Armed herdsmen who allowed their cows to destroy the crops of the Igbo women of Ihiagwa and Nekede, both in Imo State met their march when the women used an ingenious idea to rout the AK47 wielding herdsmen from their farms and community.
The women convened a meeting to think out a solution to the intractable problem of protecting their endangered livelihoods. The women had no AK47s but they thought out of the box and got an idea.
They remembered that grazing animals cannot stand the smell or taste of chili pepper, so they decided to spread chilli pepper all over their farms.
So, the next day, when the herdsmen allowed their cows to invade the women’s farms they got more than they bargained for, as within 30 minutes the cows ran around in obvious agony, and in the end 15 cows died.
The herdsmen fled the women’s farms, and the women were thereafter free to tend and harvest their crops in peace.
This reminds me of how Igbo Haiti defeated the French army of Napoleon Bonaparte, the greatest general of his time. The Igbo Haitians didn’t have any guns, artillery or military experience, unlike the French Army. But what they had was an Equianoist idea.
By practicing Equianoism they discovered that they the Igbo Haitians had a natural resistance to Yellow Fever, while the French soldiers that were sent to fight them didn’t have the same resistance. Igbo Haitian General Dessalines actually predicted that they would rout the French because of that, motivating his freedom fighters. His prediction came to pass.
They were wise and lucky at the same time because the fulani do not joke with their cows and neither do they forgive, the could’ve come back in group to shoot and kill anyone they see
May God help us