CW: blood.

Money rituals are inhumane practices carried out by different traditional religions in Nigeria. They, unfortunately, contribute to and are influenced by the kidnapping problem in the country. The myths, and the crimes that result from them, have also served as a warning to young women who might fall victim to rich, older men with impure intentions.

—DO

what They don’t tell you
about the money rituals is that
when you place the calabash on
the young lady’s head—and it
licks her shaven scalp
and sucks her blood and fills
with blood as she turns gaunt
and she deflates in the white
wrapper tied loosely over her chest
and she starts to vomit dollars
(wet dollars)
and she convulses with teary
whimpering in that upper room
in that mansion
in that estate in your village—and her mother
keens on the ground and
strips herself in the night
and spills her own blood to curse you,
Ajé, the money spirits,
feast on the mother’s agony too,
and her daughter, alone in that terrible room,

convulses and groans even more,
clenching a bloodied jaw until she
vomits more wet dollars.