Confraternities in Nigeria
[4] Soyinka would later note that the Pyrates wanted to differentiate themselves from "stodgy establishment and its pretentious products in a new educational institution different from a culture of the hypocritical and affluent middle class, different from alienated colonial aristocrats".
Details are contested, but it appears that in 1972, former provost of Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Bolaji Carew, and Kunle Adigun discontinued their membership to the Pyrates confraternity.
They chose the name "SEALORD" from the book Fanny and its "buccaneers" who were meant to be society's roving policemen, naturally and morally superior to all seafaring creatures.
[citation needed] A major impetus for the creation of new confraternities was that members of the new groups did not meet the high academic and intellectual standards.
Subsequently, Soyinka would later point to individuals who became accustomed to exerting power in the rigidly hierarchical confraternity and were unwilling to give it up, as to blame for the initial schism.
[citation needed] The Neo-Black Movement of Africa, and the associated Black Axe, emerged from the University of Benin in Edo State.
[8] In 1983, students at the University of Calabar in Cross River State founded the Eternal Fraternal Order of the Legion Consortium (the Klan Konfraternity), and the Supreme Vikings Confraternity (the Adventurers) were established the following year.
[2] Sociologist Emeka Akudi noted that some university vice-chancellors protected confraternities known to be violent and used them to attack students deemed troublesome.
[6] The Brotherhood of the Blood (also known as Two-Two (Black Beret)), another notorious confraternity, was founded at Enugu State University of Science and Technology.
Another cult, the Victor Charlie Boys, was established by Augustine Ahiazu when he was vice-chancellor of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology.
[6] The Klansmen Konfraternity expanded its influence by creating a "street and creek" wing, Deebam, to fight for and control territory outside of the universities through violence and crime.
When Deewell was unable to match Deebam, the SVC created a second confraternity wing, the Icelanders (German), which would eventually be led by militia leader Ateke Tom.
[6] In the past few years, members of confraternities such as the Neo-Black Movement have been investigated by law enforcement in different countries around the globe, including Canada, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
In February 1999, student leaders organized a campus-wide search, which found eight secret cult members who were stockpiling machine guns and other weapons in their dorm room.
[11] Nigerian education minister Tunde Adeniran later dismissed Omole and ordered university administrators to eradicate confraternities from their campuses by September 1999.
Among the all-female Jezebels or Amazons, prospective members may be required to undergo six rounds of rough sexual intercourse or fight with a group of women or against a much stronger man.
[2] However those figures pale into insignificance when compared with recent cult activities in Benin City, the Edo state capital in 2008 and 2009, with over 40 cult-related deaths recorded monthly.
