v  By Ashley Bagwell

When most Americans think of black magic they go immediately to old movies or myths involving some sort of voodoo and sorcery. Rarely does a goat come to mind, unless of course you are up to date on the latest Nigerian news.

Recently in Nigeria, a country in Western Africa, a group of vigilante men apprehended a suspected car thief who had allegedly used black magic, after running behind a wall, to turn himself into a goat in an attempt to avoid capture. The men then presented their criminal to the police, whose spokesperson then released a statement saying, “We cannot confirm the story, but the goat is in our custody. We cannot base our information on something mystical. It is something that has to be proved scientifically, that a human being turned into a goat.”

Nigeria has shown obvious improvements in attempts to tackle government corruption and to secure a strong police force. In an effort to prove this to the Nigerian people they have developed a system of parading criminals, whether proven guilty or not, as a sign that they are succeeding in cracking down on crime. The goat was no exception to this charade.

One of the many things that make our world beautiful is diversity. You can point to any two spots on the globe and be guaranteed to find different behaviors, values and beliefs. All of this is because over history every area of our world has developed its own distinctive culture. It amazes me that although no two regions are identical in culture, it is possible to find one simple continuity through something as inconsequential as the yearning to be politically correct.

One cannot be certain that the Nigerian police decided to detain this animal because they honestly believed it to be a man, although one can be certain that a lot of their citizens believed just such as the belief in dark magic and witchcraft is widespread in several regions of Africa, Nigeria included. Regardless of how the Nigerian officials feel about the supposed goat-man they have no choice but to take this claim seriously simply because it would upset the public if they took it as anything less than the truth.

This same concept is prevalent in America as well, where every public figure must be perfectly, politically correct or fear the wrath of society, with the few exceptions who stake their entire career on acting and speaking the exact opposite.

It is very easy, as Americans, to look at this situation and laugh, to consider these people to be nothing short of insane for detaining a goat. But we must realize that it is engrained in these peoples culture to believe in things like dark magic. They have been raised to believe the same way children believe in Santa or Christians believe in God, it is no different and no funnier, just something Americans have been raised to view as a joke.