out. My school was built in a rain forest where snakes were common, so I figured it was the perfect place to see if the superstition was true. I whistled several times, expecting snakes to come slithering towards me. But guess what? Nothing happened. I didn't even see a single snake. I just stood there whistling like a fool, waiting for something that was never going to happen. It was at that moment I realized just how absurd the belief was. I felt embarrassed for all the times I had lived in fear because of something very untrue.
From that experience, I became a lot more skeptical of these beliefs. While they’re part of our culture and history, it’s clear that most of them don’t even hold any truth. Yet, even today, some people still cling to them. But as for me, I know better now.
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