THE INITIAL PURPOSE OF CULTISM

In Nigeria, a confraternity is a group that is nominally university-based, though 'street and creek' confraternities began in the 1990s. The first confraternity, the Pyrates Confraternity was created as a social organization for promising students. However, as new confraternities were formed, they became increasingly violent through the 1970s and 1980s. By the 1990s, many confraternities largely operated as criminal gangs, called "campus cults" in Nigeria.  Wole Soyinka and a group of six friends formed the Pyrate Confraternity at the elite University College, Ibadan, then part of the University of London.

 According to the Pyrates, the "Magnificent Seven", as they called themselves, observed that the university was populated with wealthy students associated with the colonial powers and a few poorer students striving in manner and dress to be accepted by the more advantaged students, while social life was dictated by tribal affiliation. Soyinka would later note that the Pyrates wanted to differentiate themselves from "stodgy establishment and its pretentious products in a new educational institution different from a culture of hypocritical and affluent middleclass, different from alienated colonial aristocrats". The organization adopted the motto "Against all conventions", the skull and crossbones as their logo, while members adopted confraternity names such as "Cap'n Blood" and "Long John Silver". When fellow students protested a proposal to build a railroad across the road leading to the university, fearing that easier transportation would make the university less exclusive, the Pyrates successfully ridiculed the argument as elitist. Roughly analogous to the fraternities and sororities of North America, the Pyrates Confraternity proved popular among students, even after the original members moved on. Membership was open to any promising male student, regardless of tribe or race, but selection was stringent and most applicants were denied.

 For almost 20 years, the Pyrates were the only confraternity on Nigerian campuses. The intrusion of secret cults into student unionism and campus life has brought this change. The havoc being caused by these violent cultist activities in our universities and other tertiary institutions has become a source of worry and concern to so many students, lecturers, parents, guardians and the government at large. There are now incidents of cultist activities on our campuses with oath-taking and Blood sucking ceremonies, cases of Burglary and House breaking, raping involving sons and daughters of lightly placed members of the society under the influence of drugs, such as cocaine. Indian hemp and so on, dangerous weapons such as guns, swords, spear, axes, knives, explosives, are reported to be freely used by these secret cults member. Thus, there existed in the universities now a legion of these occultic groups such as the Pyrate Confraternity, Eiye Fraternity, Buccaneers, the Black Nationalist of Ife, the Black Cobra of Ife, Axe Black Night, Black Berret, Green Berret, Vikings and so on. A university environment which should thrive through exchange of intellectual and moral ideas suddenly becomes a battle field where violent cultism looms large.