Ghosts and Zimbabwe

Goblins’ haunt couple

2012-01-24T23:01:00.000-08:00

Bridgette Bugalo, Own Correspondent
2012-01-24 09:57:00

The love for quick riches has backfired for a Bulawayo man who yesterday confessed to buying five “goblins” which he said were now sexually molesting his wife.

Malibeni Mhlanga of Entumbane suburb confessed to NewsDay yesterday his “goblins” were traumatising his wife, Margaret Dube.
Mhlanga said he bought the five “goblins” in Insuza — 80km north of Bulawayo — but he now remained with two as the other three were killed in an exorcising ceremony.

The man claimed he acquired the goblins to amass wealth, but all that had remained a pipedream as the traditional healer who sold him the creatures had died.

His neighbours said their wives were also being sexually abused by the gnomes at night.

Scores of residents gathered at Mhlanga’s home yesterday demanding that he be removed from the area.
“I am seeking assistance to ensure the removal or destruction of these goblins because it now affects our daily lives such that we cannot even live in our own house,” he said.

“I had five goblins, but two have remained and I cannot live in this house.
“I urinate blood every time, and it has sex with my wife every time.”

His wife confirmed the “abuse”.

“It walks like a goat, and when it has sex with me, I often feel tired and spit blood. One day my bag was mysteriously increasing in size and we called a Gokwe prophet to cleanse our homestead. It (the goblin) looked like an owl, the prophet removed two snakes, a human-creature-like goblin which when ripped apart contained a picture of our son,” she said.

“After the event, a tenant who lived here was involved in an accident. We have sought assistance from the police and we had a meeting with the councillor yesterday. This thing is a mysterious. It is a power that is in use.”

Dube said the goblin follows her to an extent where her relatives do not want to live with her.

‘Haunted’ cell fear grips police station

2011-12-31T22:21:00.000-08:00

Saturday, 31 December 2011 20:14
Edwin Mwase

Officers at Mashava Police Station are in a quandary as suspects arrested for various crimes are refusing to be detained in one of the holding cells claiming it is haunted.

It is said suspects who spent a night in the cell raised alarm after they were terrorised by what they claimed to be “strange creatures and evil spirits”.

Authorities have since responded by installing lights in all cells at the station. Still, fears abound the strange occurrences might continue.

Acting Officer-in-Charge Assistant Inspector Washington Mashizha confirmed receiving complaints from suspects. “I can confirm we received complaints.

“We have, however, already taken steps to remedy the situation.

“A pregnant woman committed suicide in the cell in the 1990s.

“That is where the fear stems from,” he said.

Reports in Mashava say the woman’s ghost constantly visits the police station.

“Tererai Mukomondo, a gold panning suspect, who was later acquitted, claimed to have seen the apparition.

“I was the only one in the cell after being arrested on allegations of gold panning. An effigy of a ‘shiny’ woman stood right in the middle of the cell in the dead of the night,” he said.

“I thought I was dreaming. However, I realised I had seen a ghost when reality set in.”

Tinashe Kwashirai, once arrested on allegations of public violence, claims to have witnessed strange happenings. “I was once detained there with other suspects.

“When we woke up the following morning, we were all sleeping on the floor.

“The blankets were neatly folded and tucked in one corner of the cell.”

The Spook House in Harare

2011-08-15T02:55:00.000-07:00

At last we visited the Spook House - now a pub and restaurant.

I felt nothing in the atmosphere at all!

The stories go (and thee are two of them) that a young girl child died tragically in an upstairs room and that her ghost haunts it - it is said that someone spent the night there a few years back and came out very sober the following morning.

the other story concerns a resident who had an argument with his employee - a shot was fired and the employee fell dead - are either story true - i really don't know but i want to return one evening as see if i can feel anything - ghosts don't always manifest during the brightness of day

Goblin found in Chitungwiza

2011-02-18T22:37:00.000-08:00

FELUNA NLEYA

HARARE - Feb 18 2011 18:39

A strange-looking object, believed to be a goblin, became the centre of attraction for scores of Chitungwiza residents near Makoni Shopping Centre on Friday morning.

The goblin, which had a cone-shaped horn with what looked like human hair attached to it with red, black and white beads, was spotted by a woman who said she had gone to throw away rubbish at a nearby dump site.

According to the woman who claimed to have seen the goblin first, it was removed from a bag of mealie-meal by street kids.

“I was coming to throw rubbish away when I saw that thing (goblin) which street kids nearby said they had taken out of a 10kg mealie-meal bag as they wanted to use the mealie-meal to cook sadza,” the woman said. “That’s when I started calling people to come and see.”

A local man Rangarirai Mutomba emerged from the crowd and left people dumbfounded when he lifted the goblin and said such things were the source of suffering for a lot of people before ripping it apart and exposing its insides filled with reddish powder.

“People should not believe in these things. God is there and he is the only one who can answer your problems, no one else. I don’t know why people use these things because they do not work,” said Mutomba.

An eyewitnesses at the scene said: “It is an act of witchcraft used by many people thinking that they would be rich if they use those goblins. That’s why they keep them. But if you see it abandoned like this it would have become a problem to the owner.”

Mutomba said: “A lot of these things happen and the people never go far with them. Throwing it away like this means they couldn’t handle it anymore.”

Dead man ‘refuses’ burial

2011-02-04T22:37:00.000-08:00

STAFF WRITER

GOKWE - Feb 04 2011 20:12

A Gokwe man who was murdered by alleged Zanu PF activists two years ago is “refusing to be buried” amid mysterious circumstances.

The body of Moses Chokuda is still in Gokwe Hospital mortuary and his father, Tawengwa Chokuda, told NewsDay that his son was “fighting his own war”.

Chokuda’s father chronicled events that led to his son’s death at the hands of alleged Zanu PF supporters whose names he claimed were Farai Machaya — whom he said was the son of the Midlands governor Jason Machaya — and Edmore Gana, son of the Zanu PF district coordinating committee chairperson for Gokwe, Isaac Gana.

He said although it was almost two years since his death, his son’s corpse still appeared fresh.

He said he wanted 15 cattle as compensation before he could bury his son.

“The way he was killed was ruthless. He was beaten to death, tied with ropes and dragged like an animal. I think he is now fighting his own war,” he said.

Chokuda said police had tried to bury his son by force after he had refused to participate in the process but they failed to move the coffin out of the mortuary.

Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena said the police were aware of the case but it was not their responsibility to bury people.

Chokuda said he was told by mortuary attendants at the hospital that sometimes they saw his son sitting on top of his metal coffin.

Recently, said Chokuda, his son’s corpse was said to have spoken to mortuary attendants who had brought the body of a victim of violence, advising them of the right place to put such bodies.

People in Gokwe who spoke to NewsDay last weekend corroborated Chokuda’s story saying countless efforts to have the deceased buried had failed due to various inexplicable occurrences.

They said a magistrate who had granted the accused persons bail when they first appeared in court had been affected by a mysterious mental affliction and is roaming the streets of Gokwe.

“The coffin did not move out when about 10 police officers tried to lift it out of the mortuary to bury him against my will and without my consent,” Chokuda said.

“My son is seen alive by those who are linked to his death,” he said.“I hear he (the dead man) is herding cattle belonging to one of the suspects at a farm,” said Chokuda.

Chokuda said he expected the people responsible for his son’s death to come forward and apologise with at least 15 cattle as compensation so that his son could rest.

“Don’t forget you cannot stop an avenging spirit by going to jail or through the courts. Even if you die, the rest of your family that remains behind will suffer from that avenging spirit,” he said.

The late Chokuda’s mother, Gertrude, who is blind, said she was angry and would remain burdened until the day her son “comes home to rest”.

“I am blind and it is painful to have a dead body in my house.

It’s very painful. I thought I had found an eye but ZanuPF did this to my son,” he said.

2010-12-24T00:23:00.000-08:00

We often go to RIFA an educational conservation camp on the Zambezi. We look after the children who go on a weeks course.

There have been a number of caretakers and at one stage they stayed in the cottage we now occupy when we are there.

Some time ago an old man lived there - he had a false leg and it did not fit very well.

Unfortunately he passed away while at the camp.

We now often here the door being tried and the sound of a man walking around with a definite limp!

Has he returned?

A book about Ghosts - not in Africa but makes interesting reading

2010-08-26T01:45:00.000-07:00

‘MALCOLM ROBINSON INVESTIGATES’

Paranormal Case Files of Great Britain has been published by
Healings of Atlantis Ltd and is available on Amazon and at:
http://www.healingsofatlantis.com/

For further information please contact Amanda Owen on:
0208 656 4641 or amanda@healingsofatlantis.com
PUBLICATION DATE: August 2010
ISBN NUMBER: 978-1-907126-06-2
Ghost’s and hauntings… These words convey to some individuals, an in-depth fear of the paranormal. The chilling thought that deceased persons have in some cases, returned from the grave to once again appear, if only in shadowy form and to fill us with fear of their grimly presences, is a fact that few seriously minded persons cannot now dismiss.
Strange tales of ghosts and hauntings can be found from all corners of the earth and records show that accounts of ghostly presences go well back into antiquity. As a researcher on the paranormal, Malcolm takes from his files, incredible tales of ghosts and paranormal events. He also shares with us his own ghostly encounters of which he has had more than his fair share! This book covers some amazing cases from haunted council houses to haunted castles. Malcolm brings forward personal accounts from people who have had first hand dealings with ghosts. Their testimonies will shock and in a court of law these would be hard to dismiss.

Malcolm has lectured extensively on UFOs and the Paranormal all over the UK, Ireland and Holland, and was the first Scot to lecture on American soil in Laughlin Nevada in 2009. Malcolm has appeared regularly on TV both in the UK and all over the world and has assisted newspapers and radio stations with information on UFOs and the Paranormal.

In this his second book, Malcolm clearly shows that within the pages of this book, evidence can be found of ghosts that will make even the biggest of sceptics sit up and take notice. Britain is known worldwide for its ghostly tales and this book contributes to the growing testimony that shows that whatever we may think ghosts are, there is no denying that, come what may, they are real as the cases from frightened witnesses in this book clearly show. A stunning and frightening look at some of Britain’s ghostly case files. Read on if you dare!
http://www.healingsofatlantis.com/

Mutare Ghost

2010-08-19T00:53:00.000-07:00

By: shivanuchouhan@yahoo.co.in

When Iwas younger, about maybe 4-6, I don't remember how old I was, I was visiting some family friends with my parents. We used to live in Harare, Zimbabwe at that time, and these friends lived in Mutare.

Mutare is a hilly sort of a place, and their house is on one side of the hill, and opposite on another hill almost at the top is a church. You know how hills are joined together, there's a dip between the two peaks. Well, I was sitting outside in their lawn just looking at the hills opposite, when I saw a white human figure flit down one side of a hill and up on to the other hill and went up to where the church stood, and then disappeared. I know what I saw, I remember it like it happened yesterday, and I know it was a human figure, only no human i have ever heard of can go so fast on no road......and that too on a hill.....

Ancient City of Great Zimbabwe.

2010-08-19T00:50:00.000-07:00

From Donette Read Kruger

I believe but that is only because I have had several very different experiences, the most recent while visiting the ancient city of Great Zimbabwe in Oct 2006. Our tour guide had taken the group down to the Museum but I remained behind walking around on my own within those ancient granite walls when I realised I was being followed. I then noticed that on the other side of a low wall there were four young teenage boys with dreadlocks and, wearing only groin skins, crouched down and moving along on the other side of the wall to keeping up with me. My immediate reaction, unaware they were spirits, was to greet them and that is when I also noticed the long dry grass in which they were moving was bending over. When I looked back at them say "Hello" again, they were not there. And afterwards I realised there was no long grass either. I understand that ghosts do exist, but in another dimension and it is only when we are least expecting it we might have the privilege to see or experience their presence. I immediately left the Monument and went down to see our tour guide but was quite deflated when he told me I was not the only one to have seen ghosts at the Ancient City of Great Zimbabwe.

Mon Feb 18 10:43:13 2008

Ghost in the Kitchen - a story from Mel

2010-08-06T02:38:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting story -

I have lived near grave sites in the past and had no strange expereinces.
"As a ninety year old woman you can imagine the number of things that I have seen in my time. I believe in the supernatural world as a result of Many years. One of my oldest encounters with a ghost (if that's what you would prefer to Call them) in Zimbabwe was when my husband and I moved to africa.
We lived near one of the memorials for the locals this is where the Early africans buried their loved ones..
As a ninety year old woman you can imagine the number of things that I have seen in my time. I believe in the supernatural world as a result of Many years. One of my oldest encounters with a ghost (if that's what you would prefer to Call them) in Zimbabwe was when my husband and I moved to Africa.
We lived near one of the memorials for the locals this is where the Early africans buried their loved ones.. There were Many piles of stones that indicated where a body was buried. Many times during the night I would wake up to odd noises coming from our kitchen-I decided to investigate the one night and found an Odd murky figure slamming our doors shut.
It was angry. And I was scared."

Mel 1950

Makande rural clinic

2010-08-06T02:11:00.000-07:00

Makande rural clinic situated 60 kilometres south-west of Karoi town was forced to close for two weeks after nurses fled following attacks by ‘’goblins’’ prompting traditional leaders to hire people to exorcise the area (tsikamutandas).

Makande isa malaria prone area is under Chief Musampakaruma of Nyaminyami’s Kariba rural area.

Villagers said the goblins attacks came at a time when nurses were busy with a malaria programme aimed at reducing malaria related deaths, which are prevalent in the area.

Villager Edmore Mukapa of Kadziro area said, ‘’we were not expecting goblins to attack nurses who are trying hard to reduce malaria outbreak here. It’s unfortunate for us’’

A teacher at Makande primary school said school children were also causalities of attacks daily. The whole area being prone to Tokoloshi.

‘’Goblins attacking nurses leave us vulnerable. Goblins owners do not accept payments to their demands. You can not force them to accept the payments because of the Witch-craft Suppression Act. It’s a complicated issue’’ said a teacher who refused to be named for fear of victimisation. They seem to be beeing controled by people in the area. But who?

Chief Musampakaruma hired tsikamutandas to expose suspects possessing goblins after nurses were attacked.

Villagers hailed the move to hire tsikamutandas to ‘’clean up witchcraft’’ although Chief Musampakaruma was not available for comment.

Nyaminyami council chief executive officer Isaac Mackenzie confirmed that traditional leaders hired tsikamutanda following complaints by victims of the attacks.

Although tsikamutandas are accused of sowing divisions among families and villagers, in Makande rural their presence is a reprieve.

‘’The attacks on nurses was unwarranted. Nurses are the last line of duty to combat malaria which is common here. Traditional leaders believe hiring of tsikamutandas will clean the area.’’ said Mackenzie.

It could not be independently verified from Hurungwe hospital that covers Makande of recorded malaria related deaths as the officials were out of office. Mashonaland West has had an outbreak of malaria since May.

The Ghosts of Gandavaroyi Falls

2010-08-06T02:04:00.000-07:00

A natural wonder that has become the stuff of legend are the Gandavaroyi Falls located about 100 kilometres from Nembudziya Shopping Centre in the sprawling Midlands district of Gokwe.
The lore around the Falls is that from pre-colonial times right up to as late as the 1920’s, locals would throw all suspected witches into these waters, hence the Shona name "Gandavaroyi".

And according to the enduring lore of the place, one of its victims was a woman who was made to — as the Italian Mafia would say, "swim with the fishes", and left behind her twin children.

In 1926 Runyararo Mlambo, who was aged 20, was tossed into the Gandavaroyi Falls after the local community declared her to be a witch.

While two "witnesses" testified against the young woman, no concrete evidence was ever brought before the Dare to determine her guilt.

Many people who live in the area know this lore and they still view the falls with fear and trepidation with few of them venturing to get near these waters.

It is believed that the spirits of the witches still roam the area.

Bridge over the Mukuvisi

2010-08-06T01:45:00.000-07:00

A strange feeling grips one immediately after passing Jaggers Masasa and Danhiko. It happens as one passes over the narrow bridge across the Mukuvisi River... the area is strangely named 'pa11 months'... and is an interesting story of death, ghosts and strange supernatural happenings. It is said that as couple driving across this bridge witnessed one of these happenings and were so frightened by it that they were involved in an accident and vanished in the pool below the bridge. Their remains and that of their car were only discovered after 11 months. So the area around the bridge inherited the strange name... pa11months.

It is said that one can witness a child crossing the highway or a woman waving for a lift into town. These are believed to be ghosts and one or both may be what the couple saw before their fatal accident.

Stories about pa11months are well known in area. While some genuinely believe that the spot is cursed and need cleansing, others dismiss them as fabrications of a superstitious lot.

I have never seen a ghost in this area but have often felt a strange and mysterious feeling of relief when I have passedthe spot. i travel this road on a regular basis and until hearing this story always wondered why I felt this feeling of trepidation.

A closed Door

2010-07-28T02:40:00.000-07:00

Last night we went to bed as normal leaving open the door to the hall and the one into out bathroom leading off the bedroom. During the night I got up and as it was pitch dark made my way to the bathroom - I banged into the closed door! There was no wind and the door had definitely been open when we went to bed. we leave the door open every night - our dog who sleeps on our bed has a water bowl there and if the door had blown closed she would have made a fuss - she even barks if a cat walks past the house! So what happened - is our ghost at work again!

Telephone off the hook

2010-07-19T00:42:00.000-07:00

I got up this morning and found the telephone off the hook in the hallway. We had not used the telephone at all the previous day. There was the normal tone coming from the phone as if it had recently beeen removed and the handset was placed carefully on top of the telephone directory - not like it had accidently been knocled off onto the table. Anither strange appearance! There was no one in the house except my husband and myself.

Poltergeist again!

2010-07-12T01:48:00.000-07:00

And who says that ghosts don't know anything about modern technology!

We have no idea where our poltergeist comes from - we have no children in the house - unless one counts the dogs!

Yesterday our remote control for the decoder suddenly stopped working - so did the remote for the television. it would not allow us to change channels or to mute the sound. having changed the batteries, recharged the existing ones and re inserted into the remotes - we gave up - obviously the remotes were worn out and useless. After ringing our service provider and being told that there were no replacements in the country - we decided to give in and use the manual route - this worked well - probably gave us a bit of extra exercise as well!

The following morning I absently picked up the remote to change the channel and it was working again! So was the remote to the television.

No explanation except that our poltergeist must have been at work again - but why?

Our younger son is away at the moment and we have noticed that his dog is continually looking at what we see as a blank spot and growling. i have suggested that the little boy and the dog are keeping us company in our son's absence Perhaps the remote was also part of his plan - a little 'joke' ghost style!

Mom sells baby’s ear for US$20

2010-06-30T23:09:00.000-07:00

Is this the sign of the times or just the way of life continuing - this report was in the Herald this morning

By Freeman Razemba

A CHIPINGE woman reportedly killed her 18-month-old baby and cut off one ear, which she sold to a Mozambican traditional healer for US$20.

Christine Hofisi (21) was allegedly paid US$10 with the balance to be paid later.

Police believe it was a case of ritual murder.

A fellow villager stumbled upon young Edmore Mutisi’s body in a bush and made a police report.

Deputy police spokesperson Chief Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka yesterday said Hofisi was in custody assisting them with investigations.

The Mozambican — known as Maheza — is facing criminal charges in his home country after he was last year found in possession of 11 human skulls.

"The woman is from Chipinge Southdowns Estate and she strangled her son to death and cut off his left ear," he said.

Chief Supt Mandipaka said Hofisi hid the body in a bush before paying a visit to the traditional healer.

"The traditional healer is notorious for ritual murders in Mozambique. Hofisi sold the ear for US$20, but was given US$10 with the balance to be paid later," he said.

The child’s body was taken to Chipinge Hospital mortuary for post-mortem.

Sources close to the investigations yesterday said Maheza was in February last year arrested in his home country for possessing 11 human skulls.

He was released on bail and subsequently sneaked into Manicaland Province in September last year.

The whereabouts of the traditional healer are unknown though it is believed that he has returned to Mozambique.

In July last year, two cases of ritual murder were reported.

A four-year-old boy was found without his private parts while a woman’s corpse was discovered with the brain and other organs missing.

A Mutare man was also arrested last year, about 17 years after he allegedly offered his son to be killed by one of his friends — a businessman — for ritual purposes.

Eliah Mutengwende of Marange was paid Z$150 000 by the businessman identified as Lishon Masiyakurimain 1992.

Is this civilization?

2010-06-08T23:12:00.000-07:00

A 39-year-old Chivi man allegedly killed his three-year-old son during a ritual to eliminate a fellow villager he suspected of having an affair with his wife.

Donnius Marume of Mhokore Village in Gororo communal lands appeared before Justice Tedius Karwi here facing murder charges following his son's disappearance during the ritual.

He denied killing the toddler, saying he discovered the boy had disappeared after recovering from a trance on the banks of Tugwi River where he was conducting the ritual.

Prosecutor Mr Lovack Masuku said in July 2006, Marume's son, Dominic, disappeared during the ritual conducted to kill one Dzingai Mhuru whom he suspected of having an affair with his wife.

However, Marume -- through his lawyer Mr Kossam Chuma of Chuma, Gurajena and Partners -- told the court he believed his son was still alive.

He said the boy could have wandered after being affected by the herbs he got from a South African herbalist who recommended the ritual.
Marume said he had gone back to the herbalist in South Africa after Dominic disappeared and was given more herbs.
He, however, gave up on the rituals and finding his son after the herbalist became hostile and threatened him, the court heard.
Jutice Karwi sitting with assessors Mr Eliphas Gweru and Samuel Mutomba reserved judgment to this week after the defence closed its case.
Charges against Marume arose in July 2006 when he returned from South Africa where he had gone to look for work and tried to lure back his estranged wife, Maria Garudzo who is Dominic's mother.
Garudzo, who is now deceased, said Marume should first pay lobola before they could live together again.

The court heard that Marume paid the lobola and Garudza moved back with him but the marriage allegedly turned sour after he claimed Dominic was not his son.

He reportedly went to South Africa to consult a herbalist who gave him herbs to administer on a small boy or sheep along a perennial river.

The n'anga said this would kill his wife's alleged lover, a fellow villager. It is alleged Marume took Dominic to Tugwi River and burnt the herbs. Marume, according to the prosecution, went into a trance after inhaling the smoke.
When he emerged from the trance, Dominic had disappeared. His wife made a police report leading to Marume's arrest.

Spook House

2010-06-07T08:49:00.000-07:00

190 Mutare Road
Citroen Road Harare
Description:

Clive is a self-taught chef QBE (qualified by experience.) I’ve known the family perhaps three decades and he has always had a love of food: originally eating the stuff, which early on translated into the preparation of good square meals for family and friends.

The family went professional years back. Bronwyn trained under Prof Mike Farrell, locally, interning and working at Meikles Hotel and Inn on the Vumba.

Clive and Tracey, helped by various other relatives and in-laws, ran Hellenics amazingly successfully, then moved nearer their Greendale home, opening The Office, at Msasa. About a year ago the lease expired and they took over the then empty Spook House.

It’s softly, softly catchee monkey and, maybe nine months on, the main building and “gardens” are still very much a work in progress.

But if you don’t mind eating and drinking on a building site and a widely reputedly haunted one at that, Spook House may well be the place for you.

It was certainly pumping fairly early last Friday lunchtime. A friend seemed to know most of the punters and most of them sounded as if they were regulars, to the point of being permanent fixtures. - Extracted from Dusty Miller - The Independent. (23rd April 2010)

Group Capacity: 20 + people

I'm going to check this out = who knows what i might find!

Shock muti confession

2010-05-14T08:01:00.000-07:00

From George Maponga in Masvingo (the Herald)

A Chivi man has sensationally admitted in court that he cut off the private parts of a fellow villager and mixed them with herbs to make a potion to sprinkle in a friend’s maize field in a bid to boost yields.

Self-proclaimed traditional healer Stanley Mutatisi (39) of Batorava Village under Chief Mandyangove said he believed the potion would ensure a bumper harvest.

Mutatisi and three alleged accomplices were arrested last week on charges of murdering and severing Jacob Ganyire’s genitals.

The other accused are Tafirei Tachiona (68), Nicholas Sarireni (35) and Robson Batorava, all of Batorava Village.

In his warned and cautioned statement to the police, which was confirmed at the Masvingo Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, Mutatisi said he burnt Ganyire’s genitals and mixed the ash with something else to make a potion that he sprayed in a friend’s field at night.

He claimed the potion would result in bumper yields.

The four, who appeared before Masvingo provincial magistrate Mr Timeon Makunde facing murder charges, were not asked to plead.

They were remanded in custody to May 13. Mr Makunde advised the quartet to apply for bail at the High Court.

A passerby stumbled upon Ganyire’s body, which was in an advanced state of decomposition, a week after the alleged murder.

It is alleged that on April 17 the deceased was drinking beer with the suspects at a homestead in Batorava Village.

He took his leave and headed for his home at around 9pm, the State says.

The four allegedly followed Ganyire and waylaid him near a church in the village. The court was told that the four grabbed their victim by the neck and strangled and stabbed him several times with a knife.

Making contact

2010-05-01T03:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the silence I have been having Internet and power problems- again!

A friend of ours who is a motorbike fanatic and far from the sort of person you would expect to believe in the supernatural told me of two occurrences of physic activity he experienced.

The first was when his mother died. He was away at the time and on returning to the house some days later he told me that he was sitting in his usual chair in the drawing room when his mother appeared to him and held a long conversation informing him that she was happy and no longer in pain.

His second experience came some time later.
He has always been a very kind person and looked after young people who were not having a happy family life.
One such young man was wild but kind hearted and appreciated what he was given in the way a lifestyle.
A week before he was killed in a senseless car accident he came to see me and it had been almost as if he knew he was not longer on this earth. We talked and said a lot about life that day.

After his death he appeared to my motorcycle friend. Again saying he was content.
Was this a figment of my firnd's imagination - or did these people appear to him and talk to him?

‘Goblin’ attacks schoolboy

2010-04-17T22:31:00.000-07:00

Sunday Mail Reporter

A THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD Visitation Makumbe High schoolboy cut short his studies in February after he was afflicted by a strange condition that causes him to physically fight an invisible “monster”.

Confirming the boy’s condition, Visitation Makumbe High School resident priest Father Barnabas Mukumba last week said the boy initially complained of stomach pains that were followed by bouts of unconsciousness.

The Form One student was described as intelligent and scored four units in last year’s Grade Seven national examinations.

The school authorities believe that the invisible “monster” could be a “goblin”.

Although the school authorities could not confirm it, the boy’s parents say their child experienced a “transfiguration” on February 10, the night before a major fight with the invisible opponent caused his body to glow.

“The boy would complain of stomach pains that would end in him being unconsciousness. At times he would be taunted by the invisible monster which would force him to scream and use his hands to fight it.

“One could actually see the boy simulating a fight with something or someone we could not see.

“On the first occasion, the boy claimed to have seen a short-bearded man wearing a black cloak. During his initial contact with the invisible creature, he would scream and try to ward off the invisible attacker and we later taught him to pray as a way to fight it off,” said Fr Mukumba.

He said the school authorities initially tried to assist him through psychological counselling until they eventually handed over the matter to the priests for spiritual guidance.

“Together with other priests we took him through spiritual counselling and discernment. I initially suspected the boy was playing tricks so that he could go home and be with his family.

“After further probing we realised the problems were greater than what we had anticipated. We later invited the parents and they then asked us to assist him through prayer and use of holy water,” said Fr Mukumba.

The boy would experience relief after prayers and on realising this, the school authorities arranged for him to stay with the priests.

“On one occasion he screamed during lesson time and said a short old man was trying to forcefully take his pen away. He struggled with his invisible tormentor for some time until he became unconscious.

“He is an intelligent young boy who achieved four units at Grade Seven,” said the deputy school head.

The boy’s father (name withheld to protect the minor’s identity) told The Sunday Mail from his Chitungwiza home that he believed his son had spiritual powers that enabled him to fight goblins.

“The boy is gifted spiritually and that enables him to fight evil spirits. There were numerous reports from his school and we asked the priests to assist him.

“They have been praying for him until February when we decided to withdraw him from school because he was attracting unnecessary attention from the other pupils,” said the boy’s father.

Witch hunter or not?

2010-03-22T23:02:00.000-07:00

Fake goblins give away bogus Tsikamutanda
Chinhoyi Bureau - the Herald

TWO fake goblins left in the blankets in which a witch hunter — Tsikamutanda — was sleeping in, after allegedly exorcising a house in Banket have led to his arrest.

Morris Mbofana (24) is now facing three counts of fraud after allegedly approaching three people claiming that he could rid their houses of evil spirits.

He allegedly forced his victims to sign a piece of paper as proof that they had willingly paid him.

In the first incident, Mbofana went to Fatima Tauro’s house at Mimosa Farm in Banket and identified himself as a traditional healer who had come to exorcise the house of goblins.

She consented to his proposals to cleanse the house at a fee of US$7 and three chickens. He allegedly removed some hairy objects with beads from Tauro’s daughter’s stomach and another from a clay pot and told her that the objects were goblins.

Mbofana indicated that there was a major cleansing ceremony that required an ox as payment. He demanded two goats that he had seen in the pen before threatening her with serious harm if she failed to pay.

In the second incident, he approached Miriam Chiringidza on March 5 and told her that he wanted to remove evil spirits, which were haunting her father’s family.

They went to Chiringidza’s house where she indicated that she had brought a traditional healer to exorcise the house of evil spirits.

Her father was reluctant to pay the US$23 that Mbofana was demanding. However, his two daughters offered to pay the money. He allegedly removed a hairy object similar to the one he removed in the first incident. He, however, indicated that the money they had paid was not commensurate with the work he had done.

Mbofana demanded two blankets, 2kg flour, 4kg sugar, two bars of laundry soap and two 750ml bottles of cooking oil.

He allegedly threatened the family with harm if they failed to meet his demand.

He again forced them to sign a paper declaring that they had not been induced to pay him.

Witchcraft in a modern world.

2010-03-19T23:13:00.000-07:00

Woman dies of suspected runyoka

By Walter Nyamukondiwa in Chinhoyi

A Chinhoyi woman recently died in mysterious circumstances after complaining of severe stomach pains and later acting like a fish before spending two nights in a bathtub filled with water.

Tamari Seremwa (37) of Kamedza Primary School in Gambura Village under Chief Magonde in Makonde District spent last Saturday night and the whole of Sunday in water.
She would intermittently gulp the water and then spew it out like a fish.
Hospital medical superintendent Dr Collett Mawire confirmed the strange incident.
She only came out of the tub after Chief Magonde reportedly summoned her to his homestead to discuss her predicament.
However, she did not make it as she died soon after being discharged from hospital.
Seremwa’s death has set tongues wagging over what really happened.
A woman who saw Seremwa when she was at the hospital said the latter had confessed to being intimate with a man who had been "fixed" by his wife. The practice is known as runyoka or "fencing" in many circles.
"She would say the man’s mother had warned her not to hang around the man indicating that he had been fixed with runyoka by his wife.
"She regretted not listening to the man’s mother," the woman said.
Seremwa, the woman said, was complaining of suffering from extreme heat and dehydration whenever she got out of the water.
Runyoka is a "safety lock" applied on both men and women to enforce fidelity.
It is said that a person "fences" his/her spouse so that they do not have sexual relations with another person. Indulging in intercourse results in inexplicable illnesses that normally lead to death.
A nurse at the hospital said: "We had to run around to get water after commiserating with the pain that she was going through.
"It was a strange sight that we failed to diagnose but we had to try but we had to help her all the same."
She said whenever water levels in the tub were low, Seremwa would splash water all over her body and writhe like a fish out of its natural habitat. At the time of writing, the body was awaiting a post-mortem.
"It is an issue with circumstances that we cannot really comprehend in medical terms but which has caught the attention of everyone," Dr Mawire said.

Tales from Zimbabwe

2010-03-06T09:00:00.000-08:00

Tales of Witchcraft Abound in Zimbabwe Many blame their personal troubles on supernatural influence
Cole Mallard
Chihota, Zimbabwe 05 March 2010

“When she came to barter with rural folk the trouble started. One of our neighbors requested [sugar] on credit and she refused. Before the end of the day she was bleeding from the nose, mouth and ears.”

In Zimbabwe, witchcraft is still common in rural areas. Hardly a week passes without a local report or newspaper story on the practice. For example, police recently cornered a man at the Mbare Mbare bus terminal, after they discovered a live cobra snake in his luggage. He told officers the reptile was one of his witching tools
About two weeks later, some women were discovered wandering naked in the early hours of the morning near Highfield. After being confronted by locals, they claimed they’d “flown” from a rural location during one of several night time escapades. But they said something went wrong and the spell wore off, before they could return to their original location.
Four years ago, the government proclaimed that supernatural powers do exist. But it says it still prohibits the use of magic if it harms someone.
Many Zimbabweans, especially those who grow up in rural areas, find it difficult to dismiss the existence of witchcraft. Tendai Manyimo,30, lives in Chitandara. He explained that his wife is a vendor and that her face became contorted after she was bewitched by rival vendors. He claims she’d been running a successful sugar sale venture:
“When she came to barter with rural folk the trouble started. One of our neighbors requested [sugar] on credit and she refused. Before the end of the day she was bleeding from the nose, mouth and ears,” he says.

Manyimo said a faith healer cured her.
David Nyemba, 77, from Mazhambe village believes he was bewitched by his aunt while he was employed as a driver in the city three years ago. He says a turning point came in his life when he quit his job in order to return to village life:
“I was the darling of the company management ,” he says, “and I did not realize I could have some hidden enemies.”
“My aunt pretended to like me and gave me money to spend. My instinct told me to refuse, but I went against my better judgment and spent it. I was demoted and harassed constantly by my superiors [which] never used to happen. I got the answers after visiting a traditional healer.”

Margaret Mashayamombe,83, is a traditional healer in Mutenda village, Chihota. She says witchcraft is used in families for revenge and spite.
Mashayamombe also says the frequency of recent reports on witchcraft indicates forces of good are triumphing over evil. She says Zimbabweans should respect traditions by performing rituals favored by their forefathers.
“Life was okay,” she asserts, “until some over-ambitious individuals went outside the country to get advice from traditional healers there on how to get rich quickly. That is where the problem began, because they came back with remedies that are harmful [to] others. All this is now being exposed due to the powers of the spirits of our forefathers.”
Sarudzai Nyota, 33, a member of the apostolic faith sect, says she believes the country would be better off without elevating the supernatural. Sarudzai says people should turn to God and seek salvation through Jesus Christ, as a way of overcoming being susceptible to witchcraft.
[Nyota says] The Christian church believes there’s only a “good” spirit, meaning what is called the Holy Spirit, whereas witchcraft has origins in Satanism.

This interesting story was reported in July of last year

2010-01-31T22:18:00.000-08:00

Ruwa Murder - Boy Accuses Father of Witchcraft
8 July 2009

Harare — The 17-year-old Ruwa boy charged with killing his parents in cold blood last year has, in turn, accused his father of using him as a "goblin" to sustain his "mysterious" business empire.
The teenager made the startling claims when his trial opened before High Court judge Justice Tendayi Uchena on Monday. The boy allegedly gunned down his father and mother at their Ruwa home in April last year.
It is alleged that he shot his father in the head before heading to the bedroom where he opened fire on his mother who had been awakened by the gunshots.
According to reports, the father had, on the fateful day, woken up the boy at around 3am so that he could study. The teenager pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder.
In his defence outline, the boy's lawyer, Advocate Thabani Mpofu, claimed that during the study sessions, which were closed to other family members, his father would burn some roots and unspecified substances. The burning would invariably lead to some "body malaise and dizziness", reads the defence outline.
Adv Mpofu further submitted that over the weekends preceding the fateful day, the boy would spend around 19 hours in an unconscious state that only his father could break.

"Such was the accused's strange routine. The accused is now positively aware that he was being used as a goblin by his father in order to sustain and support his mysterious and vast business interests," Adv Mpofu said.
The boy's father ran a security company, among other businesses. However, the psychiatric report that forms part of the defence established that the boy suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy, fits affecting half of the brain.
"His conduct that morning was not voluntary and he committed the acts he is charged with without conscious knowledge. His actions were brought about by either the temporal lobe epilepsy or (the) spiritual world to which he had descended into," Adv Mpofu said.

Key State witness Mr Admire Musasa (24), who is related to the boy, yesterday gave his account of the events he witnessed early in the morning after the shooting. He said at around 5am a maid came to his bedroom and woke him up.
"She was looking worried and asked me to come with her. I got dressed and followed her to the dining room. I saw my uncle (the boy's father) seated on his chair with his head facing down on the table with his books," he said.
"I observed a white substance coming out from the back of his head. I shook him, but he did not respond," he testified. Mr Musasa said he then went up stairs with the intention of informing his aunt about "the horrible scene".
When he got to his aunt's bedroom, Mr Musasa said he found the door wide open and observed that there was disorder in the room.
He then went to his other aunt's bedroom and informed her before going to the teenager's bedroom to report the matter. Mr Musasa said after Ms Spiwe Chakuvinga, the younger sister to the boy's mother, entered the bedroom, she came out looking very worried.
"Her face had completely changed. Together we went downstairs. She also shook her brother-in-law in the same way I had done," he said.
While in the dining room, Mr Musasa said they heard the maid identified only as Precious shouting at the top of her voice: "Amai vapfurwawo futi (Mother has also been shot dead)."
The trial is now being held in open court following a successful application by the defence. Last month the court barred the Press from covering the proceedings, saying only close relatives were allowed into the courtroom because the suspect was a minor.
In terms of the law, court proceedings involving minor children ought to be conducted in camera.
However, Adv Mpofu argued there was no law that automatically obliged such proceedings to be held in camera.
He cited several case laws to support his contention, which was opposed by the State.
After considering arguments presented by both the defence and State counsels, the court ruled in favour of the defence.
However, in terms of the law it is the defence that can apply to have proceedings in such cases held in camera and not the State.
Adv Mpofu is being instructed by Ms Sharon Maphosa of Mawere and Sibanda law firm.

Ghost in Bulawayo

2010-01-30T02:05:00.001-08:00

Earlier this month the following article appeared concerning unusual activity in Bulawayo.

Residents in Zimbabwe's sprawling city of Bulawayo are living in fear of a ghost that is reportedly wreaking havoc in the suburb.In separate interviews with
The Zim Diaspora yestersday, residents described how they have seen a huge ball of fire which usually burns in the air.They said the ghost has literally imposed a "curfew" in some parts of Mabuthweni suburb near
Mpopoma as residents are now scared of using the route patronised by the ghost.
Residents claimed that the ghost was very intimidating as it often follow residents who pass through "curfewed" places.
Another resident said: “At about 12 midnight last week I was up and about from my girlfriend's place when I saw a big ball of fire from a distance. Upon getting closer I noticed that the fire was burning on air, I could feel my hair rising. I have always thought those things were only seen on Stephen King’s movies but they are real.”
At times, they claimed, they woke up to find their property such as flower vases having been moved out of the house.“
After work, I usually passby a local beergarden to catch-up with my friends over a glass of beer before proceeding to my house in Mpopoma. Last week I was confronted by a ghost which kept on running behind me. It was so scary. I am now so scared in passing through that area again,” said Mr Nigel Ngoma.
“One of my friends sometime in December last year was injured while trying to flee the same ghost,” he added.
Another resident, Mrs Theresia Ngulube who lives near the bushy area patronised by the ghost, said she got the shock of her life last week when she found her flower vases having been moved out of her house during the night to the gate.“
I usually wake up at 5 am to do my household chores, however, last week was a different morning. I could not believe my eyes, upon opening the door, I noticed that all the vases were not there. At first, I thought that they had been stolen because there are a lot of thieves here,” she said.“
Then my husband went out to investigate only to find the vases outside the gate,” she said.“As I was relating the ordeal to one of my neighbours, she also told me that a simillar thing happened to her a few days ago, although she did not tell anyone. We then realized that something was amiss as we kept on hearing people saying there was ghost at our neighbour and from that point we were convinced that it was the ghost,” she said.
Many believe the ghost could be that of a local man who was brutally murdered at the same spot in 2008.“I certainly believe that it is him because that was a gruesome murder and at times it could be the work of his family who are at pains over the way their son died,” said Ms Nomalungelo Dlamini.
A ghost has been defined as the disembodied spirit or soul of a deceased person, although in popular usage the term refers only to the apparition of such a person. Often described as immaterial and partly transparent, ghosts are reported to haunt particular locations or people that they were associated with in life or at time of death.
Article courtesy; The Zimdiaspora

Ghostly Motel

2010-01-11T23:38:00.000-08:00

High above Lake Kariba there is a motel long used by travellers as a watering hole on the long journey from Harare to Kariba and an overnight stopping point for visitors to Zambia, Mana Pools and the hunting areas on the Zambezi River.

While living in Zambia I often stayed overnight and the atmosphere in the bar and the food in the restaurant were always good.

However there is one room in this motel that is haunted.

It overlooks the valley below with a picture window over a magnificent view - the best room in the house! But the presence there is evil. I have purposely asked for this room on a few occasions - just to see if my mind and my mood played any part in the feeling I experienced - but each time i felt the same cold breeze and heard the same taps on the wall. On one occasion my parents occupied the room next door and i woke them up to see if there was anything wrong - they were fast asleep and had heard nothing!

Perhaps some wounded hunter had died in this room after being brought back from an unsuccessful hunt - wounded by an elephant or buffalo. Perhaps the spirit of one who loved the valley and wishes to see it again from this vantage point occupies the room?

I have tried to find a reason behind the coldness (even on the hottest nights) and the tapping but no one admits to there being anything in the haunted room.

Michael Jackson's ghost seen in Zimbabwe?

2010-01-06T00:30:00.000-08:00

Jadyn Cassidy j.cassidy@allnewsweb.com
A reader has informed us of a bizarre story involving a sighting of the ghost of deceased singer, Michael Jackson, that is spreading through the African nation of Zimbabwe.
The sighting of Jackson's ghost occurred at the St Mary's Mission School,a Catholic institution, in Zimbabwe's capital of Harare. Allegedly a group of students aged from twelve to fourteen years were sitting along with some of the nuns that work at St Mary's and watching a nativity play that was organised after school hours.
Children dressed as Mary, Joseph and the Wise Men were on stage when suddenly the lights went out. Then ghost-like being appeared on stage waving a white-gloved hand. The terrified students emptied the hall along with the supervising nuns.
Almost all the students later agreed that it was Michael Jackson that they saw' 'It definitely was MJ' noted Theresa, a student at the school. 'It was his face and his clothes. he smiled and waived at us'
'I saw it too' commented Sister Maria 'it was not human and must have been a spirit. The students later told me it was Michael Jackson'.
News of the otherworldly event spread through the area and some interested locals even visited the hall in the hope that they too might see Jackson's ghost. Belief in ghosts is widespread in Zimbabwe.

2009-12-15T02:14:00.000-08:00

One does not often come across spirits in the bush in Zimbabwe. I have often wondered why.

We were fortunate enough to stay at - a now closed - safari lodge and conservancy in the Bulawayo area recently as guests of the owners.

We were given two rooms one above the other each with balconies and a large bed sitting area and bathroom.

We closed the doors - no locks needed and went for dinner with our friends- on returning our son found his room door open despite him having closed it firmly!

My husband retired after a bath and our son and i stayed siting on the balcony watching the stars and listening to the night noises. At midnight he left to go to his room. We brought in the chairs we had been sitting on and carefully closed the balcony door - i saw him to the staircase between our rooms and closed the door firmly.

On rising the following morning both the balcony door and the door to the staircase were wide open!

There were no other people around and the noise of someone on the stairs and of someone opening the doors would have been more than enough to wake us - especially as we are light sleepers!

What opened the doors? It will remain a mystery!

Sounds unexplained

2009-11-13T01:49:00.000-08:00

I wrote some time ago about my father's studio and the sound of television coming from it after he had died and all the furniture and connections had been removed. We took on a firends furniture - deposited in the studio and the sounds stopped!

Our younger son has returned to stay here for a while and has removed most of the furniture we placed in the studio so that he has more room to work on a project he is engaged in finishing.

Yesterday about 2 in the morning I awoke to once again here the sound of old movies - I got up and wandered round the house thinking that someone had left a TV or a Radio on by mistake. Nothing!

I returned to our bedroom - which overlooks the Studio - and sure enough the faint sounds were coming from the studio! What will happen next!

Ghosts turning off taps?

2009-10-14T02:16:00.000-07:00

The ghost is at it again - twice in the last month we have had a very strange occurance.

We have geasers in our roof - one for the kitchen and one for the bathrooms.

Twice we have found the tap for the kitchen geyser to be turned off - very tightly. No one goes into the roof and we have had no reason to turn off the flow of water. The first we know about it is that there is no water coming out of the hot tap in the kitchen!

Very strange!

Zimbabwe Virgins Forced into Marriage to 'Appease' Evil Spirits

2009-09-30T00:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-29T23:17:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-16T02:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-11T02:09:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-11T02:01:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-09-11T01:50:00.001-07:00

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?

2009-09-11T00:44:00.001-07:00

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.

Ghost next door

2009-08-22T23:10:00.000-07:00

I have spoken on a number of occasions about the ghosts we have in our house and once about a phenomenon next door.

Bear in mind that these people are very down to earth, solid British people who are inclinded to dismiss ideas of ghosts.

I have now discovered that our neighbours, who are good friends, had a guest who saw a materialisation that appeared in one room and then disappeared through a brick wall into the dining room area. They investigated and found nothing.

The apparition was a tall man dressed in modern clothing.

The story that our properties are actually built over a grave yard is very possible. This was the first area , in those days, outside what was Salisbury, that was farmed as a market garden. All the figures we have seen seem to stem from this period which was during the 1930s.

Lady and her dog

2009-08-16T00:09:00.000-07:00

There is a house near the University in Harare which stands out in a road of common place single story ranch type houses. It is painted pink and is double storied with arches over the patio in front.
It was originally built many years ago and then added onto. The double story section is the new part of the house. The older section houses a study, bedroom and bathroom and it is in the section that the Lady and her dog are often seen.
She is dressed in a long white dress - is very attractive and is accompanied by a white poodle on a lead.

It is interesting that in Zimbabwe a number of sightings of ghostly beings are accompanied by their pets who were obviously very dear to them in life and remain so in death.

Rock paintings

2009-08-04T02:18:00.001-07:00

Not far from the city of Harare there are a group of hilly outcrops that house Cave Paintings.

Chipkupu has a series of three caves with paintings - some having been painted over on a number of occasions and all being ancient in origin.

Our family visited these caves some 25 years ago with a party of tree Society members. With us was our then, three year old son.

We had not been in the caves for very long and were examining an over hang with paintings on it.

our son suddenly pipes up "this wasn't like this last time i saw it'. He pointed to some of the newer paintings and proceeded to tell everyone around that under these paintings were those of other animals.

We made a closer look at the rock face and could see a line of older paintings under the newer ones - but could not distinguish what they were. our son announced that they were impala being chased by men and that one of those men was a relative of his!

A childhood fantasy - or was he recalling something from another life?

Zimbabweans say angry ancestors are behind road accidents

2009-07-30T02:57:00.000-07:00

The state of the roads in Zimbabwe are awful - this is an interesting article which shows how superstitious people can be appeared in the Los Angeles Times - belief in the old gods is very open in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabweans say angry ancestors are behind road accidents

Traditional rituals to appease the dead have not been performed for years. Some believe that's the cause for a recent string of terrible crashes on one highway.
By Robyn Dixon May 23, 2009
Reporting from Chivhu, Zimbabwe — The road is scarred with skid marks, some curved like snakes, others pencil straight. They shriek the fates of unlucky travelers who lost their lives; they mark the near-misses.
It's not just the treacherous potholes, or the edges of the road nibbled away like cookies. It's not the dozing driver behind the glaring truck headlights about to veer onto the wrong side.

People here in central Zimbabwe are afraid of something else.
The pedestrians crossing the road at night, dressed in black, walking so slowly that drivers are forced to swerve -- ghostly figures not made of skin and bone. And the mermaid in the Pimbi River, angry at the blood and gasoline spilled when a bus crashed into the water two years ago.
For a long time, things have not been right anywhere in this beautiful but tortured country. The economy has collapsed; there's been conflict, hatred, repression. But many believe this country's long, grinding crisis is just a symptom of something deeper: The ancestors are angry.
Some people here trace today's road disasters back to the blood spilled in 1890, on the arrival of white colonialist Cecil Rhodes, who founded the diamond company De Beers and settled Zimbabwe. Rhodesia, the colonial name for Zimbabwe and Zambia, was named after him.
Under Rhodes, an invading pioneer column set up camp near what is now the highway, and the colonialists called the place Fort Charter. Local people believe that many blacks were thrown into a burning pit by the foreigners.
When bad things happen in Zimbabwe, an uneasy suspicion arises. In times past, communities religiously attended to rituals, slaughtering cattle to keep the ancestors happy. But in the last 10 or 15 years, many communities have neglected the rituals.
Zimbabwean traditional beliefs are as real for most Christians in rural areas as they are for those cleaving solely to African religions. Many urban dwellers are the same, including top members of President Robert Mugabe's Cabinet.
For some, traditional beliefs permeate every aspect of life: politics, business, family, illness, prosperity and fate. They also bring a measure of daily fear: Demons can sicken or curse you. Enemies with powerful muti, or magic, can strike you with a lightning bolt if challenged. Droughts, famines, locust plagues and wildfires happen when ancestors are upset or God is displeased.

Zimbabwe outllaws witch craft and Witch Flies 75 miles in a winnowing basket

2009-07-30T02:39:00.000-07:00

There are two articles here of interest -
Zimbabwe outlaws practise of witchcraft
By Lebo Nkatazo
Last updated: 04/14/2009
ZIMBABWE has outlawed the practise of witchcraft following a raft of amendments to legislation drawn up by the former colonial regime.
From July this year, witchcraft will be a criminal offence punishable by a fine or a five-year jail term, the country's Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said.
Until President Robert Mugabe assented to the amendments last week, Zimbabwe's Witchcraft Suppression Act, a holdover from the colonial era, made it illegal to call anyone a witch, meaning nearly all cases went unreported.
The police were also powerless to act, and just recently, the country's chief police spokesman said it was next to impossible to prove that one was a witch.
"Witchcraft is not an area that lends itself to police scrutiny," said Wayne Budzijena, the Zimbabwe Republic Police spokesman. "How do you verify an evil spell? This is a matter of spiritual faith, not a matter of empirical evidence."
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told state media at the weekend that Part VI of Chapter V of the Witchcraft Suppression Act had been amended and the amendments would come into effect on July 1, 2006.
He said: "President Mugabe has assented to the amendments and criminals will be charged for breaching certain sections of the Act as from July this year."
The new laws make it a criminal offence to hire a witch or assist in the commission of witchcraft, but also provides protection for people "groundlessly" accused of practising witchcraft.
The 50 000-member Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association has been instrumental in forcing the change in law.
Gordon Chavunduka, chairman of the association said: "Witchcraft and tokoloshis (demons and their gremlin-like henchmen, ankle-high creatures) are making a comeback. It's obvious the cause is economic. The worse the economy gets, the more political tension there is in society, the more frustrated and frightened people get. They turn to witchcraft to gain riches or to hurt their enemies."
In January this year, a top High Coutrt judge urged the Zimbabwe government to ease colonial era restrictions on the practice of witchcraft.
Justice Maphios Cheda, opening the new judicial year, said: "The strongly held conviction of belief in witchcraft and traditional healers ... cannot be wished away.
"We should amend the century-old Witchcraft Suppression Act in keeping with the popular thinking and beliefs of the majority in this country."
Although many highly educated Zimbabweans tend not to believe in such phenomena, they acknowledge the belief is part of their cultural background.
"I've never seen a tokoloshi, I've never had a tokoloshi attack me, but I've heard all the stories like everyone else," said Professor Welshman Ncube, a constitutional law scholar. "I don't believe or disbelieve. It's difficult for outsiders to understand, but African daily life relies heavily on the spirit world, for good or evil."
The amended Part VI of Chapter V of the Witchcraft Suppression Act now reads: "Whoever accuses a person of witchcraft means to indicate that the person (is possessed by a spirit or) used non-natural means (witch-finding) to cause death, injury, disease or inability in any person. This also means that destruction or loss of or damage to property of any description was involved.
"Any person who engages in any practice knowing that it is commonly associated with witchcraft, shall be guilty of engaging in a practice commonly associated with witchcraft if having the intention to cause harm to any person.
"Such practice inspires in the person against whom it was directed, a real fear or belief that harm will occur to that person or any member of his or her family, and be liable to a fine not exceeding level ten or imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years or both."
"Spoken words shall not in themselves constitute a practice commonly associated with witchcraft for the purpose of this section, unless accompanied by or used in connection with other conduct commonly associated with witchcraft.
"For the avoidance of doubt it is declared that any person who assists another person to commit the crime of engaging in a practice commonly associated with witchcraft, by giving advice or providing any substance or article to enable that person to commit the crime, shall be liable to be charged as an accomplice to the crime.
"A court shall not take judicial notice of any practice that is said to be commonly associated with witchcraft, but any person who, in the opinion of the court, is suitably qualified to do so on account of his/her knowledge, shall be competent to give expert evidence as to whether the practice that forms the subject of a charge under this section is a practice that is commonly associated with witchcraft, whether generally or in the particular area where the practice is alleged to have taken place.
"Any person who groundlessly or by the purported use of non-natural means accuses another person of witchcraft shall be guilty of indicating a witch or wizard and liable.
"It shall not be a defence to a contravention of a subsection involving the purported use of any non-natural means for the person charged to prove that the person he/she accused actually engaged in any practice commonly associated with witchcraft, but the court may suggest such circumstance as mitigatory when assessing the sentence to be imposed."
The amendment disqualifies as defence to murder, assault or any other crime that an accused was influenced by a genuine belief that the victim was a witch or wizard and a court would only use it as mitigation

This story appeared in one of our local papers recently - June 2009:

21 year old woman stunned a court when she claimed she flew 75 miles in a winnowing basket with two witches on a mission to kill her brother-in-law. Her claims where collaborated by a witchcraft expert who told the court that “witches can travel from Zimbabwe to as far as South Africa during the night and fly back as soon as their mission is accomplished”.
In court Regina Sveto, 21 on Friday “hissed like a snake” and “went into a trance” as Sekuru Nelson Jambaya, the vice president of the Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association (ZINATHA) testified leaving a packed court room shocked.
All the drama took place at Court 18 at the Harare Magistrates Court where it was jammed to the rafters as court officials, magistrates and lawyers all raced there to watch proceedings in the rather unusual case.
Sveto has pleaded guilty to a charge of public indecency after she was found naked outside her brother-in-law’s house in Highfield suburb just after 6AM on last Sunday.
Sveto was seen by passers-by outside the house wearing “red headgear” and “some black strings around the waist”. She claimed she had “flown” from there from Murehwa, some 120km east of Harare, with her father-in-law and an aunt.
Their winnowing basket aircraft taxied off from a graveyard in Zihute Village under Chief Mangwende — their mission to kill her brother-in-law. Once at the house in Highfield, she claims she balked when asked to kill her brother-in-law. Her father-in-law, named in court as Elias Zemba, and the aunt, Filda Zemba, then took off and abandoned her.
Just in case she flies back, Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe has asked for expert opinion before passing sentence. After listening to Jambaya’s evidence on Thursday, Guvamombe ordered Chief Mangwende to be summoned to give his opinion on June 4. The magistrate has also ordered that the woman be kept in custody, “just in case she flies back to Murehwa”.
Jambaya said the woman’s account confirmed what traditional healers have always believed about witches and wizards. He told the court: “According to my knowledge, if the woman said she flew from Murehwa in a basket, then she is a witch. Witches do a lot of this and they are known to travel naked at night.
“It is also possible for witches to travel as far as South Africa during the night for the purposes of witchcraft, flying back as soon as their mission is accomplished. Some people use magic to protect their homes and families against witchcraft and in such cases, the witches and wizards become powerless and are subsequently exposed.”
As Jambaya testified, Sveto “hissed like a snake”, triggering some panic at the court room. At one point, she was seen to suddenly become weak, leaning heavily against a prison guard.
Then, in a sudden burst, she shouted in her native Shona: “You are liars! You are only senior in terms of your jobs but you are powerless against me. Why are you leaving criminals to roam free out there and harassing an innocent person like me? I have no case to answer, didn’t my medium brief you?”
Sveto immediately collapsed and lay prostrate on the floor for several minutes before a relative revived her by placing salt into her palms. She regained consciousness some 10 minutes later, by which time the court was overflowing with curious on-lookers.
Prosecutors have asked the magistrate not to impose a custodial sentence on Sveto. Prosecutor Austin Muzivi said the woman was likely to be a state witness should Elias Zemba and Filda Zemba be charged with practising witchcraft, which is a crime in Zimbabwe.
A 2006 law says anyone accusing another individual of witchcraft must show proof of their allegations.
The Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act 2004 says court officials can rely on expert evidence “as to whether the practice that forms the subject of a charge… is a practice that is commonly associated with witchcraft.”

2009-07-28T02:21:00.000-07:00

I had a very strange lucid dream last night that took me back many years to Salisbury, now Harare, when the new Meikles Hotel was built. I saw the old hotel being pulled down and it was exactly as it was at the time - the colours were bright and clear and even people

Ii knew then were in the dream.

What is lucid dreaming and why are the images sometimes so clear. I was able to decide which way i walked and looked at other buildings of the time.

Very interesting.

Zimbabwe: Ruwa Murder - Boy Accuses Father of Witchcraft

2009-07-15T23:21:00.000-07:00

Yet another story of witchcraft still alive in Zimbabwe

8 July 2009

Harare — The 17-year-old Ruwa boy charged with killing his parents in cold blood last year has, in turn, accused his father of using him as a "goblin" to sustain his "mysterious" business empire.
The teenager made the startling claims when his trial opened before High Court judge Justice Tendayi Uchena on Monday. The boy allegedly gunned down his father and mother at their Ruwa home in April last year.
It is alleged that he shot his father in the head before heading to the bedroom where he opened fire on his mother who had been awakened by the gunshots.
According to reports, the father had, on the fateful day, woken up the boy at around 3am so that he could study. The teenager pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder.
In his defence outline, the boy's lawyer, Advocate Thabani Mpofu, claimed that during the study sessions, which were closed to other family members, his father would burn some roots and unspecified substances. The burning would invariably lead to some "body malaise and dizziness", reads the defence outline.
Adv Mpofu further submitted that over the weekends preceding the fateful day, the boy would spend around 19 hours in an unconscious state that only his father could break.
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"Such was the accused's strange routine. The accused is now positively aware that he was being used as a goblin by his father in order to sustain and support his mysterious and vast business interests," Adv Mpofu said.
The boy's father ran a security company, among other businesses. However, the psychiatric report that forms part of the defence established that the boy suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy, fits affecting half of the brain.
"His conduct that morning was not voluntary and he committed the acts he is charged with without conscious knowledge. His actions were brought about by either the temporal lobe epilepsy or (the) spiritual world to which he had descended into," Adv Mpofu said.
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Key State witness Mr Admire Musasa (24), who is related to the boy, yesterday gave his account of the events he witnessed early in the morning after the shooting. He said at around 5am a maid came to his bedroom and woke him up.
"She was looking worried and asked me to come with her. I got dressed and followed her to the dining room. I saw my uncle (the boy's father) seated on his chair with his head facing down on the table with his books," he said.
"I observed a white substance coming out from the back of his head. I shook him, but he did not respond," he testified. Mr Musasa said he then went up stairs with the intention of informing his aunt about "the horrible scene".
When he got to his aunt's bedroom, Mr Musasa said he found the door wide open and observed that there was disorder in the room.
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He then went to his other aunt's bedroom and informed her before going to the teenager's bedroom to report the matter. Mr Musasa said after Ms Spiwe Chakuvinga, the younger sister to the boy's mother, entered the bedroom, she came out looking very worried.
"Her face had completely changed. Together we went downstairs. She also shook her brother-in-law in the same way I had done," he said.
While in the dining room, Mr Musasa said they heard the maid identified only as Precious shouting at the top of her voice: "Amai vapfurwawo futi (Mother has also been shot dead)."
Relevant Links
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The trial is now being held in open court following a successful application by the defence. Last month the court barred the Press from covering the proceedings, saying only close relatives were allowed into the courtroom because the suspect was a minor.
In terms of the law, court proceedings involving minor children ought to be conducted in camera.
However, Adv Mpofu argued there was no law that automatically obliged such proceedings to be held in camera.
He cited several case laws to support his contention, which was opposed by the State.
After considering arguments presented by both the defence and State counsels, the court ruled in favour of the defence.
However, in terms of the law it is the defence that can apply to have proceedings in such cases held in camera and not the State.
Adv Mpofu is being instructed by Ms Sharon Maphosa of Mawere and Sibanda law firm.

From Cabinet of Wonders

2009-07-15T23:06:00.000-07:00

These stories are getting more and more common. people think that Africa is now a modern society - in still has its roots in its ancient traditions and beliefs including wirchcraft.

Glendale is north of Harare and was a flourishing farming community.

Magical shenanigans in Zimbabwe just keep getting weirder:
Two self-styled prophets stunned Glendale villagers when they mysteriously retrieved a baby's leg still dripping blood from a woman's hut and accused her of practising witchcraft and causing the death of the minor. However, the duo ran out of luck when they ordered the villagers to illegally exhume the body of the child, who had died a few days back, only to find the decomposing body intact.The two escaped from the scene, but were later arrested and have since appeared in court charged with employing "non-natural" means to resolve crimes.
I have to wonder where the leg actually came from, the details (while even stranger) don't really help solve that one:
The State, represented by prosecutor Mr Guni Guni, told the court the incident occurred at a farm in Glendale on June 24 this year when the duo went to Ms Everess Chazika's home. Ms Chazika had sought the duo's services after her husband continued to suffer from hallucinations.The prophets allegedly summoned villagers and the head at the farm to witness them cleansing the home of evil spirits. During the session, the self-styled prophets entered the woman's bedroom and emerged with a baby's leg dripping with blood. Munjodzi and Nsiku then pointed a finger at Ms Chazika, accusing her of using the baby's leg during her witchcraft errands. The mother of the baby that had died three weeks earlier was among the villagers who witnessed the exorcism and allegedly identified the leg as belonging to her late baby. Ms Chazika denied any knowledge of the leg and the prophet asked her to hold a hen claiming if she denied the truth the chicken would die. The villagers allegedly quickly brought the chicken, which was handed over to Ms Chazika.The prophet then asked her if she used the human leg in witchcraft, which she denied.The chicken reportedly nodded three times and died instantly.Munjodzi and Nsiku then challenged the villagers to dig up the baby's grave claiming it was empty while Ms Chazika insisted she never used witchcraft.The prophets claimed that Ms Chazika and other witches had feasted on the baby's body. The villagers, with the blessing of the headmen, dug up the grave only to discover the baby's body still intact despite being in an advanced state of decomposition. Munjodzi and Nsiku disappeared from the scene only to be arrested early this month. Police are still keen to find out how Munjodzi and Nsiku came to possess the baby's leg. It was also not clear how the leg was disposed of.
If I had to guess, I'd suggest it isn't a real baby's leg (well I hope not anyway), you could get a similar effect by hiding a doll's leg and a bag of blood up your sleeve for easy retrieval, then you wave it around a bit so no one gets a proper look at it.
This involvement of "prophets" seems to be a recent and growing problem across West Africa. "Prophets" in Zimbabwe seem to be involved with an earlier story and they are the main problem in the whole Nigerian Witch Children business (that spread to the Congo). There appear to be groups of people making-up problems for which they are the solution, no matter what the cost for other people.

While I'd be quite happy to see these mystical meddlers locked up, my gut tells me this is more a symptom of a wider problem. You are going to have to address issues of stability, justice and inequality: get rid of Mugabe and make sure the Nigerian oil money gets spread around to all the people in the country. That it obviously a bigger deal and may take a little longer.
Source

Zimbabwe Sathya Sai Baba Experiemce

2009-07-13T00:25:00.000-07:00

Sathyanarayana Raju was born to Peddavenkama Raju and Eswaramma in an agrarian family in the remote village of Puttaparthi, located in Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh, India.[9] Professor Narayana Kasturi's biography stated that when the child was born, musical instruments in the household started creating music on their own. He also claimed that Sai Baba was born 'of immaculate conception. Sai Baba's mother, Easwaramma, was walking towards a well one day when a huge sphere of blue light rolled towards her, merged into her and made her faint. She soon found out that she was pregnant after dreaming of the Hindu God, Sathyanarayana. Sathya in Sanskrit means truth, and Narayana in Sanskrit means God in human form. The young Sathyanarayana, Kasturi's biography states, was a vegetarian and was "known" for his aversion to animal cruelty.[10] The child was very lively and the pet of the village. [11]From early childhood he was called "Guru" by his playmates leading them in devotional song and fascinating and amusing them by taking candy and playthings from an apparently empty bag.

Daily, he is observed to allegedly manifest vibuthi (holy ash), and sometimes food and small objects such as rings, necklaces and watches.

My family attended meetings on a regular basis in Harare and it was at one of these meetings that we experienced the manifestation of vibuthi.

After the meeting we were handing out the offerings of food - i was handing out plastic bags for everyone to use to place there food into. As I was handing one bag to a visitor from Zambia i noticed what i thought was dirt in the bottom of the bag - I told the man concerned that i would get another bag - then we saw what was not dirt but vibuthi growing in the bag until it was half full with the ash.

There was enough for everyone to take some home - I still have a small amount left after some years - but it never seems to disappear entirely!

Chirorodziva: Forgotten sleeping giant

2009-06-25T22:46:00.000-07:00

This article appeared in the herald newspaper this morning:

ON the outskirts of the City of Chinhoyi lies a huge sacred pool, whose silence is like that of the innards of a grave.The silence as one descends into the intricate network of caves is both eerie and profound, yet the grottos and the huge sleeping pool form a spectacular combination in which reality defies existing tourism hyperbole diction.It is a geomorphological spectre whose grandeur Zimbabwe has failed to market for international tourism recognition. The caves are grossly under marketed that they have largely remained an untapped tourist attraction.When climbing down the steep granite steps it is easy for tourists to imagine approaching an abyss of darkness as light suddenly varnishes. The experience is hair-raising.The caves are a limestone shaft linked by a maze of passages and caves, at the foot of which lies a huge pool whose limpid and translucent gothic water maintains the same level 24/7.Inexplicably, the water defies common meteorological logic by remaining at the same temperature of 22 degrees Celsius 24/7 — every second, every minute, every hour and indeed every day.It is this deep blue pool beneath the sparkling cobalt stone that is known as the "Sleeping Pool.’’Myth and mystery has it that one cannot successfully throw a stone across the seemingly small pool as the sacred spirits that watch over the pool will catch the stone and bestow a curse upon the stone thrower.Oral tradition has it that at the bottom of Sleeping Pool lies immured, the bones of fallen Shona tribe heroes who died after being flung in by Nguni tribe raiders in pre-colonial Zimbabwe.The story is that it was in this pool that Nguni raiders flung their victims of battle to "sleep to eternity" when they fought notorious Shona outlaw Nyamakwere, in pre-colonial Zimbabwe.Prior to the incident Nyamakwere is said to have used the caves as his stronghold from which he killed his victims and threw them in.Nyamkwere was eventually overthrown by Chief Chinhoyi of the NeMakonde dynasty, hence the name of the city Chinhoyi.The Nemakonde (bastardised to Lomagundi by white colonial settlers), who resided in the area and often fell victim to Nguni raiders know the pool less euphemistically as Chirorodziva, the pool of the fallen heroes.Ironically, it is a spitting distance from the caves that the Battle of Chinhoyi- the fierce maiden gun battle between the black nationalists and white Rhodesian settlers marked the beginning of Zimbabwe’s protracted liberation struggle.The caves situated 8 kilometres from the city along the Highway to Kariba and Chirundu are a fascinating geological splendour.The main feature is the limestone cavern formed thousands of years back when the ground collapsed into a sinkhole.The Sleeping Pool is believed to be 172 metres deep with the drivers who have explored deepest, the United States Navy divers have only managed to go as far as 135 metre down.About 58 metres down the pool, there is another tunnel and a third tunnel lower, is yet to be explored.Several underwater passages lead from the Sleeping Pool and explorers have always found their way back to the pool.Its deep clear blue colour makes the poor almost impossible to the photograph successfully. The colour is not a reflection of the sky because it is the same deep blue colour on a cloudy day and at night. Another reason is that the portion of the pool visible from the Dark Cave is situated far from the sinkholes, yet it exhibits the same colour.The pool is blue for the same reason the sky is blue-scattering of light — and this is why it is blue throughout, whether is shade, sun or deep underground.Scientifically, this effect can only be achieved if the water is clear and this can be proved by visitors when they want to find the real surface.The rocks seen under the water are not reflection, as the eye might be fooled to see, but are real rocks underwater. The other fascination is the Dark Cave, which is artificially lit.Climbing in and out of the Dark cave is energy demanding. It is not for the week-kneed.More often that not many people come out of the cave panting, like fish put of the water.A good one-hour is enough for to explore Chinhoyi Caves, with one’s friends or family.Outside the caves is dense vegetation whose lasting beauty is spiced with melodious songs from an assortment of birds.The National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority has a picnic ground and camping site next to the caves, where you can enjoy a meal or braai for a modest charge oat Chinhoyi Caves Motel.Today, as tourists visit, the caves are still revered by the local people for being he custodians of their ancestral spirits.With proper marketing, combined national effort and international exposure Zimbabwe could realise serious tourism benefits from the sleeping giant. This is nothing nearer to his in Zimbabwe so the outstanding geological feature is what the Gods have bestowed upon Zimbabwe.lFeedback: isadore.guvamombe@zimpapers.co.zw

Encounter With ‘Tokoloshes’

2009-06-20T23:24:00.000-07:00

This article appeared in today's Standard Newspaper

Saturday, 20 June 2009 21:21
I have heard about “tokoloshes” as creatures that bring fortunes or misfortunes to families. In all those discussions I have ended up even more sceptical. That is why most people crave for an encounter with the malevolent mythical human-like creatures.
Last weekend I went to my village in Mazvihwa in Zvishavane district in the Midlands. I wanted to reconnect with my roots.
On arrival on Friday evening I was greeted with news of the arrival of a “prophet” in the village who had come to conduct a cleansing ceremony. They said it was an awesome spectacle. I was not sure that I was prepared for this sort of thing.
I decided to walk the 5km journey to a mountainous range on Saturday morning where “Prophet” Jeremiah was conducting the cleansing ceremony.
My cousin Peter helped me negotiate the maze of footpaths to the rendezvous.
We met scores of other people on the way — from youths walking energetically to those whose pace was usurped by age.
“I am going to get my problem solved, my son,” a frail old man told me expectantly. I walked past many people who carried their food and water. This was obviously going to be a lengthy process.
We arrived just in time. Peter is a very resourceful young man. He negotiated so I could capture the cleansing ceremony on my digital camera.
A short stout youth in a white bib with stars came back to announce: “You are most welcome to get into the ring and do your business.”
About a thousand people formed a crescent. In the middle were five people who had brought their “bags”. They were lining up to be cleansed of their calamities.
The “prophet” poured some white powder into water that was in a bucket and then conducted a prayer.
Jeremiah then asked the individuals to stand by their bags. We waited with bated breath for Jeremiah was asking the owners to own up to having ‘tokoloshes’ in front of a whole community.
Jeremiah then took his wooden staff and pointed at the bags. He sprinkled “holy water” on the bags.
On approaching the first bag Jeremiah appeared to go into a trance. His assistant, opened the next bag , but it appeared the process went awry. He collapsed, as if struck by something invisible to those of us watching this drama. The others rushed to his rescue. He was able to dip the “tokoloshe” in the “holy water”, rendering it “powerless”.
The remaining bags were checked but nothing was found. It was suggested they had failed to trap the “tokoloshes”.
Fooled or was this real?
We were invited to draw closer to see the “creatures”. The first was a snake — a dead snake, grey in colour and metre-long but curiously wrapped with condoms.
“This snake has just engaged in a sexually activity with a human being,” Jeremiah claimed. “Hmmm,” I wondered.
The next “tokoloshe” was rather bizarre: beaded black stockings in half and garishly decorating a calabash with a carved head of a person.
This was the work of beautiful art turned gory, I muttered to myself. My thoughts were interrupted by an announcement from Jeremiah: “This has blood in it and it survives on human blood.” The cleansing process was repeated several times with spectacular “findings”. The “tokoloshes” were then taken away to be burnt. I followed at a distance, emotions of fear and dismay competing.
One of the men accompanied by his octogenarian mother, his wife and three female members of his family said they had undergone a transformation. There was a sudden change on their faces. They were fresh smiling. It was as if a heavy burden had been lifted off their shoulders.
Peter told me about his experience too. But he could not find a ready explanation.
Jeremiah said he was born Meryward Marara 30 years ago in Mount Darwin, Mashonaland Central. He is married and has two children who live in Gweru.
I left with more questions than answers. I need another take.
BY BOLD HUNGWE

Doors opening and closing

2009-06-16T02:58:00.000-07:00

We have a serious security problem in Zimbabwe and our house is surrounded inside and out by alarm sensors.

In the early hours of this morning I was awake when I distinctly heard the sound of a wooden door closing. We close all doors before retiring to bed so I became a little fearful that our security system had broken down and someone was in the house.

We went down the hallway and looked in every door - nothing - all was peaceful or was it?

This morning I found two statues that sit on top of a speaker moved and yet the alarms had not gone off in this room!

Is our ghost on the rampage again? Who knows.

Tongogara's ghost

2009-06-11T03:14:00.000-07:00

Tongogara was killed in a 'car accident' and was reburied in Heroes Acre - on the outskirts of Harare in 1980.

Six days after the Lancaster House Agreement was signed Robert Mugabe, on the Voice of Zimbabwe radio station, conveyed "an extremely sad message" to "all the fighting people of Zimbabwe": the forty one year old Tongogara was dead, killed in a car accident in Mozambique on December 26 1979. Josiah Tungamirai, the ZANLA High Command's political commissar relates that on the night of the fatality, he and Tongogara had been travelling with others in two vehicles from Maputo to Chimoio. Tungamirai said he was in the front vehicle. It was dark and the roads were bad. Tungamirai's car passed a military vehicle that had been carelessly abandoned, with no warning signs at the side of the road. After that, he could no longer see the headlights of the following car in his rear view mirror. Eventually he turned back, and, as he had feared, they found Tongogara's car had struck the abandoned vehicle. Tongogara was sitting in the front passenger seat. Tungamirai told me that he had struggled to lift Tongogara out of the wrecked car. He said that as he was doing so, Tongogara heaved a huge sigh and died in his
Margaret Dongo was one of the last people to see him alive. "We were eighteen girls who were having a function and he came to say a few words to bless the occasion."

ZANU released an undertaker's statement saying his injuries were consistent with a road accident, but no autopsy results or pictures have been released(the undertaker who gave the report was indeed Mr K.J Stokesand not Mr R Silke).

His ghost has been reportedly seen by a number of people in and around the burial place.

It is also said that he haunts the State House in Harare and that this has driven a certain person to antidepressents!

Reps Theatre

2009-05-23T00:08:00.000-07:00

No self respecting theatre is without it's resident ghost. Reps in Harare is no exception - I outline below a history of the theatre written by Gillian West who was chairman of the committee for some years.
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The Repertory Players have been in existence for over 70 years - proudly flying the theatrical flag. Initially, four people formed a play reading group but in February 1931 performances began at Duthie Hall. Over the next five years, sixteen plays were produced under difficult conditions, with minimal stage facilities, inadequate lighting, uncomfortable seating and no money for improvements!
In 1936 Reps was given the use of the Prince Edward School Beit Hall. The stage was larger and better equipped and patrons were able to hire cushions at 3d each. During their 11 year occupancy, some 38 plays were presented but in 1947 their tenancy was terminated as the Hall was needed for school purposes.

Eventually, accommodation was found in the show grounds, in a ramshackle hall built as a cinema for the RAF in the second world war. There was a small stage, two small dressing rooms, a concrete auditorium with no ceiling and two bucket toilets! Volunteer members worked unceasingly painting, cleaning, decorating and laying more than 2000 concrete blocks to provide a raked auditorium. And then carpeting them. The buckets were replaced by chemical closets. The new home was named the Belvedere Theatre. It seated 240 people and opened in September 1947. The little theatre became immensely popular, mainly because of the improved standard of play presentation. During the Society's 12 year occupancy, 74 plays were produced, mainly to packed houses.

Two men had a profound effect on the fortunes of Reps. The one was George Barnes and the other was Adrian Stanley. (Adrian passed away on 10th August 2006 - read an obituary). In 1952, Reps celebrated its 21st birthday - a time of growth and excitement. Plans to build a new theatre were taking shape. Barney came up with the suggestion that a theatre foundation membership scheme be launched. The idea was to ask 500 people to contribute 50 pounds each. By 1957, the bank showed a healthy balance of 25000 pounds.

The new Reps Theatre on Sam Nujoma Street extension opened to the public in January 1960 with a gala production of Romanov and Juliet. This included a fanfare of trumpets from the BSAP band, incidental music from a section of the municipal orchestra, corsages for every lady in the audience, a formal opening ceremony by the Governor General of the Federation, Lord Dalhousie, and after the show a champagne party in the foyer for the entire audience - a glittering occasion.

Since 1960, Reps has produced over 400 of its own shows, the great majority of them under the directorship of Adrian Stanley. Adrian was appointed as the Society's first paid director and he took up his post in 1964, wasting no time in bringing Reps out of the financial doldrums. Records were broken and the future looked optimistic.

The Repertory Players is a unique amateur society operating with paid staff - a theatre manager, secretary, book-keeper, wardrobe mistress, workshop, security, bar and cleaning staff. But all actors, actresses and technical personnel are unpaid volunteers. Many valuable members have left for pastures new, but this is not a new situation. Reps will survive though new acting and backstage members would be warmly welcomed to help us through the next 70 years.
Acknowledgement: Gillian West, Chairman, 2003.

The resident ghost is George - and I am trying to find out more about him. I did have one encounter some years ago - my father was directing the National Ballet and produced a production of La Sylphide with my mother playing the Sylph. She had to go off stage on one side and appear on the other - on several occations - it was quite a run without any hindrances but on one particular occasion she found the door between the back of the stage and the wings not only shut but mysteriously locked!!!!!!! No one had been in the area and the only person with the keys was in another part of the building! Was it George?

The Ghost smell

2009-05-08T23:18:00.001-07:00

Well, the ghost smell has hit our house again! Last evening - before it was dark - I came into the drawing room and was met by a stench that smelt like someone had vomited in the room - there had been no one in the house except my husband and I.

I searched all over the room - the dining room - the hall - the smell was everywhere - and no sign of where it came from.

Suddenly it disappeared - the air was fresh again.

Recently we have smelt burning toast - I hope the ghost smells are not getting worse!

Ghosts or just nature?

2009-05-08T02:25:00.000-07:00

The farm we liven on outside Marendellas had a number of burials in the hills. These were mainly dated to 1914 and the flu epidemic.

On of particular interest was situated in a cleft in a rock formation.

The cleft had been filled in by rocks and the burials were in the centre of the rock fill.

being members of the Prehistory Society this interested us and we obtained permission to excavate the site.

My husband entered at the top and began removing rocks until he came to a large piece of beautifully woven blue cloth (blue is used in burials by the Shona people). Then he came across a lovely carved wooden bowl lying on top of two skeletons.

The skeletons were buried in the fetal position. We carefully removed a couple of the bones to see size and possible cause of death. The skeletons were in good condition and the bones were well formed and appeared to be above the size of a normal Shona - in fact they must have belonged to individuals over the height of 6 feet!

We re interred the bones and placed all the items we had discovered back in the grave and having sealed it carefully we climbed down from the rock face.

We suddenly noticed that everything had gone completely quiet - no wind, no birds singing, no insect noises. The atmosphere was electric - it was as if someone was showing their displeasure at us invading the grave. I wonder who they were?

We did not go back to the spot for some weeks and when we did - all was normal again until we reached close to the rock face - when again all when quiet.

We made a hasty retreat not wanting to offend the spirits any further!

2009-05-04T01:01:00.000-07:00

Lake Kariba was built in the 1950's to provide a source of power to Zambia and what was then Rhodesia.

The lake is now 140 miles long and up to 20 miles in width; it covers an area of 2,150 square miles and has a maximum depth of 320 feet, with an average depth of 95 feet.

The name “Kariba” is derived for the Tonga word karive, meaning “trap”. It is well named as the river has been trapped by the dam across the gorge.

It is here that the legendary serpent creature Nyaminyami is said to live.

The BaTonga, who have lived in the region for centuries, say he is the god of the river.

When the Tonga people were forced to relocate to higher ground by the Kariba Dam Project in 1950, they summoned the help of Nyaminyami. They believed their river god would never allow the dam to be built and they would be able to return to their age old villages.

The designer of the dam committed suicide after one of his dams broke killing hundreds of people.

In 1957 Nyaminyami struck, causing the worst floods ever known to Zambezi, the flood washed away most of the partly build dam and killed several of the white workers. Their bodies disappeared mysteriously. The foreman of the construction crew was told by the village elders that Nyaminyami had caused the disaster and in order to appease his wrath a sacrifice would need to be made. The foremen agreed to the sacrifice. A white calf was slaughtered and floated onto the river. The next morning, according to this Tonga legend, the calf was gone and the workers’ bodies were in its place.

The next rainy season brought further floods nearly as bad as the previous year, however the project survived and the river was eventually dammed. In the 1960’s the generators were switched on and the supply of electricity flowed into the region. It is believed that Nyaminyami and his mate where separated by the dam and the frequent earthquakes and tremors felt in the area since the construction of the dam are caused by Nyaminyami in an attempt to crumble the wall and be reunited with his partner. Earthquakes of up to 5 on the Richter scale have been felt as far away as Harare - and they continue to be experienced today.

Is Nyaminyumi -real or a legend and what about the stories that have been told about him and his mate? Have the local people invented him to explain strange occurrences on and around the lake?

To be on the lake at dusk is both a wonderful but strange experience with the skeletons of trees long dead from exposure to the water sticking up from the depths below.

Every September the town of Kariba holds a festival in honour of Nyaminyami. He is very noticeable in Kariba, and a statue of him overlooks the wall that caused so much heartache for not only him and his wife, but for the people and the animals of the Zambezi Valley.

With the possibility of a massive flood in 2009 - will Nyaminumi surface to cause destruction in Zimbabwe? I never fail to wonder how the dam still stands today - with the crumbling structure having to have concrete poured into it on a regular basis and the control room so unstable that visits for maintenance are limited to a short period only.

The spirit of the Lake lives on - each year taking lives by boating and plane accidents which seem to have no explanation.

Did I really see them?

2009-04-21T04:57:00.000-07:00

Two of my very best friends passed away some time ago - they were best friends as well and I miss them dreadfully.

K and L - the sort of friends you could laugh and cry with and share your innermost thoughts.

I was thinking of K - died so young and suddenly - as I sat on the bench she gave me for the garden before she left Zimbabwe.

The bench is at the side of the swimming pool and I often go there to think and meditate - looking into the pool almost using it as a crystal ball.

I saw a mist rise from the pool and before I knew it I was talking to L - she appeared as a head and shoulders figure and he head movements and laughter were just as they had been when she was alive. we talked on may subjects including her Husband's remarriage - which she was pleased about - and a dear friend of our who was ill. She told me this friend would not live for 18 months.

Suddenly L - our dear friend who had been stung to death by bees - appeared - she was laughing and joking as she had done in life.

The whole instance must have lasted for about 15 minutes - until they faded away back into the depths of the pool.

An interested and enlightening experience - I hope it happens again

The ghost moves on - but stays put!

2009-04-18T03:32:00.000-07:00

So our friendly ghost who continuously amuses us with its pranks........Is amuse the word - frustrate might be better..........has now started its tricks at our next door house as well!

The wife was a hairdresser and wig maker and does her own hair - as would be logical she has a hair drier and has been using the same one for a few years with no problems.

This last week it would not work - her husband looked at it and discovered that the live and earth wires had been swapped!!!!!

No one had been in the house except the family and the hair drier appeared not to have been opened??? Very strange - perhaps our ghost is getting bored as there are only my husband and myself to spook at the moment!

The Marendellas Ghost

2009-04-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

We lived in a farm cottage just outside Marondellas (now Marondera) in the early 1970s.

It was a one story house which had been built onto on a number of occasions and it had a lovely beamed ceiling in the living room.

We had a Labrador dog - which sat with us every evening.

We had not been in the house very long when we noted that the dog's hair would stand up on end and she would growl while looking at the door to the guest wing of the house.

We could see nothing but she was obviously very agitated by what she saw or heard.

On enquiring of our landlord we discovered that the house had been built for her parents and her father had passed away in the house.

Once we knew who was visiting us we would invite him in when the dog growled and soon even the dog got used to our ghostly visitor

A recent visit by a witch doctor

2009-03-29T23:23:00.000-07:00

This recent encounter with a witch doctor came a year or so back. My father's house had been robbed and we came to the conclusion this has something to do with our ex gardener who was a Maroi - or bad witch doctor.

We called in the relation of a friend's domestic worker who was a powerful nyanga.

He arrived in the evening - I had no idea how memorable an evening it would be.

He changed into his 'working clothes' - skins and feathers and we all sat down on the drawing room floor while he threw the bones.

After deliberation he asked us to light a fire in the fireplace and to bring a heat proof dish. We provided an earthenware baking dish.

He proceeded to place an assortment of herbs and other material in the dish and then took a stick and lighted it from the fire in the fireplace. With the flame he lit the herbs which began to smolder and let off a sweet fragrant smell. We the accompanied him as he carried this through the house entering each room in turn - including the bathrooms! he was chanting and almost in a trance.

We then went outside the house and walked around it completely and then entered the cottage which had been robbed - again we entered the rooms and the chanting continued.

He now knelt down on the lawn outside the front of the cottage and buried the remaining 'herb' mixture in the earth.

I must say we did not have any trouble for some time after this.

More Nyanga meetings

2009-03-27T01:09:00.000-07:00

We awoke one morning to find a baby dove with its feet tied with string made from bark.

We immediately knew it was witchcraft and after freeing the dove and placing it in a cage called Sunday to get rid of the spell.

He came with his normal 'equipment', threw the bones and announced that our ex - gardener wanted our domestic worker's job and was trying to kill him.

An appropriate mixture of herbs and liquid was made, his fly whisk put into action and the mixture offered to our domestic who had to had to eat some of this. The remainder of the mixture was scattered around the garden.

We were told not to let the ex - gardener onto the premises.

Our Nyanga told us that all would be alright as he had broken the spell. we never saw the gardener again and our domestic worker is still alive after many years.

What has to be remembered is that these are day to day occurrences in Zimbabwe - sometimes the witchcraft comes from living beings, sometimes from the spirit world.

Getting the house protected

2009-03-26T00:29:00.000-07:00

We have on several occasions employed the skills of a Nyanga or witch doctor to protect our house.

Each time it has been a new and interesting experience.

The first time we were having a spate of strange occurrences - stones falling on the roof, strange noises at night and objects disappearing - our friendly, local witch doctor came to the house and spread out a cloth on our lawn. He proceeded to cast the 'bones' to find out what was causing our problem. According to him it was a powerful Nyanga living down the road from us.

The witch doctor made small packets from cloth with a filling of herbs and small stones. These he buried in holes at all four corners of our plot. We seemed to have a more peaceful few months but this was not to be the end...........

What do we have in the house?

2009-03-17T23:31:00.000-07:00

Another strange occurrence.

Our kitchen hot tap would not work - it looked like the geyser was blocked - or the pipes.

The only way to access the geyser is to go up into the roof - an operation that requires us to bring in a long ladder - get out torches and climb around inside the roof.

My husband went up in the roof dreading what he might find.

When he investigated he found that the tap feeding water to the geyser had been firmly turned off!

No one had been in the roof and it would be impossible to turn off the tap without accessing it this way.

So who was responsible?

The poltergeist?

Is Great Zimbabwe haunted?

2009-03-11T00:21:00.000-07:00

I have visited the Ruins of great Zimbabwe on many occassions. One in particular is of interest.

My husband, parents and I travelled down to Masvingo with the intention of visiting the Conical Tower - pictured here - at midnight and discover if we could feel any presence at all.

We had a light supper but nothing to drink and proceeded to the Conical Tower (in those days one had no fences or gates on the site). We took up positions around the tower and waited.

It was a lovely moonlit night and we would have been able to see anything that appeared.

There was nothing - we waited longer - but nothing - not even a bat!!! Certainly no ghosts. We left the site at about 2:30 am - rather disappointed!

Perhaps we should go back when the moon is hidden? Who knows.

Bill McLeod predicts

2009-02-27T01:01:00.000-08:00

Bill McLeod predicted events in the future of this country in the 70's 80's and 90's. His look at the future was not always right but always interesting and it is of value to look back at some of the predictions he made and see if they really came true.

This article is reprinted from the 'outsider' and is of interest to those who believe in seeing into the future but also those who do not believe.

_______________________________________________________________
-Elections will be held sooner than 1995-There will be change of leadership with new men coming in
Zimbabwe's next general elections due in 1995 will be held much sooner than that and there is likely to be a change of leadership with new men coming in, a Bulawayo-based clairvoyant, Bill McLeod, has predicted.
The coming year will be full of "changes, changes, changes," he says and some of the top politicians like vice-presidents, Joshua Nkomo and Simon Muzenda, may be forced to go on early retirement.
There will be major cabinet reshuffles but these will be done in stages. Most of the deputy ministers will lose their jobs and once President Mugabe has done his job to the best of his ability he too will be swept away, McLeod says.
McLeod who rose to prominence after predicting the shooting down of two Air Rhodesia Viscounts during the liberation war and the death of the Pope has become world famous for his predictions.
But he is the first to admit that he also made some mistakes. The most recent one was when he predicted that former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher would be replaced by a man whose name started with an H.
In 1980 papers ran stories that Muzorewa would become the first Prime Minister of Zimbabwe after one of McLeod's predictions.
"I am a man I make mistakes. As a medium I am not supposed to make mistakes but there is a human element in me. If I didn't have this human element I would be perfect and I would not be in this world. I would be in God's realms," McLeod says.
He adds that some people merely come to consult him just to prove him wrong. These people, he says, usually succeed because this can put a block on him. If he feels some animosity this inhibits his psychic capability and the medium tends to deny what he is seeing.
"I remember a woman who was a great spirit medium with a proven record and a radio programme. When she was asked about the prospect of the Second World War breaking out in Germany she said there would be no war. But a week later the war broke out. On the surface of it she was wrong. But what actually happened was that her mind came through and thought of the horrors, killings and the murders that were to take place and her mind refused to accept this and put up a barrier."
McLeod says that the time factor in his predictions could be a bit misleading because time is a man-made thing and there is no time in the spirit world. He also says at times he has to be guarded in his predictions, although this might not be deliberate, because the predictions might cause more problems than they are meant to solve.
He says this must have been the case when John Major took over. He says Major was just a compromise person and Heseltine will take over one day. In the case of Muzorewa, he says, what he saw was that a small man who wore spectacles and whose name started with M would be prime minister.
"I remember in 1980 people coming to me to talk to me about the result of the elections and I said to them a small man with spectacles with a name beginning with the letter M will become the prime minister of Zimbabwe.
"People jumped on to Muzorewa. But I must admit that to have really come out with Mugabe would have caused real problems both to myself and to other people, so at times it is better to give a very guarded prediction. "But it is not necessarily I who decides to give the guarded version because sometimes the spirit knows that the medium's mind is very much against what is being revealed or that the revelation will cause a lot of reaction," he says.
This does not, however, deter him from making further predictions as he believes that people have a choice to take or leave what he says.
For 1992, McLeod says: "I think we will survive. There will be a bit of recession and slowly, slowly we will come out of it.
"I feel that there is going to be tremendous changes of policy and ideas where I think there are going to major cabinet reshuffles. But I think it will be done in stages. I feel changes in cabinet and parliament.
"I feel changes, changes, changes, I feel that there could be talk of early retirement for certain men and people like Nkomo and Muzenda may take early mature retirement. I feel a lot of deputy ministers might lose their positions.
"The civil service will be trimmed tremendously more than what has been promised under ESAP and this will increase the unemployment problem and there will have to be a realistic look on how to produce more employment and more investment.
"I feel that the structural adjustment programme will succeed but this will make this government much more unpopular than it is today. But I feel there is nothing that government can do because it is something that has to be done it is only part of destiny.
"The way I see it is that the country is going through phases. There was a time for great African kings, then there was a time for colonialism followed by a time for African nationalism. Now that too has gone. I believe Robert Mugabe has done the best job according to his ability and in time he will be swept away. The next general election will come by much sooner than expected.
"There will be many changes. A lot of old wounds are now dying off. New men will come forward. I have been asked several times who I see succeeding Mugabe. I don't know but I feel new men with new ideas will come in. As things change next year you will find new men coming forward.
"Elections will come much sooner than expected. I do not see them coming in 1995. Eventually, ZANU-PF will lose support because of the worsening economy. Many people say to me that this is nonsense."
McLeod says the healing of old wounds will also see more books about the country's war being published. He could not specify which wars he was talking about but said that it would cover the whole spectrum as there are different people. These books, he says, will reveal new information and ideas.
On a rather sad note he says: "I feel that there could be a strong move afoot for Matebeleland to split up and it will gain a bit of support. But it may not result in a split."
McLeod also says, ZANU (Ndonga) leader Ndabaningi Sithole, who has been in self-imposed exile in the United States and is reported to be planning to come back, will be an instrument of change in this country but he will not take the top job.
"I have heard many people say Sithole is being groomed to come and take over this country but I myself believe that he could be an instrument to start bringing change to this country but I do not think he himself will be the one who changes things."
He says, however, despite the problems the country will survive because it has the hand of God upon it.
"I think there will be rains but they will be late. This should force us to take steps to preserve our environment because we have been a menace to our environment. But definitely water for Bulawayo will come from the Zambezi and I see three large dams in Matebeleland North.
"We are going to see very hard times, very difficult times. It will take months, but I feel a lot of businesses will close down because of lack of water and unemployment will increase," McLeod says.
On AIDS, he says, the only lasting solution seems to be changes in moral behaviour.
"I do not think there is a cure for AIDS as such because I believe that mankind was overpopulating the world and was becoming a threat to the environment. So it is more of a control of population growth. The answer to a disease like AIDS is on the moral side. I imagine that there will be medications that will control AIDS but I would say AIDS has been with mankind for a long time.
"In the Bible you are warned about this, you are warned about homosexuality. Thirty or 40 years ago in East and Central Africa there was this disease called "thin disease" even in Mashonaland. I would say this is an old disease."
Other predictions made by McLeod are that:
"I feel in this country that as the life in Israel changes and they adopt more realistic policies there will be ties with Israel and I see Israelis coming with technical assistance and experience to try and reclaim much of the land in agriculture.
"I feel China is going to moderate its polices tremendously and will have a great deal to do with Southern Africa.
"Looking at Africa as a whole I see changes, changes, changes, everywhere for many of the boundaries are artificial and will need changing.
"I believe F.W de Klerk is genuine in what he is trying to do to remove apartheid but the curse of Africa, tribalism, will raise its ugly head. I do not think Mandela as such will rise to the top. I just feel he is an instrument for change.
"I see something like a United States of Southern Africa developing within the next years. It is something bigger than SADCC.
"President Banda has lasted longer than I would have expected but he will soon be swept away and I feel another man with the name of Banda will lead Malawi.
"The one-party state in Kenya will disintegrate and the days of Mobutu are gone."

2009-02-22T22:30:00.000-08:00

We have recently taken in a destitute family who live in our domestic quarters in exchange for gardening. The head of the family is an old family friend and a well know horiculturlist.

During a recent power failure they were sitting round the table inside the house with a candle. They don't mind candles and find it rather fun to be able to sit in the evening by candle light. However on this occasion they were taken by surprise when the candle suddenly went out. No breeze no flickering - it just ceased to be alight!

They have also reported objects going missing and then reappearing. It seems the poltergeist does not just inhabit our house but the grounds as well!

2009-02-20T01:08:00.000-08:00

This is a view of the drawing room in the Glendale House. I have often felt a presence here - more especially around this fireplace. The chair on the left was often moved at night. We stayed in a guest room off the living area and could hear the sound of the heavy chair being dragged across the room. Sure enough the following morning it had been moved.

What caused the haunting?

2009-02-17T23:19:00.000-08:00

Friends of ours lived in a farmhouse in Glendale - north of Harare. The house had been the original church and so had a number of interesting features including a very high ceiling to the main drawing room. there were also many antiques including the picture shown here.

We would go for long leisurely lunches - which often became quite noisy and full of fun. However as soon as one entered the house one felt a coolness and feeling of uneasy in the main drawing room. Was this the atmosphere of the house - or was it something to do with this picture? No one seems to know where it originated but sometimes it seemed bright and full of light at others dull and uninteresting.

The house is reputed to be haunted - was it the memories of the church or was it something to do with the picture? Who knows! Both are now gone.

Haunted House?

2009-01-30T23:52:00.001-08:00

My husband lived and worked on a ranch in the Lowvelt of Zimbabwe.

He and a fellow worker shared an old house on the ranch.

Every morning they would get up to find the milk jug which had been placed in the refrigerator the night before was on the table in the kitchen. This happened every morning during the whole time he lived in the house. No one ever found out what was the cause of the mysterious movement of the jug. Other items were also found to be misplaced on a regular basis.

2009-01-28T23:35:00.000-08:00

I was doing some family research when I came across new details of my Great Uncle Havelock Ellis. he had been a prolific writer in his day but it is difficult to obtain his books now.

I found my information - put away my books and progressed to other subjects.

A week or so later I awoke in the very early morning and looked across to the doorway - there appeared a green mass - a swirling ball which turned into the head and shoulders of what appeared to be Havelock Ellis.

I might have dismissed the whole affair as a figment of my imagination, fired my research weeks earlier if it had not been that I had seen the same apparition when I was 12 and knew nothing of Havelock Ellis.!

Zimbabwe lifted the ban on witchcraft in 2006

2009-01-26T22:44:00.000-08:00

In July of 2006 Zimbabwe acknowledged that supernatural powers exist - but prohibited the use of magic to cause someone harm.

In 1899 it was made a crime to accuse someone of being a witch or wizard. They were aware of the witch hunts and prosecutions that had gone before in Europe and indeed were still in operation.

Zimbabweans, especially those who grew up in the rural areas were positive that witch craft existed.

Stories abound of people who have been bewitched by jealous workmates - from being made bald to being made very sick.

Many people resort to witch doctors to cure them and many fail - but some succeed.

Magic charms are worn round the neck and placed on doors and windows. They are buried around houses and at entrances to properties.

The witch doctors chant and burn mysterious substances to protect you, your home and property.

Does it work?

The Christian church in Zimbabwe has always believed that witchcraft exists, but it has been careful to establish the source of such supernatural powers.

"As Christians we've got to recognise that supernatural forces are good if they originate from God - now witchcraft is one of the things that originates from the Satanic world," says Reverend Roy Musasiwa who runs a theological college in the capital, Harare.

The Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act demands proof that a person has supernatural powers and that they are using them to harm others. This is difficult to prove.

I have on several occasions made use of witchdoctors to exorcise our home. Fight fire with fire is the old saying - if someone is trying to harm you and uses witchcraft then get witch craft to end the problem

Seance in Salisbury

2009-01-25T23:00:00.000-08:00

My 15th birthday was quite interesting - I w s allowed to wear lipstick for the first time and my parent took me to my first seance.

We went to a very normal house in the Avenues of Salisbury and were net by the owners - the medium and her husband.

There were a small group of people already gathered and after having tea we were led into a plain room with a round table in the middle. it was wood and had no table cloth or covering.

We sat down and held hands and began to say the Lord's prayer. There was silence after this and then tapping came from below the table. The medium asked several questions - one at a time and asked the entity to answer by one tap for yes and two for no.

The questions - all very ordinary and general were all answered within a matter of perhaps 10 seconds.

She asked several questions for people sitting with her. Was 'so and so' (who had recently passed away) happy? Had some one's mother met up with her late father? All questions that meant very little.

I dis not find it frightening in fact - I hate to say I found it rather pathetic.

I found it interesting but I did not actually believe very much of what came out of the seance and it took me many years before I even thought of attending another one!

The Exorcism in Harare

2009-01-23T22:28:00.000-08:00

I had always thought that exorcisms with water being thrown around and foaming at the mouth were the realm of horror films until one day............

Adrian and I were always being asked to tell ghost stories to a family of teenagers - we were reluctant at first but finally gave in and would sit down and recount our experiences.

The family left the country and we never really kept in touch except at Christmas birthdays.

Suddenly we received a phone call from the eldest of the daughters of the family saying she had returned and could she come and see us. We were delighted at the time.

She came sat down and we offered her a drink - she accepted this and then started to talk. Her first words were "It is all your fault".

While in England she and her sisters had got involved with a rather rough bunch of youngsters - biker types. The sisters - three of them - had also decided to play with the planchet board - 'glassy glassy' as it is often called due to using a glass with fingers placed on it to navigate a circle of letters rather than the traditional pencil suspended over a sheet of paper which writes. (I have used - but will never use again both of these tools).

The bikers persuaded her to use the glass more and more and despite warnings from the entity contacted she continued to do so with grave consequences. She started to behave in a very strange manner - completely out of character. Swearing, throwing things around, even picking up a chair and hurling it at some of her friends.

It was then she realised she needed help.

This is why she returned to Zimbabwe.

We listened to her story and she then explained that she thought she was possessed.

Both my husband and I were at that time involved in spiritual healing and we contacted an old friend of ours who we felt could assist. He agreed to meet the girl and an appointment was made for the following morning.

We were all ushered into his study and his wife brought in a tray of tea which we drank while engaging in light conversation. When our tea was finished the healer got up and asked the girl to sit on a small red velvet stool which he placed in the centre of the room. She immediately went mad - refusing to sit on the stool and battling with my husband and the healer who were trying to force her down. She was lashing around and foaming at the mouth.

The healer called to his wife and myself to get water - the only water we could find close at hand was the dogs bowl which we fetched and poured over her head.

She settled down a bit and we formed a circle holding hands and praying with the healer.

Within about ten minutes she slumped down and I saw an almost sold figure emerge from the girls body.

It was a short woman with club cut blonde hair wearing a dirty, short, sack like dress with a Chevron pattern in beige and blue. it slunk out of her body and made its way towards the door, looking back at me with hatred. It disappeared into thin air.

We all gave a sigh of relief and sat down - the girl looked much better and an glasses of brandy were handed round to all - I for one was shaking.

The healer explained that the figure (which he only saw in black and white) was that of a woman who had died at Belsen and whose spirit had inhabited the body of our friend.

Needless to say none of us have ever used the glass or the planchet board again and never will.

Take warning!!!!!

More on the Alveston Ave Entity

2009-01-23T07:15:00.000-08:00

Well it hit again - this time keys went missing - I cast a spell and used the numerology program which told me 'ask your servant'. I have a maid who comes in twice a week and when she arrived I told her we were missing two items a set of keys and a spanner (I have yet to cast a spell about the spanner). Sure enough during the day she found the keys!!!! On the ground next to a trailer that we had moved the day before -the keys had certainly had not been there the day before as we had driven the landrover over the area and had looked on the grass. Who is this entity? What does he or she want? Is it the boy and the dog or is it the mysterious white figure?

Knock, Knock - who's there?

2009-01-12T02:47:00.000-08:00

My parents lived in an apartment in the Harare Avenues. They were often awoken by knocking on their door - quite often late at night. To begin with they would go to the door to see if anyone was there. After a while they just laughed it off.........the ghost again.

After my mother's death my father moved into a cottage on our property. To begin with everything was quiet and then the knocks started on his door!!! To begin with they were just a few quiet knocks but as time went on they accelerated.

Since my father's death we have had no knock on our doors until now...... this last week I have been awoken by knocks that appear to come from an old military chest we have in our bedroom.

What or who is causing this disturbance?

The poltergueist again

2009-01-05T22:07:00.000-08:00

The poltergeist has hit again.

Money went missing this week - hard to get money. It was in a blue envelope and is always placed in the same spot.

In desperation I cast a spell to get it back and then used a numerology program to find it - it worked - I was told it would be found on a shelf and after an extensive search found the item on a shelf in the study - strange happening but true!

Pot that breaks!

2008-12-30T22:10:00.000-08:00

I have to this day the last e-mails my friend Leslie sent me. They were full of hope and love. We had no idea that she would pass so soon.

I had three African pots that she gave me before she left. They were out in the garden by the bench she also left with me when she left for England. On the day - I later heard she had died - I found one pot broken.

What is the explaination - no one knew of her death until later.

Premonitions?

2008-12-20T00:16:00.000-08:00

A secretary in Harare has experienced supernatural experiences which have frightened her. She feels herself lifted up, enters another world and hears voices giving her information or even instructions such as to take another route home.

She finds it scary because she is told of impending death of persons known to her and within 24 hours the premonition comes true.

How many other people have these experiences?

What should I have done?

2008-12-11T00:28:00.000-08:00

I have never been good at remembering telephone numbers. On one particular occasion this was not the case.

I went to sleep and had a dream - a dream of an air crash - an explosion in the air. After the initial cash a young girl's face came into my dream view and repeated a telephone number - it stuck in my mind when I woke up.

I pondered all day as to whether I should pick up the phone and see who was on the other end - I could not decide if this was the right thing to do or not.

I asked my father and my husband and they both told me to do what I thought right.

Late that afternoon I decided to telephone the number. Who should answer but a colleague of mine in the travel industry! I had not recognised the number as i never phoned him at home.

I was flustered and a bit embarrassed as i knew him to be a rather down to earth person who would probably think I had gone mad or had too much to drink if I told him my story. i made up some excuse for having to phone him and hung up.

Later we heard about the Lochabie air disaster. My colleague's niece was one of those on board.

I would not have stopped her boarding the plane - it might have caused extra grief to the family if I had told my tale.

Perhaps I did the right thing.

The House in Central Avenue

2008-12-02T00:17:00.000-08:00

A house in Harare was haunted over a period of several months by something that gave people 'an odd feeling'.

The house - which no longer exists - was situated in Central Avenue not far from the City Centre.

I knew the house well during the late 1950s as it had been owned by a Greek woman I saw when I went out walking. I got to know her quite well and was sometimes invited in to the house for tea or a cold drink.

I went away from Harare for a while and on returning discovered the house closed up and the garden overgrown.

On making enquiries I discovered that my friend had been murdered in her house. Soon afterwards bells were heard ringing at night in the house and no one wanted to occupy it.

As time went on the house still stood empty and the land was finally sold for development. As the building now on that land is many stories high and has many occupants working there, I have never been able to find out if the bells still ring or people get 'an odd feeling'.

We had to move house!

2008-11-25T00:29:00.000-08:00

The house in Coltman Road must have had a sad tale to tell. My husband and I moved into the house shortly after we were married and decided to take as our bedroom a large room at the rear of the house with french doors leading off onto a patio. It was airy and had a view across the garden.

Soon after we took up residence I woke to a feeling of terror. I needed to go to the bathroom but was too afraid to move from my bed. I did not know that my husband had had a similar feeling a few night before and had decided not to go down the corridor to the bathroom to clean his teeth.

We put up with this manifestation for some time - there were nights when all was well - others when we huddled in bed until dawn broke and the feeling left us. What was it? In the end we moved out - not wanting any more stolen sleep!

I wonder if the people who live in the house now experience the same feeling of dread?

A cube of ice?

2008-11-23T01:28:00.000-08:00

My father-in-law had gone away on holiday and organised for the furniture in his living room to be sent for recovering. My husband and I went every morning to the house to open up windows and curtains and returned in the evening to close the windows and curtains. On one occasion we walked into the room and near the centre discovered a 'patch' that was colder than the rest of the room. We investigated by moving around and going in and out of the 'cube', reaching up our arms to see if the air was warmer above a certain height and trying to find a shape for the phenomena. it was a definite cube about 6 ft square and six feet high. As we moved around it became colder and colder.

The month was December and the weather was hot and humid. The temperature often reaches 35 degrees or more. The temperature in the 'cube' was icy!

We went about closing windows - although neither of us wanted to go down the passage alone - and left the house before dusk!

It was an extremely creepy experience.

Some year or so later we moved into this same house but never experienced the cube of ice again.

Do we have a poltergeist?

2008-11-10T21:12:00.000-08:00

Poltergeists are usually associated with children and teenagers - neither which we have living in our house.

And yet we have a poltergeist in residence.

My husband has a tie pin which is very old and of Indian origin.

He wore it to a wedding some time ago and after the ceremony took off his tie (he hates ties) and inserted the tie pin into the tie which he placed in his pocket. i saw him do this.

On returning home he changed out of his suit - it is far to hot to wear here! Took his tie out of his pocket - and guess what - no tie pin - he thought he had lost it. we looked in every pocket and it definitely was not there.

The suit was worn again - no tie pin in evidence.

We were going out one evening and he went to put on his suit and - the dreaded tie - the tie pin appeared in his pocket!

This is just one of appearances and disappearences that happen on a regular basis in our house.

Tokolosh

2008-11-10T00:32:00.000-08:00

1999 seemed to be the year of the Tokolosh - these reports are just some of those that came through that year. Are they real?
In 1999, a woman of in the Bradfield suburb of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, paid an inyanga (n'anga) to exorcise her home. Although of Portuguese descent, the woman had grown up in Africa.
She believed that a neighbour's maid had summoned a tokoloshe that was tormenting her.

The exorcism was apparently successful, and the suspected maid fell ill and had to leave.

In the same year, Mr. K. K. Manyika, director of security for Zimbabwe's parliament, said that he had been attacked by several invisible tokoloshes sent by a disgruntled employee.

In July of that year, six women in Guruve, Zimbabwe, resigned as teachers after accusing a male colleague of using a tokoloshi to bewitch them so that he could rape them as they slept.

Fire Ball in the House

2008-11-06T02:36:00.000-08:00

It was late afternoon on a Sunday and I was about to entre the drawing room from the kitchen - which was situated across the hall. I had a tray in my hands and so was moving carefully. i was just about to step into the room when I saw a fire ball come in through the front window - it passed through the glass! The ball, which was about 3 inched in diamiter and seemed to be spinning, bounced off the opposite wall - came back to the wall near the window it had entered by and then exited by a window at the back of the room.

I could not move as I watched it move about the room. There was no sound. The temperature in the room remained the same.

What was it?

Where did it come from?

Ghostly Knocks on the Door

2008-11-03T02:12:00.000-08:00

When I first met my husband he lived in a rambling house in one of the northern suberbs of harare. the house must have been built around 1950 and was surrounded by similar buildings on the road.

He recounted to me the story concerning his experiences in his room. His room was a small bedroom half way down a corridor with other doors leading to other similar rooms. The doors were all made of wood and opened inwards.

The furnishings in this particular room were what one would expect in a small bedroom - a bed, bedside table with a lamp, a wardrobe, dresser and a bookcase. nothing unusual.

My husband recounts that he would often be woken in the middle of the night by strange scrapings on the door - coming from the hall. These would change in to knocks and would move from top to bottom of the door and increase in volume.

On opening the door nothing could be seen and all went silent.

After some months of enduring the noise my husband went out and bought a crusifix which he hung in the room. The strange knocks and scarpings stopped.

The Old Grande Hotel

2008-10-28T02:57:00.000-07:00

The old Grande Hotel stood in the centre of Salisbury on First Street until it was demolished in the 1970s and replaced by a bank.

This was my first home in the country - in fact in Africa.

My room was on the First Street side, right next to the fourth pillar along the first floor. My room had bed with a mosquito net and was painted white. All the linen was spotlessly white. The door leading to the first floor balcony was painted white and the top section was open with mosquito netting over the open section.

It was October 1960 and hot. When I retired for the night I would close the door but was careful to lock it well. Each morning I would wake to find the door wide open! On some evenings I would hear sobbing coming from the balcony - I looked out onto the balcony on a number of occasions thinking there might be someone in distress on an adjoining balcony - nothing - no one at all. When I stepped onto the balcony the sobbing stopped.

Was the Grande Hotel haunted - I am uncertain. I never felt any feeling of fear - even though I was in Africa first the first time and staying in a room with a door I could not keep locked and closed!

Ghosts galore

2008-10-23T06:36:00.000-07:00

This is a copy of an article that appeared in the Herald in October 1980 and refers to my father and my husband and their 'ghost hunting'. I think it was written by Colin Neilson.

Interesting stuff!

" The telephone grew red hot. One little mention in this column (Cabbages and Kings) about the ghosts and the pubic rang us asking the two psychic researchers I mentioned for help.

There was a white woman possessed by an evil spirit. There was a black family who heard heavy boxes Being moved round their house at night. Some young policemen living in a mess found their house definitely haunted.

The two investigators were astounded at the response. Several were desperate. There were people genuinely frightened asking "How much do you charge?" The answer, of course, was nothing.

Some callers' troubles were not psychic but psychological. One Harare man had vivid dreams of being chased by someone carrying an axe. He was told that his problem could probably be dealt with by a nyanga.

Said Leonard, one of the two investigators, "We have enough haunted houses and ghosts to deal with for the next two months. There is a strict code of ethics for psychic investigators."

"Names, addresses and case histories are kept secret. Often very personal details emerge. Sometimes it is the evil thinking a person has generated that brings about strange happenings"

In other instances, such as poltertgiets and similar violent behaviour, it is energy generated by young persons entering puberty that causes articles to break or doors to slam or mischievous happenings.

Often ghosts could be laid but in certain instances an exorcism had en carried out by a priest or minister of religion only to find out that it reappeared. The person who conducted the exorcism needed more than just religious training.

Several African men rang up saying they were not personally troubled but were extremely interested and would like to give help. Leonard said that he would form a committee of people ho could assist the public.

He said he had also had calls from cranks who quoted the Bible and had told him not to dabble with evil spirits. He said he and his fellow investigator were aware of what they are tackling and understood the dangers involved.

He and his friend, a psychic healer (my husband) went to two houses on Saturday and another on Sunday.

There was one case of what appeared to be vampire possession. An African woman said that after the lights were put out at her home there were sounds of a ball bouncing on the ceiling.

Many of the callers said they were so pleased to find someone with whom they could discuss their fears and frightening experiences, witch so many before had casually dismissed as imagination or too much drink.

Leonard said that many so-called psychic happenings had be proved to be someone jumping to conclusions.

One phenomenon that several callers mentioned was a scary sensation of getting into bed and feeling that another invisible person was doing the same. Leonard said that 60% of the calls he received were from Africans.

What happened to Dr Gombera?

2008-09-24T22:51:00.001-07:00

Dr Gombera was the president of the True N'angas Association of Central Africa. He went to consuklt as woman n'anga who specialised in treating high blood pressure cases.

He was known to suffer from high blood pressure and had gone to Goromonzi to see this woman - he failed to see her and collapsed at a bus shelter on his way back to Harare and died on the spot.

However was that the end? My father claimed to have seen him and discussed his 'chemist' some week or so after he died. What did they discuss? We do not know but on hearing that Dr Gombera was dead my father did not believe the story - who did he meet? Was it Dr Gombera's ghost? We will never know!

Strange smells!

2008-09-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

Over the last week or so we have been experiencing strange odors in the house. They do not seem to be associated with anything cooking or about the area. What are they?

Sometimes it is food cooking - with nothing on the stove. Sometimes it is a strange perfume that we do not recognise. Sometimes it is coffee brewing. I am sure that the house has a poltergeist. Things disappear and reappear where they should not be and now the smells! Strangely enough everything seems very calm and there is no sense of menace. We have no young children in the house and these phenomenon have only appeared after our children left the home. They are both well grown up. What can be the explanation? Both my husband and myself experience these smells or odors at the same time and the experience is the same.

Any ideas?

A picture from the past.

2008-09-12T23:24:00.000-07:00

I wrote some time ago about the lady in red who appeared to my husband and I. I have now found a picture of the lady who appeared to us. Consuelo appears on the right - next to her is Peggy Dexter who was the chair lady of the Birmingham City Ballet in Alabama. Picture was taken about 1956.

Do Ghosts Like Music?

2008-08-21T00:45:00.000-07:00

I think they do. A few days ago we were listing to classical music - Rachmaninoff to be precise. i had left the room to go to the kitchen. My husband thought he heard my late father's voice and turned his head to see my father, his own father and a very good friend who passed away some time ago. They were standing and listening to the music! The figures were solid and real. Not wanting to destroy the mood and frighten the figures away he did not call me to see them.

Adrian came to the kitchen to tell me when the music had finished and the apparitions had faded away. He said he had had quite a fright to begin with but then settled down to enjoy not only the music but the company of friends and family.

The story of Lesley

2008-07-15T07:04:00.000-07:00

Lesley was a soul mate and her passing so prematurely was a very big blow to me, and to all who knew her - her husband told me the following story - although not in Zimbabwe - Lesley was from here so it is relivent.
This was written by her husband:

Well as you know Lesley passed away on 14th March 2006 and within 48 hr of her death I noticed a small rabbit nibbling the spring leaves off the wild Geranium in the garden. This rabbit stayed for some time in the garden and was quite tame but wild all the same. I got quite close to it and I had this strange feeling of familiarity when looking into its eye.
Last year at about the same time we had another rabbit in the garden which stayed and grew to quite a size before moving on.
We got quite attached as some how we drew comfort in the feeling that this was Lesley in spirit coming back in the form of a rabbit to see how we were.
So this year we waited with bated breath to see what would happen.
Sure enough at about 16th March an adult rabbit came into the garden. "last year's one??" and a short while later we had a young one take up residence and gambolling about on the lawn eating choice weeds growing in the lawn.
As I type this it has been basking in the sun at the edge of the driveway close to the shelter of the hedge as an escape route.
So is this coincidence or just our imaginations playing with us.
Sure we live right on the edge of a meadow and the garden is a safe haven as we don't have any dogs or the like to chase it off.
I leave that for you to decide.
Next year we will not be in residence here as Adam will be in Cardiff, Karen in Southampton and I will be in Cape Town so we will not be here to test the theory.
My feeling is that nature would repeat the sequence.

His Spirit Lived On

2008-05-18T02:02:00.000-07:00

My father lived in a cottage in our garden for 9 years before his death. He was a constant pipe or cigar (when he could get them) smoker. He had a habit of banging his pipe on a glass ashtray to empty it and this gave out a very distinctive sound. He also watched TV - usually old films throughout the night - sleeping only about 4 hours a night.

Our bedroom looked over his cottage and we were able, when the wind was right and our window open, to hear the TV in the background and the pipe being emptied in the glass ashtray.

After his death we emptied the cottage and it stood empty for some months.

We continued to hear the TV and the pipe noise. The TV connection had been removed. There was no doubt about the sounds - we would wake and hear them distinctly.

A dear friend of ours was moving overseas and did not want to get rid of her lovely furniture so we invited her to put it in the cottage. We placed it so that it could be used.

From the day that the furniture was placed in my father's abode the mysterious sounds stopped and have not been noted since.

Hatfield Revisited

2008-04-10T00:36:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-08T02:23:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-04T23:19:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-03T03:47:00.000-07:00

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.

A White Figure Appears

2008-03-26T22:26:00.000-07:00

Our house is relitively modern - open - lots of windows - no dark crannies - and yet it is haunted. Today I will relate the story of a white figure which inhabits our residence.

It is a tall, thin specter who prefers to stand behind and to the right of who ever he, (I say he as I sense it is male) chooses to appear to. One feels a slight breeze, a presence strong enough to make one's head turn in order to find out who is standing behind you. As you look up towards 'his' face he dissolves and disappears. No one has ever seen his face but all the family has experienced his visitation.

Who can he be? Why does he appear to us? He never appears at any particular junction in our lives - just out of the blue and for no given reason.

There is no strange history about the house we occupy. I have been told there was a graveyard nearby - we have yet to substantiate this - it seems an all too common reason for a haunting. I don't think it is a ghost from a long abandoned graveyard.
I eould love to know his reason for returning.

Yes there are ghosts in Zimbabwe

2008-03-26T06:46:00.000-07:00

I have travelled to many lands and seen many things but some of the supernatural experiences I have had in Zimbabwe have been amazing. I will recount these as time goes on and introduce you to other stories that I have experienced elsewhere.