Zimbabwe Virgins Forced into Marriage to 'Appease' Evil Spirits

Is this civilized?

By Nyarai Kachere
MUTARE, Zimbabwe, Sep 29 (IPS) - Three years after being seized from their families and forced to marry and have sex with adult men in a Shona ritual to appease an avenging spirit, five teenagers are facing a dismal reality.
The girls from Honde Valley in Manicaland had to drop out of school, become under-age wives and mothers and live an impoverished life as vegetable vendors to contribute to their new families' household income.
In 1999, Felicitas Nyakama, Nesta Maromo, Juliet Muranganwa, Precious Maboreke and Perseverance Ndarangwa, who were then between the ages of seven and 15, were handed over by their parents to the family of Gibson Kupemba as payment for the man's murder. The girls' relatives killed Kupemba to prepare muti, traditional medicine, which is sometimes made from body parts.
According to traditional belief, a murderer's relatives need to appease a dead person's spirit with virgin girls, sometimes as young as six years old. The virgin has to live with the murdered person's family, no matter her age. When she reaches puberty, she is made the wife of one of the male members of her new family.
Kupemba's grandson Gibson (junior) said his father appeared to him in his sleep, demanding a virgin girl as compensation from each family involved in his murder. He insists the girls were not forced to offer themselves, but it was their personal choice to rescue their families from an evil spirit.
"They came here to confess on their own volition. Each girl must be accompanied by 22 heads of cattle," said 28-year-old Kupemba junior, who married Precious Maboreke in 1999, when she was 15 years old.

Sveto Discards Witchcraft for Christianity

This is a follow up the the 'flight on a willowing basket story':

Sveto Discards Witchcraft for Christianity
Tendai Hildegarde Manzvanzvike
29 September 2009

Harare — The statement that life is full of arrivals and departures best describes Regina Sveto's saga.
Hers has been a life of embarrassment, pain, fear and defeat. On very few occasions probably has she experienced laughter, joy and triumph. However, the doom and gloom could be a thing of the past.
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Dear reader, this writer proclaims celebratory news of a transformed life. Regina converted to Christianity on July 10. Her husband Collen Zemba and mother-in-law Mrs Rosa Zemba were also born-again at the same time.
On May 23, the 21-year-old mother of two made stunning revelations that she and her father-in-law, Elias Zemba, and aunt, Philda Zemba, had "flown from Murehwa in a winnowing basket" with the intention of killing her brother-in-law Tobias Zemba through witchcraft.
The evil act was aborted when Regina refused to perform the ritual, and she was dumped by her in-law, resulting in her being caught.
This writer has followed developments since learning about the conversion on July 12. However, the weekend of September 19 saw the culmination of her conversion when a Harare Pentecostal church that led them to Christ launched a local assembly in the village where Regina resides.
More than 100 men, women and children from Zihute Village in Murehwa and worshippers from the Glad Tidings Fellowship Church (Harare) gathered at the Nyamanjiva homestead for the launch.
The worshippers travelled to Murehwa in a hired bus and several private vehicles and they included the church choir led by Elder Maziva Nyagura who leads the Tehila choir.
Elder Nyagura was among the church members who remained behind to lead the Sunday service, and set up the new church's administrative structures. A powerful public address system and musical instruments were part of the ensemble.
The place was a hive of activity with lots of praise and worship, dance, testimonies, preaching and good food. Several believers gave dynamic testimonies, including a former freedom fighter who is now a church elder.
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Another woman also testified that she had been miraculously cured of HIV and Aids. Those who testified made it clear that they had not been living rosy lives before they became Christians.
They gave testimonies and told the new converts that the Christian walk needed devotion and total commitment. They also encouraged them and said that it was the best choice they ever made. However, the person of the moment was Regina.
On both days, she gave powerful testimonies that captivated the congregation. When Regina, who was sitting between her mother-in-law and neighbour Francisca Chidawaya stood up, most people seemed to realise that she was the one.
For, she was smartly dressed, in a green two-piece suit, a brand new pair of tennis shoes and matching headgear. Regina narrated the May 23 events in Highfield and other acts of witchcraft they engaged in.
"Ndini amai vamakanzwa vekuenda kuHarare nechisero kundoroya. Anondiona, ndiani angandifungidzira? Asi zvakaitika. Ndinotenda Jesu vakandirangirira. Ndiri kufara," she said. (I'm the woman you have heard about who 'flew to Harare in a winnowing basket' to perform acts of witchcraft. If you look at me, would you believe that I would be capable of doing that? But it happened. However I want to acknowledge the Lord's favour upon me. He remembered me. I am now a Christian and I am happy.)
She said she was pleased that the Lord had shown her that he loved her notwithstanding what she had done, and that He had always loved her, and would always do.
"Jesus is in me and there is no turning back. I am praying for the family in Pfungwe to get converted."
Just before sunset on Saturday, two of her brothers-in-law, Simba and Clever, went forward and accepted the Lord Jesus, together with more than 40 other people.
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In a separate interview at the Zemba homestead, Regina told The Herald: "I am now at peace. When the men of God came and preached the word, we accepted it. They prayed for us and have been encouraging us.
"I haven't had those visions I used to have, where I would end up at the cemetery. We're sleeping peacefully. We used to fight a lot with my husband, but not anymore.
"Sometimes I ask myself where the Lord was when I had to go through all this. I regret the time I wasted doing this. But I thank the Lord. It's quite evident that we are not the people you saw the last time you were here", said the soft-spoken Regina.
Collen is also a living testimony of a transformed life.
Clad in a cream executive suit, Bible in hand, he exuded confidence as he gave his testimony -- 2 Corinthians 5: 17 was his password: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come."
The laughter and smiles showed that Collen was now a happy man.
He said: "This marks the beginning of permanent change in my family's life. I have faith in the Lord."
Mrs Rosa Zemba also confirmed that since members of the church held a crusade at her homestead, they had not experienced the problems that had been affecting Regina.
"I thank the church for responding to our plea. I am also grateful for the donation of clothes to my daughter-in-law since she lost all clothes at the cemetery", said Mrs Zemba.
Regina confirmed that she had so far received two suits, six skirts and blouses, a pair of shoes head scarves and a pair of shoes for their son from the church.
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"When I first received the skirts and blouses, we decided to burn the few old clothes I had. We know that the pastor had said that they wanted them destroyed, but we felt that having them in the house might lure the spirit.
"I also feel encouraged by my husband and mother-in-law's support.
"However, today was more special because many people (more than 80) received the Lord, and a church has been started here. Among the converts were my brothers-in-law Simba, who witnessed the events in Harare; and Clever."
Even Clever and Simba seemed amazed at the positive changes in their family.
They also said that since the evangelists started coming to their home, the weird things that used to take place at their homes (in Murehwa and Harare) had stopped.
Simba said: "The problem was that people who claimed to be assisting us were just 'faith healers' (taingoshandirwa). We could not pray on our own . . . One of the first things I'll do to celebrate this is to have my marriage solemnised in church. My wife has already agreed to change her denomination."
Had the church reached out to Mr Elias Zemba?
Collen, who was part of the organising team said: "I told him, but unfortunately he did not come."
But, how did this happen? The Herald spoke to the GTF leadership and this is what Pastor Wonder Matawu had to say: "We had had plans to plant a church in that part of Murehwa since one of their elder is from there. However, the witchcraft incident fast-tracked our plans.
"After media reports, we saw the need to preach the Word to the family. We first went there on July 10, spoke to the family, and preached the Lord Jesus Christ. We also prayed with them regarding the demonic spirits that were tormenting their family.

"We went and prayed at the cemetery -- the grandfather's grave -- which was allegedly used as the centre of all the evil activities.
"On July 11, the senior pastor sent back a team to Murehwa to pick up the family and they spent the night at his house. On Sunday, they attended church service with us. After that, we had evangelists visiting them every Wednesday and Sunday to teach the Word and pray with them.
"They only came to Harare when we had big Sunday services. The church provided transport. We are happy with where we have gotten so far. They have a positive mind towards God.
"We are being called names at the moment, but the Lord will reveal His power, and more souls will be harvested. We will not put pressure on the father-in-law because we believe the Lord's works should speak for themselves," said Pastor Matawu.

Ghosts and fire

I visited our local council offices today to ask if we could find plans of our area before 1920 to find out if the property we live on had once been a grave yard.

Unfortunately the records only go back to the 1950s.

I met with Mike who agreed with me that the only place we might find them was the archives so a visit there will come shortly.

He is interested in ghosts and the supernatural and told me that in his, Shona, culture, ghosts do not like fire - if you light up a cigarette they will go away - wish our ghost was so easy to send away!

Shadow People in Zimbabwe by Ross

I encountered "shadow people" in my younger years, along with some other supernatural experiences, stories for another time. When I was about twelve or thirteen years old at boarding school in Zimbabwe, that would be 1985, I had my first "shadow person" experience. It was a Sunday evening and my parents had just dropped me off at my hostel, at school. All the other boys were at the evening chapel service and I was all alone.

I needed clean socks to wear for school the following morning, so I went to the bathrooms to wash them. I went in and it felt kinda creepy. I walked over to one of the bath cubicles, started running some water and kneeled down to wash my socks. I had started rinsing the pair of socks out, when out of the corner of my right eye I saw this shadow of a hand on the wall beside the door, where all the fingers came to points. The hair on my neck stood up on end, I closed my eyes and thought, 'It's not real, Lord Jesus protect me. It's not real'. I opened my eyes and to my absolute terror, the hand was still there. It now moved around the wall, just a hand and long arm, right across the tub from me! I was quite horrified, but I still looked around for a possible explanation. There wasn't one.
At that, I ran out of there, back to my dormitory, grabbed my Gideon bible and started praying to God. I had many creepy experiences at that school, but never saw another shadow person there again.

Strange Encounters by Patricia

I have had many paranormal experiences of various types throughout my life, with some being quite frightening. However, I wish to relate two incidents of a very different sort.
In 1973 in Zimbabwe, aged 26 years, though not sure of the month when this incident occurred, I was suffering with severe toothache for some time, to such a degree I couldn't concentrate on my work at the office and spent many sleepless nights as no amount of pain killers offered relief. With the shortage of dentists, I was finally able to see one within three days. On this particular night, I was unable to sleep as the toothache was so severe. My ear ached and my head throbbed to a point where I decided I would see the dentist in the morning (two days earlier) as an emergency patient.
As I lay awake in bed in the early hours of the morning awaiting daybreak, I heard footsteps of a passer-by outside the building and wondered why anyone would be walking about at that ungodly hour (probably 2.30 a.m.), and to my utter shock and confusion, the footsteps continued from outside and through the wall and into the bedroom on my right. They were, without doubt, that of a man. He walked around my roommate's bed -- who was fast asleep and stopped by my bedside. I didn't see him. Being afraid, I didn't want to see this person and had shut my eyes so tightly. Within seconds, I felt a strange but comfortable heat concentrated around my head only. I was holding my breath and wondering what he was doing to me.
That was the last I remember until the morning when I was brushing my teeth and realized I didn't have a toothache, and then remembered what had happened hours earlier. For the next three days, unbelievably, until my visit to the dentist I experienced no toothache at all. Once at the dentist, a pus filled pocket along with the affected tooth were extracted and he said, "You must have been in agony with this abscess." I said, "Yes, but not for the last three days." He was visibly taken aback, but I declined to relate my experience lest he thought I was loony.

Toothache cured. coincidence or a ghostly healer?

This article is from 'Patricia':
In 1973 in Zimbabwe, aged 26 years, though not sure of the month when this incident occurred, I was suffering with severe toothache for some time, to such a degree I couldn't concentrate on my work at the office and spent many sleepless nights as no amount of pain killers offered relief. With the shortage of dentists, I was finally able to see one within three days. On this particular night, I was unable to sleep as the toothache was so severe. My ear ached and my head throbbed to a point where I decided I would see the dentist in the morning as an emergency patient.
As I lay awake in bed in the early hours of the morning awaiting daybreak, I heard footsteps of a passer-by outside the building and wondered why anyone would be walking about at that ungodly hour (probably 2.30 a.m.), and to my utter shock and confusion, the footsteps continued from outside and through the wall and into the bedroom on my right. They were, without doubt, that of a man. He walked around my roommate's bed -- who was fast asleep and stopped by my bedside. I didn't see him. Being afraid, I didn't want to see this person and had shut my eyes so tightly. Within seconds, I felt a strange but comfortable heat concentrated around my head only. I was holding my breath and wondering what he was doing to me.
That was the last I remember until the morning when I was brushing my teeth and realized I didn't have a toothache, and then remembered what had happened hours earlier. For the next three days, unbelievably, until my visit to the dentist I experienced no toothache at all. Once at the dentist, a pus filled pocket along with the affected tooth were extracted and he said, "You must have been in agony with this abscess." I said, "Yes, but not for the last three days." He was visibly taken aback, but I declined to relate my experience lest he thought I was loony.

Trying to contact us and why this way?

I am a light sleeper and wake at the slightest sound. On the occasion in case I woke for no reason at all and lay wondering what had awoken me.

I suddenly felt a pressure on my chest and a feeling that I was enclosed in darkness.

I could not move and the pressure got more and more and it felt like someone was sitting on me and trying to strangle me - cutting off my breathing. I was unable to push what ever it was off me - finally the pressure was released and the darkness left me.

What was it? Our mysterious visitor who leaves bad smells?

I have experienced the common feeling on waking that I have been paralysed - which is a sleep endused phenomenon and explainable - this was completely different as I was able to move my legs and arms but felt as if the pressure came from a person sitting astride my chest.