Are there spirits and demons lurking in the shadows to take control of the vulnerable?
It’s hard to believe that on March 14, 2019, a family was on trial at London’s Old Bailey for performing an exorcism.
The incident started innocuously enough about three years previously when 26-year-old Kennedy Ife contracted a sore throat. His condition deteriorated drastically on August 19 when he appeared to have delusions, complaining feverishly that something was inside him, something that wanted to get out.
His parents, Kenneth Sr and Josephine Ife, were deeply religious people who had settled in London from Nigeria. They also had somewhat deeply bizarre religious beliefs which their sons, Harry, Roy, Colin, Daniel and Samuel who were twins, also believed in.
When Kenneth Jr tried to bite his father and threatened to cut off his own penis, they all came to the conclusion that he was possessed by a demon, and that he had to be restrained for his own protection. And theirs.
Modern medicine would be completely ineffective against what was torturing their son, they reasoned. The only way to save him, to free him, to cure him, was to perform an exorcism.
Kenneth Sr was a highly educated professor, had advised the British government on African economic affairs, had met the Queen herself, and was a consultant to the Economic Community of West African States. He wasn’t someone who would immediately be associated with the strange beliefs that he carried with him from his homeland of Nigeria.
One of the religions in Nigeria stems from the Yoruba Traditionalists whose core beliefs revolve around the fact that demons are real, that there are spiritual demons with the capability to possess the vulnerable, the cursed. Once penetrated by one of these demons a person can appear insane, display irrational behaviors that can cause harm to themselves as well as others.
Logically, where there are possessions by spiritual demons, there are exorcists.
These trained Yoruba exorcists are called Babalawo or Onisegun and receive a certification after the course so they are recognized as reputable exorcists. The duration of the course varies, depending on the aptitude of the student, and once accredited they are qualified to excise demons from the possessed.
In the case of Kenneth Ife, his family, with their deeply held beliefs from their native country, wholeheartedly believed he was possessed and that there was only one way to save his life, and his soul.
Fearing that Kenneth, ranting about the mark of the beast, delirious, his father and brothers used cable ties and a rope to restrain him. In the process, snapping out, Kenneth bit his father. Convinced in their course of action, he ordered his sons to take shifts praying over their brother in an attempt to drive the evil spirits out.
For the next three days, the Ife family brought to bear the full might of their religion in an effort to save Kenneth from the demon that they believed was killing him.
All their efforts were in vain. On August 22, 67 hours after the exorcism had started, Kenneth Ife died.
Believing that this was the work of the evil spirits, his father and brothers continued to try and resurrect him, praying harder. In the end, they had to concede that the demon had won, had taken his soul, and called the emergency services.
The police, when they arrived, were appalled at what they found. Kenneth Ife had over 60 injuries on his body from being forcibly restrained, and even to their untrained eyes appeared severely dehydrated.
A preceding autopsy revealed that the cause of death was a heart attack, the strain on his body over 67 hours of mistreatment too much for his heart.
The police were unconvinced when they heard the explanation. For them, the young man at the scene had obviously been restrained against his will, mistreated, and murdered. Charges of manslaughter were unsurprisingly brought against the whole family.
The Ife’s explained the situation as one when the case came before the Old Bailey in 2019. They reiterated that Kenneth was exhibiting typical symptoms of someone who was inhabited by evil spirits, and that modern medicine would be ineffective as a treatment.
Prayer, they explained passionately to the judge and jury, was the only way to cure him of his affliction. They had only restrained him briefly when Kenneth had attacked Josephine and threatened to harm himself.
On March 14, 2019, after a month of giving evidence, of relatives attesting to Kenneth’s violent behavior days before his death, the jury cleared the Ife’s of manslaughter, false imprisonment, and causing the death of Kenneth Ife.
The Ife’s never denied that they had resorted to exorcism to save Kenneth. What they did in court was emphasize their deeply held religious beliefs and how, for example, in the Nigerian Pentecostal Christian Church, exorcisms were commonplace.
But what was incontrovertible was that within the 67-hour period that Kenneth was incarcerated, he was delirious, violent, forcibly restrained, and ultimately died from a heart attack. That was the recorded cause of death from the pathologist on the death certificate, not a case of demonic possession.
Kenneth Ife Sr, his wife, Josephine, and their five sons had no doubt that they had done the right thing in attempting to cast forth the evil spirits. It was just that the demon had taken too firm a hold on Kenneth and that, in the end, had proven to be too powerful for them to cast it out.