Hatfield Revisited

My father went to investigate the Hatfield Haunting. He went with another physchic investigator who felt there was nothing strange about the house. Moses arrived together with his wife Loveness and the wife of the neighbour they were staying with at the time. They were all very nervous. They were later joined by three other ghost hunters.

The ghost hunters walked around the house and announced that the atmosphere was heavy and that they could feel it in the walls.

My father said that all he felt was a headache - it was building up for rain. The ghost hunters said this was because of the haunting not the rain.

Moses then escorted them around the house which was semi detached, not more than six years old and newly painted.

One of the ghost hunters went into the haunted bedroom by himself and he could be heard talking in a low monotone.

Moses told my father that he had spent $300 on trying to rid the house of the ghost and had been to four ngangas. One from Mufakose had not even asked him about the house - but described the hauntings in detail. All the ngangas had said that there were graves underneath. One had said that a nearby neighbour was a witch but that she was not connected with the occurrences. Moses said he was so depressed he would weep at times.

The ghost hunter reappeared out of the darkened bedroom and handed his wife two crucifixes. "She won't come to me. She is afraid of these." he said and went back into the darkness.

Ten minutes later he came out looking pleased. "She touched my face with her hands and tried to close the door. I told her it wasn't right that I should be alone with her in the dark with the door closed."

"She has gone. It has never happened before. I've seen them and heard them but none have ever touched me before."

My father asked where the ghost had gone and was told to the next plane of existence. My father asked how he knew and the ghost hunter told him he felt it.

The ghost hunter assured Moses that the house was cleared and that he could return with his family, "It is no longer haunted."

My father offered to spend a night in the house to assure them the evil presence was gone but the family moved out completely to another area of town. They said they would never go back under any circumstances.

Ghost Hunters in Zimbabwe

During the 1970s in Harare both my father and my husband became 'ghost hunters'.

When one thinks of Africa one does not always think of ghosts - the general perception is that they belong to a more sophisticated society. Ghosts do belong in Africa! They manifest themselves throught the continent.

They don't only appear at night - there is a well documented case in Hatfield, a suburb of Harare, where an apperition of a woman struck the house owner (who we shall call Moses)three times on the face at 11 am in broad daylight. Moses was a civil servant and not prone to exageration. Both he and his wife Loveness had experienced crockery rattling after dark and other strange noises. Apparitions had manifested themmselves and the couple and their small son were scared enough to move out from the house and stay with friends a few streets away.

Mose's teenage brother was sleeping in one of the bedrooms when he woke to find a white figure standing over him. the figure was trying to haul him out of bed onto the floor. He fled the house and refused to return. Mose's said that his brother described the figure as a European woman with large eyes.

This same woman appeared to Moses on another occassion - but this time she was wearing red. Moses called in my father to investigate....to be continued.

The Lady in Red

My husband and I had moved into a modern ground floor apartment in the Avenues section of Harare. The apartment had windows from floor to ceiling and a small glass door leading out onto a balcony and terrace. We kept the light and airy look by curtaining the rooms with heavy sheeting - an off white rough cotton often used as lining for curtains but ideal on its own. We added colour by using Persian rugs on the polished wooden floors.

As we looked out on the tree lined avenue we would close the curtains just before dusk to enable our privacy in the evening - unless we were sitting outside watching the sunset over the city. On this occasion - being a very bright and sunny day - we had closed the curtains early to block out the glare of the sun.

On the occasion that I write about we had done just this. It was dusk when I saw what appeared to be smoke or mist coming from the area around the small door leading to the terrace. I was about to get up from my seat on the sofa opposite the window when I realized that the smoke was turning into a figure. It was a figure of a woman seated, wearing a red dress - a Spanish dancer's dress. She had her hair swept back and tied in a bun at the base of her head. In her hand she held a black fan which she was slowly moving back and forth as if to cool herself.

She turned her head and smiled at me. I recognised the well cut features of a women I had known all my life - who had taught me the art of Spanish Dance. It was Consulo Carmona - the great Spanish dancer - there was no doubt about this. It was the young face I remember seeing as a child.

I turned to my husband to see if he was also seeing the vision and as I did so the figure dissolved into the floor.

My husband had indeed seen the figure - but only in black and white.

Why did she appear to us? The end of her life was tragic. Despite being a model for Russel Flint and being known as one of the greatest classical Spanish Dancers her last years were spent scrubbing floors in an American Hospital to make living. Alone she died in poverty.

Perhaps she just wanted to say hello and show me that she was now at peace and happy again.

Boy with a Dog

Does this look like a haunted house? Well it is.

The tall white figure appears in this room and our other ghost walks through the door seen on the right of this photograph.

When our sons were both young they both started seeing the boy with a dog. The apparition is of a young boy - about 12 years old wearing khaki school shorts and shirt with a floppy hat in the style of the 50s, and holding, on a short lead, a mongrel dog.

He walks through the door and then after reaching the middle of the back of the room behind the chair in the picture - just disappears!

Over the last few years both my husband and i have also seen the boy.

He appears to know where he is going and is quite at home. He is not a frighting ghost and we just accept him.

Some year or so ago i was with a group of people at a club meeting when a young man of about 24 came over and introduced himself.

'I don't suppose you remember me', he said as he introduced himself. 'I used to stay at your house with your children'.

I commented that i did not recognise him but he must have changed over the 12 years that had gone by.

Out of the blue he said, 'Do you still see the boy and the dog? I used to be quite scared of staying in the house as I always saw him'.

No one in the room could have told him the story as no one knew about it - we kept the story quiet thinking people would consider us mad at believing in our ghost!

We still see the boy and his dog and would love to know why they haunt us. Did he perhaps fall down a hole on this property. there is talk of our house being built on what was an old graveyard - i think not - that is a common story to explain ghosts.

One day we may find out his origins and perhaps he will find peace.