I learnt the woman , who invented bullet proof vest, Louise Kwolek died in 2014 at the age 90 .
Image source: Wikipedia
She invented a bullet proof made of synthetic fibres which has an exceptional strength and stiffness. This armour was capable of protecting against a 9mm , Lead Round Nose or Full Metal Jacketed Round/Flat Nose bullet travelling at a velocity of about 400m/s.
I envisage the joy, excitement and breakthrough in police stations, military barracks and even in drug dealers' den when this news got to their ears . They would have imagined how invincible they would become by merely wearing this short-sleeved , torso covered vest. Some armed robbers would have thought of strolling to the bank , packing all the money into a big sack and coming out unscathed not minding the heavily armed policemen stationed at every corner of the bank premises. A policeman would have imagined going into the den of the criminals all by himself in an heroic manner , shooting down all the gangsters as seen in James Bond's movies and singlehandedly arresting the gang leader.
All these could have been achieved by simply putting on a vest with an armouring effect against some red-hot bullets . But how effective and impenetrable a bulletproof vest can be towards a hot and fast moving metals of above 9mm in diameter and mass of 19.6g?
That is not the debate for today. Let's talk about African ballistic vest or I should call it African Magic Vest. Back in high school, I was taught that whatever cannot be explained or experimented scientifically is not valid. I seemed to believe this school of thought with all my heart until unscientifically impossible matters started to arise in my vicinity. I'll talk about some of them later but today I'll be dwelling on this African Made Bullet Resistant 'Wears'.
The video clip below will give you a quick understanding of this article.
The video clip was a CCTV capture of an armed robbery attack that occurred in a bank at the Eastern part of Nigeria which left one of the robbers and three policemen dead.
Video source: YouTube
From the clip, it was obvious that, upon sighting the robbers, the policemen on duty (inside the guardhouse) started shooting as soon as the robbers alighted from the car. Surprisingly none of them was hurt ,even though the windows of the car were shattered, it was as if they were in a Bulletproof Overall.
Unknown to the policemen, one of the robbers moved to the back of the guardhouse where they were hiding and rained bullets on them through the window; two of the three policemen died while the third person which would later die the following day was lying low in the building, seriously injured by the bullets. The trigger happy robber was seen approaching the door to finish his job when this injured officer shot him dead.
This brave officer ran out of his hideout but couldn't go too far before before been brought down by another member of the robbery gang which was obviously angered by the death of his colleague: he died the following day. Note that while this operation lasted, there were few policemen at the back of the bank which were also shooting at the robbers; they later
gave the account of the whole event . According to them, the robbers were using 'odeichi' which in Ibo land means 'Bullets won't penetrate' Odeichi is a charm that is believed by many - in this part of the world- to be capable of providing an armouring effect by preventing any bullets from a rifle, a shotgun, pistol or any of such from hurting the user. It is sometimes worn as amulets on the hand or as wrist bands, some are tied around the waist or even used as a belt. The mode of operation of this 'spiritual bulletproof' cannot been explained by scientists; it's absolutely a dark magic. Though it fails sometimes because some of the herbalists that make these charms also give out information or an 'antidote' charm that neutralizes their effect. For instance the robber that was eventually killed by the injured officer had his charm neutralized before he could be killed. According to the report from his friends, the injured officer dip his rifle into the blood of his dead colleagues before firing the shot that was able to neutralize this Africa Magic Bulletproof on him. The dipping of the rifle into the blood was an antidote or a neutralizer of the charm in this scenario. Crazy huh? As crazy as it may sounds , shits happen , crazy things happen, unbelievable things happen so this may be one of them as well.
Albeit l'm not planning of getting a bulletproof vest , whether from scientists or herbalists but I will continue to get knowledge from every source I can find one; part of which I'm sharing today.
Does anyone remember that movie -Merlin?
The King of Camelot, Uthur was purging out people with dark magics from his land. I think we need one Uthur here ...lol