The novel “Akata witch” by Nnedi Okafor told the story of shapeshifters who lived among leopard men. Though fiction, the novel shed some light on the legend of shapeshifting. So many people, even after reading the book, still thought of shapeshifters as folklore. Until recently when studies began to show that shapeshifters are real. This post would define how this split personality mystery works. After this read, you might realize that you or someone you know or someone you would come to know is a shapeshifter or has the ability to be one.
Who are Shapeshifters?
They are people who live two lives, one as an animal and one as a human. That is the simplest explanation for shapeshifting. However, it goes deeper than that.
The myth about shapeshifting.
People think shapeshifters are people who turn to cats or leopards or dogs at night. The old Nollywood movies had over flogged this subject but presented this as an act of witchcraft.
Therianthropy is the mythological ability of human beings to metamorphose into other animals by means of changing their form. It is a genealogy mystery but it is not shapeshifting. It is possible that cave drawings found at Les Trois Frères, in France, depict ancient beliefs in the concept. The best-known form of Therianthropy is found in stories of werewolves, while shapeshifting is found mostly in Leopards (Agu) and predominant among the Igbo tribe i.e. the southeastern part of Nigeria.
The myth is that shapeshifters change their form completely to become an animal, that is not true. They actually DON’T change their forms, it is Therianthrology that does.
So then what is the truth about shapeshifters?
Shifting is a thing of the soul, it is the soul that shifts not the body. More so, shapeshifting is inborn, most times it is hereditary which means that It is not something a person can mimic, practice, and act. It is a deliberate transformation with existing abilities.
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A shapeshifter lives his life like everyone else but the only difference is that he has two bodies – his human body and his body as an animal eg. Leopard (Agu) which is the most common shapeshifting form in Igbo land. The novel Bottled Leopard by Chukwuemeka Ike did a great job of describing this subject.
A shapeshifter is fully aware of his ability to change into another form. During the day, he is a regular person who has friends, family, or a wife, and even children. When the need arises to change shape, it is his soul that leaves his body and enters into that of the connecting animal body in this instance a leopard. The leopard then starts to exist as the man.
When the man’s soul returns to his human form, the leopard goes about its business only this time without a soul, however, the human form cannot move until its soul is with it, so the human form remains at a state of rest while the soul is gone. Shapeshifting is a very dangerous adventure.
The legend of King of the Wawa called King Onyeama of Eke of all Igbo kings in 1908 is a perfect example of a shapeshifter. His soul leaves his body while he is sleeping and enters that of a leopard and carries out premeditated functions.
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During shapeshifting, the shifter is very much aware of his surrounding, if his target is to carry out an assignment such as to kill a person named Ifenna, he heads straight to Ifenna not mistaking him for anyone else because the soul and the cognitive sense of the person are the same, only shared with his human body and the leopard body.
With this explanation, it is easy to argue that shapeshifters are real, and they could as well be people around us. Even the person sleeping next to you might possess this revered mystic power but unrevealed to them.
If they are real why are they not known?
Because of societal criticism caused by western religion, these one-time demi-gods have shrunk into oblivion, not because they do not experience it but because they do not talk not have a supportive atmosphere to explore their powers.
Note, also, that shapeshifting is attained, you can be born with the abilities but if you do not harness it, then you may not be able to function in its full capacity. We can all agree that Christianity has prescribed them and cast them all out as fetish and demons but this doesn’t change the veracity of them.
Are shapeshifters harmful?
Power intoxicates. Imagine having such abilities and someone pisses you off. It just might be the right to transform and destroy them in your secondary form. However, the creation of shapeshifters was to be watchdogs of the community against evil perpetrators but shifters sometimes use it for their selfish run. This aside, they are perfectly harmless in their human form.
Shapeshifters have mystic powers too which is in addition, not in spite of, the power to transform. They can also possess other gifts as bestowed on them by their chi or personal god.
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