Akudaya: When the Dead Refuse to Stay Dead

Reincarnation is one of those popular myths a lot of people believe to be true and even claim to have witnessed, which has gone on to raise eyebrows about its credibility. I mean, it sounds so ridiculous to believe that someone who had died can go on to be reincarnated and start living another life elsewhere, or be reincarnated in the body of someone else and continue to live among us. While it sounds crazy to hear, a lot of people believe it, especially here in Africa or Nigeria; my people call such people "akudaya," and I'm of the opinion that if it hadn't happened, then we probably wouldn't have had that word in the first place.

On several occasions I've read about the story of an individual who has been confirmed dead, only for it to be discovered after some years or time that such people have reincarnated and now live in another part of the country or world. Oftentimes when these tales are narrated, it's always alleged or concluded that such people often disappear into thin air never to be seen again once they're discovered by someone who knows them from their previous life, while I find this hard to believe. My grandfather once told me his experience with someone he knew who died, only for him to see the person again in another town. Given the fact that I trust my grandpa, it's difficult to debunk his experience.

It's worth noting that I've personally not witnessed anyone who reincarnated or anything related to that, but I can remember listening to the recount of a Nigerian army officer who claimed to have worked with a ghost, or should I say, someone who reincarnated, so the officer in question began by talking about how he met this officer during his training program to enter the Nigerian army and how they both got picked and were posted to the same location. I can't remember the name of the reincarnated officer, so I'll just call him Oga Mike, because it seems like the same name he was addressed by in the video.

The officer who shared the story talked about how he and other soldiers love to work alongside Oga Mike during night watch because he's one officer who's known to never sleep during night watch, and so he'll allow whoever is partnered with him to sleep, and they'll both get relief the next morning. He talked about how no one has ever seen Oga Mike sleeping to make it obvious that there were signs that he's not normal, just that they didn't notice.

He talked about how Oga Mike, during his time in the Nigerian army, never once took an excuse to travel home to see his family and how he, at one point, got a lady pregnant and she had to move in with him, and they ended up having two more children after that. To cut the long story short, the wife of Oga Mike once demanded that she must meet his family, and that led to Oga Mike taking excuses to travel and then traveling with his wife and children to see his parents, but on getting to the compound of his parents, he asked the wife to wait while he went and checked the parents at the backyard, and that was the last time they saw him.

After waiting for some time without seeing her husband or his parents, the wife knocked on the door, and when it was opened, she introduced herself as the wife of their son and her children as their grandchildren. The parents asked which of their sons, and she said Oga Mike, which led to the parents crying and then telling her that such isn't possible because the son, Oga Mike, was involved in an accident on his way to join the Nigerian army. They even showed her his grave, but they themselves can't really argue with the wife because the children she came with looked exactly like Oga Mike.

It was a crazy story that broke the internet here in my country a few years ago, and to this day, the wife still can't believe she was married to a ghost, nor can Oga Mike's colleagues. The Nigerian army, on the other hand, doesn't believe in such superstition, so they said he has gone AWOL; that's a situation where an army runs away from duty. So do I believe this story or other ones I've heard? Well, the truth is that I believe this life is full of mystery, and I won't be surprised if such is part of the hidden mystery our world holds.

All photos are taken and edited on canva.