No fishing allowed.

Hello, everyone.

I welcome you to my blog. Culture is indeed a beautiful thing; sometimes culture can leave you in awe, sometimes culture is quite admirable, and sometimes it is infuriating, but no matter how, you cannot blame the people for their beliefs. Culture is one of the few things that have passed down from generations to generations. Though technology is starting to take over and culture is slowly becoming a thing of the past, there are certain cultures, beliefs, and norms that are still observed wholeheartedly in some parts of the world. Sometimes when you hear some people's beliefs, you tend to wonder what their ancestors were thinking when they came up with such a thing.

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All around the world, different cultures and beliefs exist and are being observed; some you will not even believe can be observed are still being observed even in this 21st century, and one of those beliefs that you won't believe is still being observed happens to be in my village. When I first heard of it, I could not believe it, but seeing they say is believing. Before Christianity and civilization, my people believed in a god called Okwayi, after whom all the rivers and streams in the village were named, because the god was believed to be the source of their water, food, shelter, and all that they needed.

They were devoted in their worship, and it was a tradition that passed from generations to generations. They took turns to cook and serve by the riverside, and those who failed to were severely punished. They worshipped this god and did all its biddings until Christianity came, and slowly they had to turn away from the worship of this god to Christianity, but since from the time of old it was believed that all the fish in our rivers and streams belonged to this god, no one was allowed to eat them. Even if you visit the streams or rivers to fetch water and you accidentally scoop some fingerlings, it is expected of you to return them to whichever stream or river you got them from.

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Those days they say if you scoop a fingerling accidentally, a messenger from the river comes to knock on your door to remind you to return it or face the consequences. People no longer worship this god, but till date no one fishes in my village, and no one has ever tried to that I have heard of; even I won't want to fish there because all the fishes have white marks around their eyes like the native doctors we see in movies. That is enough reason to make you want to follow the rules because how would a fish inside water have such a mark like someone took their time to design it? Not just one fish, but every single one of the fish has that mark, or, should I say, white design, around their eyes. Those white designs even makes it scary to try and break the law.