Satanism scare in Mufakose

Tuesday, 06 March 2012 00:00 Herald Reporter

PARENTS and guardians with children at Yamurai Primary School in Mufa-kose, Harare, have temporarily withdrawn them from the school after some pupils suffered hysteria allegedly linked to Satanism.

There was chaos at the school yesterday morning after more than three pupils fell into a trance.

Parents and guardians feared their children may also be affected.

Some of the affected pupils were reportedly bleeding through their noses.

One pupil has since been suspended to allow him to recover from the trau-ma.

Since last Thursday, over 30 pupils have reportedly been affected by the hysteria, blamed on suspected Satanic practices.

The strange occurrences were affecting mostly Grade One and Two pupils who are said to have turned violent and exhibited extraordinary strength while speaking in unusual voices and tongues.

The pupils, it is alleged, were being taken in the afternoons by an unidentified lady in a “tinted private vehicle”.

When The Herald visited the school yesterday morning, hundreds of parents were calling for the closure of the school.

“We got to know about these strange happenings last Thursday, but today things got worse with one pupil narrating how they were being taken to a secluded place by a middle-aged lady, who also has a child learning at the school.

“The lady offered the children chocolates and sweets and took them to a secluded place in Budiriro where they were made to play video games and drink some concoctions,” said one parent who declined to be named.

She said the Government should close the school and investigate the disturbances.

“We cannot allow our children to learn in such an environment because we do not know who is going to be the next victim,” she said.

Another parent added: “My child has been coming home late and he tells me that he is coming from extra lessons.

“I started having questions after realising that his behavior had changed.

“He does strange things which include being violent and disappearing at odd hours. He has gone into a trance several times in the past five or six days.”

According to the parents, pupils who went into the trance narrated how they were taken to the secluded place to “shape and review” operations.

They narrated how they were drawn into the Satanic sect and made to drink the concoctions. Some of the pupils, aged between six and eight, explained the “strange” things they were experiencing at the school.

Harare provincial education director Mr Calvin Mazula yesterday said he was still waiting for a full update from the district education officer.

“I am waiting for the authorities to give me the information of what transpired,” he said.

No comment could be obtained from staff at the school, including the headmaster, who locked themselves in for several hours.

Numerous boarding schools have been affected by bouts of mass hysteria, including Moleli High School and Kadoma’s Sanyati Baptist High School.

According to iloveindia.com, hysteria is a psychological state, wherein the mind of a person gets affected by un-manageable fear or emotional excesses.

Though it occurs in both sexes, the incidence is more apparent in young women between 14 and 25 years of age.

People struck by hysteria have less or no control over one’s acts and emotions and undergo sudden seizures of unconsciousness, with emotional outbursts every now and then.

Such a behavior results in repressed conflicts within the person’s inner self.

Though anxiety is the main cause for hysteria, there are certain other reasons for its occurrence as well.

The causes of hysteria are stress, sexual repression, excessive idleness, heredity factors and family history of nervousness.

Faulty emotional training, mental strain, fear, worry, depression, traumatism and masturbation are listed as some of the causes.

Prolonged sickness, brain tumor and dementia are listed among the causes of hysteria.

Mermaids appeased

A mermaid-plagued dam in Zimbabwe is up and working after traditional healers brewed beer to appease the mischievous water spirits.


The "mermaids" had harassed workers installing water pumps at a dam near the small town of Gokwe, in northern Zimbabwe, according to local media reports.

Water resources minister Samuel Sipepa Nkomo told a Senate committee last week that work on the pumps at Gokwe dam had stopped after terrified workers complained of machines breaking down under mysterious circumstances, and blamed mermaids, the state-run Herald newspaper reported.

Nkomo said the same problem had been reported at Osborne Dam, near Mutare in the country's east. He called for traditional rituals to be performed at the dams, including traditionally brewed beer, to rid them of the mermaid menace.
At Osborne dam, divers had been sent down to investigate the cause of blockages in the pumps, but returned to the water's surface vowing to never go back down, the South African Press Association reported.

"We even hired whites thinking that our boys did not want to work but they also returned saying they would not return to work there again," Nkomo told the Senate committee.

The problem at Gokwe was reportedly solved late last week when the water ministry hired traditional healers to conduct rituals. The traditional leaders held a ceremony in which they slaughtered cattle and brewed beer to appease the water spirits.

"I do not believe in mermaids, but the community that lives in the area does," Nkomo said, according to SAPA.
According to Voice of America, belief in mermaids persists among some Zimbabweans, though many are skeptical of such claims.

"Mermaids are supposedly mythological water creatures with a female body and the tail of a fish. Those tales were mostly in circulation hundreds of years ago — but stories continue to make their rounds in Zimbabwe," VOA said.

'Mermaid' Sightings in Zimbabwe Spark Debate Over Traditional Beliefs

Water Resources Minister Sam Sipepa Nkomo told a senate committee that traditional chiefs will perform rituals to exorcise mermaids believed to inhabit reservoirs where workers are now afraid to tread Violet Gonda
Washington
.....Some strange things have been happening lately in various parts of Zimbabwe.

Last month a man was hounded from a Bulawayo neighborhood over claims he possessed goblins that were raping his wife and his neighbors’ wives, and otherwise wreaking havoc in the suburban community.

This week Water Resources Minister Sam Sipepa Nkomo told a senate committee that mermaids have been hounding government workers off dam sites in Mutare, Manicaland, and Gokwe, Midlands.

The minister’s stunning revelations add to the many sensational stories that Zimbabweans have over the years passed on about supernatural manifestations in their communities.
Though many are skeptical, some do firmly believe that mermaids exist in Zimbabwe.

Nkomo told a senate oversight committee that traditional chiefs are going to perform rituals to exorcise mermaids believed to inhabit reservoirs in Gokwe and Mutare where workers are afraid to tread.

Mermaids are supposedly mythological water creatures with a female body and the tail of a fish. Those tales were mostly in circulation hundreds of years ago – but stories continue to make their rounds in Zimbabwe.

One version says mermaids carry humans underwater and if there is a public outcry their relatives might never see them again. But it is also said that victims can return as spirit mediums if their disappearance is not mourned.
Such creatures are said to be terrifying workers at the Gokwe dam in Midlands and the Osborne dam in Manicaland.

Nkomo said all the workers he sent to work on the dam sites to install water pumps had dumped the project vowing not to return to the areas because of the mythical water creatures.

Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Minister Ignatius Chombo, who also appeared before the senate committee, backed the call for traditional rites to be performed at the dams to allay workers’ fears.

Nkomo said the government is prepared to give the population the water it needs, but is unable to do so until the rituals are performed and necessary repairs can be carried out.

He said he tried to hire white personnel to do the work at Osborne dam, supposedly because they had not been exposed to the mermaids reports, but they too refused to undertake the project alleging they had seen suspicious creatures.

According to the minister, workers report that people have disappeared mysteriously while some have been chased away by the legendary creatures.

Traditional leader chief Edison Chihota of Mashonaland East said there is no dispute about the existence of mermaids.
“As a custodian of the traditional I have no doubt," chief Chihota said. "For anyone to dispute this is also disputing him or herself.”

Cultural activist Prince Peter Zwide Khumalo, a descendant of King Lobengula, said mermaids play a central role in spiritual beliefs and they are thought to mainly inhabit the largest dams, such as Lake Kariba.

“They are said to exist in water particularly in big dams like Kariba. I haven’t heard of mermaids in small dams.”

But Khumalo said it is important to weigh reality against what people believe because development can be delayed wielding traditional beliefs that cannot easily be disproved.

“I do not believe that they need to be used to hinder development. This needs to be looked into very seriously by the minister because they might go and do cultural rituals but find that people still do not continue to work,” Khumalo added.

Minister Nkomo, a Seventh Day Adventist Christian, said that while he does not believe in mermaids in this part of the world, he would not meddle in the traditional beliefs of others, including witchcraft.

Witchcraft is a controversial subject in Zimbabwe: Some see it as a source of trouble, others believe it can bring good fortune.

It is so widespread that it is recognized by the law – for instance the Bulawayo goblin man sought police assistance after he admitted that the goblins he bought from a n’anga to bring him riches were allegedly raping his wife and those of neighbors.

Cultural experts and traditionalists note economic basis of some beliefs - poverty turns many to turn to witchcraft to gain riches or to hurt enemies.

Chief Chihota said he believes political opponents were killed and thrown into the reservoirs said to be inhabited by mermaids, hence the need to appease the spirits.

The traditional leader said: “I think let’s go back to the late 70s when the struggle was being waged and I understand a number of people were thrown in those dams and nothing was done and a continuation has been happening. So we have to start from somewhere.”
But Nkomo offered another theory: He suggested that unusual water pressures in the reservoirs could be creating hazardous currents and perhaps illusions.

“In Mutare what I think is happening is that there must be a sanction underneath there which creates a hole and the water will actually be swirling violently that if you fell in you will not come out, even if you had an oxygen mask.”

Nonetheless, the minister said this is no laughing matter so traditional rites will be performed to comfort some powerful African beliefs.

Goblins’ haunt couple

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.