EUROPEAN ALSO PRACTICE & SERVE WEST AFRICA TRADITIONS.

By Edewor Otighoarievwen.

In the West Africa and it environs, tradition is based on religion often practice. In time of old the Africans religion was not Christianity but the religion was in form at which high believe was placed on dieties and carve head with woods with notion of spirit in them either good or bad. 

However, the Europeans / British in term of colony adopt from Africa their main carved heads with woods assume to be JUJU as  history may have it.

WHAT'S JUJU DEFINITION? juju is an object that has been deliberately infused with magical power or the magical power itself; it also can refer to the belief system involving the use of juju. 

See

WHERE IT'S BEEN PRACTICED?

Juju is practiced in West African countries such as Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and Ghana, although its assumptions are shared by most African people. 

ITS STATE/STATUS;

It is neither good nor bad, but it may be used for constructive purposes as well as for nefarious deeds. A monkey’s head is probably the most common juju in West Africa. 

ITS EXTRACTIONS.

The word juju is believed to be derived from the French joujou (“plaything”), though some sources claim it is from the Hausa language, meaning “fetish” or “evil spirit.”

JUJU OPERATIONS.

Juju operates on the principle of spiritual contagious contact based on physical contact. The underlying belief is that two entities that have been in close contact have similar properties even after being separated. It then becomes possible to manipulate one in order to reach the other. Thus, in that context, a person’s hair, fingernails, a piece of clothing, a shoe, a sock, or a piece of jewel worn by them are all perfect candidates for juju because they are believed to retain the spiritual aura of their owner.

Likewise, it is thought that spiritual similarity can be created by deliberately placing two things in physical contact. The underlying belief is that spiritual assimilation and fusion will take place, with one entity absorbing the qualities of the other. Amulets, charms, and mascots are all common forms of juju. Usually worn for protective purposes, those objects have been infused with a particular type of energy, and wearing them is expected to create paths and possibilities for the wearer, as well as guard them against ill fortunes and evil spirits.

HOW EUROPEANS PRACTICE AND SERVE JUJU?

There's something that is called Proto-Indo-European mythology. This is the body of myths and deities associated with the Proto-Indo-Europeans, speakers of the hypothesized Proto-Indo-European language. Although the mythological motifs are not directly attested since Proto-Indo-European speakers lived in preliterate societies.

The Proto-Indo-European pantheon includes a number of securely reconstructed deities, since they are both cognates linguistic siblings from a common origin and associated with similar attributes and body of myths: such as Dyḗws Ph₂tḗr, 

the daylight-sky god; his consort Dʰéǵʰōm, the earth mother; his daughter *H₂éwsōs,

the dawn goddess; his sons the Divine Twins;

And Seh₂ul, a solar goddess.

Some deities, like the weather god Perkʷunos or the herding-god Péh₂usōn, are only attested in a limited number of traditions – Western (i.e. European) and Graeco-Aryan, respectively which could therefore represent late additions that did not spread throughout the various Indo-European dialects.

Some myths are also securely dated to Proto-Indo-European times, since they feature both linguistic and thematic evidence of an inherited motif: a story portraying a mythical figure associated with thunder and slaying a multi-headed serpent to release torrents of water that had previously been pent up; a creation myth involving two brothers, one of whom sacrifices the other in order to create the world; and probably the belief that the Otherworld was guarded by a watchdog and could only be reached by crossing a river.

Various schools of thought exist regarding possible interpretations of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European mythology. The main mythologies used in comparative reconstruction are Indo-Iranian, Baltic, Roman, and Norse, often supported with evidence from the Celtic, Greek, Slavic, Hittite, Armenian, Illyrian, and Albanian traditions as well.