To blame Soyinka for the so called “Cultism” on our Campuses borders on nothing but the same shoot from the hip reaction that we get from Femi Fani- Kayode. Please Frank tell the people of Nigeria that you didn’t mean to say it. Just say you were misquoted, and you will not be considered a pea brain of the Fani Kayode ilk.

Let me expound on Professor Soyinka’s reply to Frank Nweke Jr., by first giving the dictionary definition of a Fraternity:

1. a body of people associated for a common purpose or interest, such as a guild.
2. a group of people joined by similar backgrounds, occupations, interests, or tastes: the fraternity of bird watchers.
3. a chiefly social organization of men students at a college or university, usually designated by Greek letters.
4. Roman Catholic Church: A sodality.
5. The quality or condition of being brothers; brotherliness.
Contrast this with the following definition of cult and tell me where the similarity lies:
Definition of a Cult

Every cult can be defined as a group having all of the following 5 characteristics:
1. It uses psychological coercion to recruit, indoctrinate and retain its members
2. It forms an elitist totalitarian society
3. Its founder leader is self-appointed, dogmatic, messianic, not accountable and has charisma
4. It believes 'the end justifies the means' in order to solicit funds
recruit people
5. Its wealth does not benefit its members or society
In essence, the reference being made to Fraternities as Cults is a misnomer.

If they had changed from Fraternities to Cults then we cannot blame Soyinka who formed the Pirates/Pyrates/Seadogs/Aborigines many years ago. I would also like to add to Professor Soyinka’s statement on how fraternities in civilized and advanced societies have produced prominent leaders and presidents. Yale University in Connecticut USA has the famous Skull and Bones Fraternity which has produced numerous American leaders including present President George W Bush and his last challenger John Kerry. So it is not lost on any person with half a sense that Soyinka’s idea of a Fraternity has been bastardized into cultism by how our Nigerian Society in general has changed.

As a 2nd year student at the University of Calabar in 1982, I was approached by three very good friends to start an organization. I do believe that all others were invited exclusively too. We were in turn asked to invite other people, and I vividly remember rejections. Cults don’t recruit exclusively and they don’t reject. If present day groups are recruiting and indoctrinating by coercion it’s a shame. What irks me more are the meaningless and cowardly killings being carried out in the name of these Fraternities. Back then in 1982 my friends told me the organization was being formed to check the excesses of the Pyrates who at that time were the only Fraternity on Campus. You would laugh at what these so called excesses were in 1982.

Remember that back then we had not had the misfortune of being introduced to Babangida and Abacha. Pirates or Pyrates back then, chose not to be called a Fraternity; instead they were referred to as a Confraternity. I think these guys forming these organizations thought it was more rugged to be known as Confraternities without knowing what the word actually meant. The definition of a Confraternity is just similar to that of a Fraternity, with the exception of where it made mention of Christianity. For reference purposes, here is a definition Confraternity; a group of people united in common profession or for a purpose, often a group of Christians who have joined together to perform charitable acts. I agreed to help form the organization for two reasons; I trusted my friends and I hated the Pyrates. Sorry, I failed to mention that they were not even called Pyrates back then because they were banned, they were called Seadogs and in some Universities they went by Aborigines. I thought it would be fun to join a group that opposed the Seadogs, thus I found myself an original founding member of the Buccaneers Confraternity. At the onset it was fun, really fun, but after a short while it began to look just like the Pyrates, so I quit.

A year a later as a 3rd year student I was once again approached to help form the Black Axe Confraternity or Fraternity, this time I had a much more powerful role. I was to recruit, train and fashion the group and get it ready for approval from the parent organization which was based at The University of Benin. As a die hard idealist I thought I could mold these guys to be anything but Pyrates or Buccaneers, but I had serious opposition. Once again I packed up and left. I told them it made no sense having another group doing the same thing that the Pyrates and Bucs were doing.

I would emphatically say that having been an active participant in the formation of these two groups; I am more inclined to believe that Wole Soyinka was not trying to leave “Cultism” as a legacy. He started a Fraternity which morphed into a Confraternity and now they are referred to as Cults. My contention is still that based on the dictionary definition of the word Cult, these organizations are still misrepresented. To support Soyinka, I do believe that the cleansing of our society would in turn make these organizations more meaningful in our University system. When we live in a very corrupt country, corruption does not tend to be exclusive; it permeates all facets of the society including clubs and organizations in Universities.
Chibuzo Onubogu writes from the USA