Witchcraft dispute flares in Zimbabwean soccer

By ANGUS SHAW

| The Associated Press

First Published Nov 23 2013 07:12 pm • Last Updated Nov 23 2013 11:19 pm

Harare, Zimbabwe • Animal bones, hair, feathers and river pebbles are secreted around sports fields. The goal posts have been sprinkled with urine. The soccer players, some of whom have smeared ancient herbal potions on themselves, take the field.

It’s a typical soccer match in Zimbabwe, and the presence of such charms shows that, among many teams in Africa, it is as important to have the magical properties of witchcraft on your side as it is to have fit and talented players.

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Now, the CAPS United team in Zimbabwe is calling foul after their rivals, a team called How Mine, allegedly used "juju," or witchcraft, during a key match this month. CAPS United said its officials checked out the dressing room of its opponents 15 minutes after the match started and found suspicious objects, including lighted candles and bottles of liquid, arrayed in an 11-man team formation.

How Mine won the Nov. 10 match, and insisted the candles and filled bottles were used for Christian prayers. The win sent the team to the Premier League finals to contend for a $200,000 cup title on Nov. 30.

How Mine coach Philani "Beefy" Ncube, a self-avowed Christian, has denied he uses magical powers invoked by spirit mediums to influence matches and scare opponents.

The Polterguist continues

Over the last few weeks the activity has increased.  Items disappearing completely, a dressing gown thrown onto my bed when I had been unable to find it earlier in the evening and our dog barking into an area where nothing appeared.  The activity stopped when our son, via Skype, told it to f****** off. Now it is back with a vengeance.

Chavunduka would have punished all “witches” in Zimbabwe

By David Hwangwa

Published: January 20, 2013

Comment

Professor Gordon Chavunduka, the late president of the Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association, who was laid to rest at his farm Wednesday, in his lifetime fought hard to get the Witchcraft Suppression Act amended. After massive pressure from the late traditionalist and academic, president Robert Mugabe was in 2006 forced to begin measures to repeal a century old Rhodesian legislation that criminalized anyone who accused another person of practicing witchcraft. The president eventually bowed down to Chavunduka’s pressure to recognize the existence of supernatural powers and witchcraft.
Professor Chavunduka who passed away last Friday after succumbing to throat cancer’s goal was to have all people caught practicing witchcraft prosecuted.
In an increasingly changing world, the likes of Chavunduka and members of the 50 000-strong ZINATHA group wanted the traditional practices to move along with the changing world. Even though it might have taken a hundred years for witchcraft to be recognized officially by the state, it was a major victory for Chavunduka but hardly enough.

“Witches are the same as murderers.”
In this modern world, traditional beliefs and practices are losing a place in today’s world. Professor Chavunduka was determined to make parliament pass legislation that would result in the criminalization of witchcraft. His ultimate goal was to make and push for parliament to make both formal and traditional courts try cases of witchcraft.
To the late former UZ vice-Chancellor, witches were seen in the same context as murderers and thus he wanted people caught practicing witchcraft to receive the same fate as that of murderers and any other such extreme criminals. As a full fledged member of the MDC-T family who joined the MDC at its formation in 1999, his dreams of prosecuting witches were largely pinned on the MDC-T coming into power as some of his ideals are entrenched in the MDC-T manifesto.
Professor Chavunduka blamed the rise in witchcraft in Zimbabwe on the economic hardships the people are facing. “Witchcraft and tokoloshis
are making a comeback. It’s obvious that 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 hurt their enemies,” he said when the
Witchcraft Suppression Act amendment was signed by the president in 2006.

Who is a witch?
Whilst those thoughts of prosecuting witches might have appealed to some quarters within his MDC-T, the same cannot be said to the rest. Witchcraft is nothing but a name-calling game and under our current laws how do you go about proving that indeed one was bewitched?
It is unfortunate that Professor Chavunduka died before the MDC-T got into power, going to the grave with his ideals of prosecuting witches.
There is no denying that in our tradition, supernatural powers are there and rife in the rural areas but where can we put them in our current legal system? In the rural areas you will hear these stories of people dying mysteriously, getting sick, losing or alternatively getting fortune and we have gotten accustomed to that and taking such incidents to the courts is problematic. The law of evidence is literally inapplicable to such cases. The reason why the settlers criminalized witchcraft in the first Witchcraft Suppression Act was because many people had been burned in Europe in the earlier centuries when people accused them of witchcraft.
It makes the job of the police hard because it is impossible to determine how one is a witch. Commenting on the Witchcraft Suppression
Act in 2006, police spokesman, Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said the proving witchcraft is not something that the police can do.
“Witchcraft is not an area that lends itself to police scrutiny. How do you verify an evil spell? This is a matter of spiritual faith, not
a matter of empirical faith,” he said.
If witches are to be prosecuted for their witchcraft activities, a whole new debate is certainly to spring following such judgement. That alone will automatically puts prophets and faith healers in just about the same pot. It will thus be a crime for prophets or faith healers who proclaim wrong prophecies.
Cases of witchcraft mostly come out when one visits prophets, faith healers or the traditional healers and thus, if it cannot be proven that one is indeed a witch, then it would be fair to prosecute those who make the false prophecies.
Whilst Professor Chavunduka’s ideas of prosecuting witches in Zimbabwe might have sounded revolutionary, it was nothing but more
than a dream, a dream that unfortunately was never fulfilled in his time. Whether his peers in the MDC-T will make his dreams come true
when they come into power, if they ever do, remains to be seen.
At the time of his death, Chavunduka was the Chairman of the MDC-T Guardian Council. Addressing mourners on Monday, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai paid tribute to one of its great sons. “At MDC-T Chavunduka was an invaluable reservoir of political advice. MDC has lost a real champion.”
David Hwangwa is a Human Rights Activist and Political Commentator
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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.