# Nigerian Man Dies When Charm Against Gunshots Fails to Work **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 24, 2017, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nigerian-man-dies-when-charm-against-gunshots-fails-to-work/799682 "2017-10-24T05:07:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nigerian-man-dies-when-charm-against-gunshots-fails-to-work/799682/21 "2017-10-24T16:26:26Z")
I just read Trevor Noah’s memoir “Born a Crime”. In it, he says witchcraft trials are still common in South Africa. If you are accused of witchcraft, he says: “And you go to trial. The court is presided over by a judge. There is a docket. There is a prosecutor. Your defense attorney has to prove lack of motive, go through the crime-scene forensics, present a staunch defense. And your attorney’s argument can’t be “Witchcraft isn’t real.” No, no, no. You’ll lose.” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nigerian-man-dies-when-charm-against-gunshots-fails-to-work/799682/22 "2017-10-24T16:44:20Z")
“The late Maikare who was in the middle of the gathering to display his prowess, wrapped himself up in the charms, did incantations, **picked a dane gun** and fired on himself. He died instantly.” A Dane is is a muzzle loader supplied by the Danes for the African slave trade. Was it a ceremonial weapon/ ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nigerian-man-dies-when-charm-against-gunshots-fails-to-work/799682/23 "2017-10-24T16:55:12Z")
> [@](#): > > I just read Trevor Noah’s memoir “Born a Crime”. In it, he says witchcraft trials are still common in South Africa. If you are accused of witchcraft, he says: > > “And you go to trial. The court is presided over by a judge. There is a docket. There is a prosecutor. Your defense attorney has to prove lack of motive, go through the crime-scene forensics, present a staunch defense. And your attorney’s argument can’t be “Witchcraft isn’t real.” No, no, no. You’ll lose.” I don’t know about South Africa specifically, but [in parts of Africa witchcraft is real, and murderous](https://www.google.com/search?q=kill+albinos+witchcraft+africa). ---
**Author:** ![Delicious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@Delicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Delicious)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nigerian-man-dies-when-charm-against-gunshots-fails-to-work/799682/24 "2017-10-24T16:58:36Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > “The late Maikare who was in the middle of the gathering to display his prowess, wrapped himself up in the charms, did incantations, **picked a dane gun** and fired on himself. He died instantly.” > > A Dane is is a muzzle loader supplied by the Danes for the African slave trade. > Was it a ceremonial weapon/ I’m betting that’s where he went wrong, that gun was probably covered in Danish charms to help deal with the charmed bulletproof slaves ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nigerian-man-dies-when-charm-against-gunshots-fails-to-work/799682/25 "2017-10-24T17:00:42Z")
Eh, I wouldn’t be too hard on these folks. We in the west have our multi-billion dollar vitamin industry, alternative healers, anti-vaxers, etc. So, don’t scoff to strenuously at traditional cultures and their ways. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nigerian-man-dies-when-charm-against-gunshots-fails-to-work/799682/26 "2017-10-24T17:10:41Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > Eh, I wouldn’t be too hard on these folks. We in the west have our multi-billion dollar vitamin industry, alternative healers, anti-vaxers, etc. So, don’t scoff to strenuously at traditional cultures and their ways. Can’t we scoff at both? ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nigerian-man-dies-when-charm-against-gunshots-fails-to-work/799682/27 "2017-10-24T17:17:41Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > “The late Maikare who was in the middle of the gathering to display his prowess, wrapped himself up in the charms, did incantations, **picked a dane gun** and fired on himself. He died instantly.” > > A Dane is is a muzzle loader supplied by the Danes for the African slave trade. > Was it a ceremonial weapon/ If you don’t have a Dane gun, you can also use a [Dobie-O-Matic](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/194780752604204824/). ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nigerian-man-dies-when-charm-against-gunshots-fails-to-work/799682/28 "2017-10-24T19:09:52Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > What’s Nigerian for ‘hold my beer’? There are over 500 languages spoken in Nigeria, but in Yoruba it would be: Pa ọti mi ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nigerian-man-dies-when-charm-against-gunshots-fails-to-work/799682/29 "2017-10-24T19:17:06Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > There are over 500 languages spoken in Nigeria, but in Yoruba it would be: Pa ọti mi Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo are the three biggest, I think. ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nigerian-man-dies-when-charm-against-gunshots-fails-to-work/799682/30 "2017-10-24T19:26:31Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Wasn’t there a story a decade or two back about a guy who was killed because he thought he could use his amazing brain power to stop a train? I tried googling, but came up empty and I’m at work so I can’t really spend all after noon on it. I had also heard the same story, and went checking online. I found two mentions of it, but one is from the “Weekly World News” and another from a book (“Borderlands”) written by Mike Dash (apparently a respected historian of the obscure). The book feels a bit like an “I want to believe” thing, but anyway… Copy-pasting the book for the story: > [@Borderlands](#): > > “Psychics who have attempted to demonstrate psychokinesis on a larger scale have sometimes come to grief. In September 1989, the driver of a freight train nearing Astrakhan, at the mouth of the Volga river, noticed a man in a white shirt walking beside the line. As the train approached, the man stopped, dropped his briefcase, and walked into the path of the train, where he stood with his arms raised, head bowed and body tensed until the locomotive struck and killed him. A police investigation determined that he was Alexei Frenkel, a man with a local reputation as a faith healer, and his apparently suicidal behaviour was explained by a note found in the briefcase: ‘First I stopped a bicycle, cars, a streetcar. Now I am going to stop a train. Only in extraordinary conditions of a direct threat to my organism will all my reserves be called into action.’” Here are links to the two sources I was able to find. BOOK: [Borderlands - Mike Dash - Google Books](https://goo.gl/BT4KVr) WEEKLY WORLD NEWS: [Weekly World News - Google Books](https://goo.gl/Xi2m9A) My comment on the story: My, what a surprise! A startled bicycle rider can stop on a dime in order not to hit a lunatic stepping in front of him and going all weird-like. A car, more difficult, but within the realm of the possible. A tramway… if the tram is going real slow, yeah, I can see that happening. But a _ **freight train…** _? Good luck with that, buddy…! ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nigerian-man-dies-when-charm-against-gunshots-fails-to-work/799682/31 "2017-10-24T19:51:54Z")
That is indeed the story. I recall it being in the USSR somewhere. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2017, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nigerian-man-dies-when-charm-against-gunshots-fails-to-work/799682/32 "2017-10-25T01:38:01Z")
Is there any empirical evidence that “western medicine” of the medical/industrial complex yields better survival or reercovery rates than charms, or any other practice performed outside the mainstream of the kind of medical treatments that western medical insurance coverage is willing to compensate patients for? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2017, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nigerian-man-dies-when-charm-against-gunshots-fails-to-work/799682/33 "2017-10-25T01:42:33Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Is there any empirical evidence that “western medicine” of the medical/industrial complex yields better survival or reercovery rates than charms, or any other practice performed outside the mainstream of the kind of medical treatments that western medical insurance coverage is willing to compensate patients for? Yes. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2017, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nigerian-man-dies-when-charm-against-gunshots-fails-to-work/799682/34 "2017-10-25T01:58:17Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Is there any empirical evidence that “western medicine” of the medical/industrial complex yields better survival or reercovery rates than charms, or any other practice performed outside the mainstream of the kind of medical treatments that western medical insurance coverage is willing to compensate patients for? Somehow, I think the 75 units of blood I received did a far better job of correcting my condition than any charms could have done. I’m pretty sure the rod in my leg had more to do with the bone healing than praying to the local spirit of the shrub. The breathing tube and oxygen no doubt helped my outcome than any feather-festooned stick would have had. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2017, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nigerian-man-dies-when-charm-against-gunshots-fails-to-work/799682/35 "2017-10-25T02:03:16Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Somehow, I think the 75 units of blood I received did a far better job of correcting my condition than any charms could have done. > I’m pretty sure the rod in my leg had more to do with the bone healing than praying to the local spirit of the shrub. > The breathing tube and oxygen no doubt helped my outcome than any feather-festooned stick would have had. Hey, my answer was more eloquent! 🙂 Yeah, my hip replacement at 40 for ankylosing spondilitys beats the heal out of…anything. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2017, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nigerian-man-dies-when-charm-against-gunshots-fails-to-work/799682/36 "2017-10-25T02:07:01Z")
But “Spirit of the Shrub”, is that a denominational thing? Is there a barak for that? “Bless you Lord, Creator of the universe, Who made the Spirit of the Shrub…which does what, already?” ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2017, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nigerian-man-dies-when-charm-against-gunshots-fails-to-work/799682/37 "2017-10-25T02:08:38Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Is there any empirical evidence that “western medicine” of the medical/industrial complex yields better survival or reercovery rates than charms, or any other practice performed outside the mainstream of the kind of medical treatments that western medical insurance coverage is willing to compensate patients for? Are. You. Fucking. Serious? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2017, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nigerian-man-dies-when-charm-against-gunshots-fails-to-work/799682/38 "2017-10-25T02:11:04Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Hey, my answer was more eloquent! > > 🙂 > > Yeah, my hip replacement at 40 for ankylosing spondilitys beats the heal out of…anything. I see (with my glasses rather than mud mixed with ground-up earthworms and applied to the eyes every full moon) what you did there. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2017, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nigerian-man-dies-when-charm-against-gunshots-fails-to-work/799682/39 "2017-10-25T02:19:31Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Is there any empirical evidence that “western medicine” of the medical/industrial complex yields better survival or reercovery rates than charms, or any other practice performed outside the mainstream of the kind of medical treatments that western medical insurance coverage is willing to compensate patients for? I’m going to go out on a limb here and say “lots”. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2017, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nigerian-man-dies-when-charm-against-gunshots-fails-to-work/799682/40 "2017-10-25T08:54:38Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I’m going to go out on a limb here and say “lots”. There is lots of data on recovery/survival rates for western medical practices, but what empirical data exists for alternative medicine to be compared with it? Don’t forget to include the data about the efficacy of placebos. > [@Leaffan](#): > > Are. You. Fucking. Serious? In other words, you dont have an answer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nigerian-man-dies-when-charm-against-gunshots-fails-to-work/799682.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nigerian-man-dies-when-charm-against-gunshots-fails-to-work/799682.md?page=3)