This is a popular tale back in my hometown in Nigeria.

Many many years ago, there lived a very powerful shaman. Many people went to see him for he was able to summon the spirits of their dead relations from beyond the grave. These spirits would then possess him and converse with their living relations through him.

At the same time, there was a very eminent doctor in the region who had great ambitions not only in the medical field but also in politics. He sought to be a community leader and he wanted to lead the people through the knowledge and wisdom he had obtained from his overseas Western education.

The doctor was appalled when he discovered his own wife was visiting this shaman in order to talk to the spirit of her dead grandmother. When he scolded his wife and forbade her to visit the shaman again, he found that friends and relations of her inner circle would take her side and warn him against doubling the power of the shaman.

Furious, he vowed to prove them all wrong. That night, he drove over the shaman's house together with his wife and some friends and relatives He instructed his wife and the others to remain in the car while he and his brother went to "test" the shaman's power. In order to prove the hoax, he lied that his wife was dead and he wanted to speak with her spirit.

The shaman, not knowing that this was the husband of one of his regular customers, went into the ritual of the trance.

It was an elaborate ceremony for this invoked the very guardian of the gate between the world of shadows and the land of the living. After half an hour or so, the shaman collapsed in exhaustion having tried without success to summon the spirit. There were many others present in the house of the shaman beside the doctor and his brother. The doctor gloated over the shaman's failure and denounced him as a charlatan to the others. He said people must never believe such superstitious nonsense again.

At this point, the whole room was stunned by the sudden movements of the shaman. he sat bolt upright in a rigid lotus position and began to weep in a woman's voice. The cry was so eerie, even the doctor was afraid.

"What... what kind of trickery is this?" the doctor stammered.

"What have you done?" said the wailing voice.

"O, what have you done? Because of the summoning, they have brought me into the shadow lands just for you!"

The doctor couldn't believe what he was hearing. It was his wife's voice! Coming from the shaman's lips.

Reeling in horror, the doctor rushed out to the car, fearing the worst. He found his wife slumped in the car, dead.

Those who were with her said she shrieked suddenly and died in an instant, just about the same time as he had heard the weeping voice.