Spook House

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

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

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

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?

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.

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

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.