Every Nigerian kid with an interesting childhood definitely has memories of playing “police and thieves”. And during this game, when shot at, some of us would try to escape ‘death’ by shouting odeshi.
After which would come the cries and accusations of cheating… what? You never played such games? Which ones did you play? Monopoly?
Your childhood was boring if you started it with Monopoly, because nothing beat fashioning makeshift guns out of pawpaw tree branches. It was the closest some of us would come to starring in our own action movies.
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But I digress.
Now, no one can blame us for trying to cheat ‘death’, because that’s everybody’s ultimate goal in life. To try and eke out as much as we can before Azrael comes to claim us and our final breaths are swallowed by the womb of death. But what was this odeshi that they were using as a safe word?
Well, odeshi is a charm, one that allegedly protects its wearer from bullets. And no, we didn’t have access to charms (I grew up in Agege in Lagos, not Are/Afao in Ekiti), but that didn’t stop us from invoking it.
Origin of Odeshi
Just like a lot of things, the word ‘odeshi’ emanated from mainstream media. It is a popular Igbo slang from an Igbo movie featuring a notorious armed robber named “Deriko”.
In the movie, whenever the actor who played Deriko got into a gun battle, he would scream “odeshi!” whenever bullets were fired at him. The word means “o dighi eshi“, “o dighi ehi” or “o dighi epu“, which all translate to it is not leaking or it is not penetrating.
The slang is a sort of brag, as the person with the charm is taunting the shooter(s) that their bullets aren’t doing shit.
Despite the fact that the word has Igbo origins, odeshi is not limited to the Igbos alone, as different cultures have different names for protective charms. Notorious highwaymen like Anini and Oyenusi allegedly used such protections known as “ayeta“, which translates to bullet-warding or bullet-dodging.
Nevertheless, odeshi remains the standard word, especially in Pidgin English.
- MORE IN THIS SERIES:
- Pidgin Phrases For Survival In Nigeria
- Igbo People: History, Culture, Religion
- Popular Nigerian Slangs You Should Know
- Slangs in Nigeria: Meaning of Aza, Sapa, and Others
How does Odeshi work?
Theoretically, the charm works in a very simple way. The person visits a herbalist who prepares a charm that is designed to ward off bullets, and as long as the person has the charm on, he/she can never be killed by bullets.
Well, that’s the theoretical aspect. The practical is a little trickier.
The issue with obtaining such a powerful charm is that it often involves diabolical acts like blood or human sacrifice. Trading a life for the one you want to keep. And apart from this, odeshi also usually requires certain conditions to maintain.
For example, the wearer may be required to abstain from s3xual intercourse, or not do it in certain styles (yes, it’s a thing), or refrain from certain foods or activities. An alleged odeshi user once revealed that his own charm involved packing sand around his legs. When going out, he would pack sand inside his socks and his shoes, because his protection was earth-based, and as long as he was in contact with the earth, he couldn’t be shot.
And, to boot, every odeshi charm always has a loophole, a caveat that renders the protection null. It could be from holding and firing the gun upside down, or pouring water on the wearer before shooting them, or some other random action. The user above with the earth-bending odeshi only needs to have his socks knocked off to make him follow suit.
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How to get Odeshi
I know this is probably the part you’re here for. In fact, chances are, you didn’t even bother reading everything that came before; you just skipped straight here.
Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I am not a herbalist, and neither do I have one on speed dial. The closest contact I had with a herbalist was when we prank-called one when I was in the university… what can I say? We loved to live dangerously, even though none of us slept that night because Baba Agbomola had promised to pay us a visit.
That being said, if you feel like your life is in danger and you want to get odeshi, you need to get a herbalist. And not just any herbalist; a powerful one that knows his shit. Because there are no refunds if the charm fails, and your family members will need the article in the link below in short order…
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Wrapping up on Odeshi: Does it really work?
Well, who’s to say, what’s fair to say, and what not to say? Sorry for the random Eminem line, but that’s all the answer I can authoritatively give.
Because, yes, there are multiple accounts of people using odeshi and surviving gunshots and point-blank range. But for every report of the above, there are five stories of people whose charms failed at the beta-testing stage.
So, if you still want to get odeshi, you need to go make peace with your village people, as they’re the ones that can help you. Good luck with that.
Till next time.
