A few years ago a self confessed wizard rocked up at a police station in rural Zaka, Masvingo province and told bewildered officers that he was tired of witchcraft and that he had come to surrender his ‘instruments.’ Unconvinced, the cops asked if he could stage a live demonstration of his capabilities and he gladly obliged but with a health warning. He went into a trance and started chanting incomprehensibly while rubbing together two sticks from his arsenal.
From a clear blue sky a well aimed bolt of lightning struck a huge tree at the compound turning it into an inferno. When he turned to his audience wearing a satisfied smirk on his face, he discovered that the witnesses had fled in terror into the surrounding bundu. I was after a long while that they eventually emerged sending the wizard on his way with the revelation that they were unqualified to deal with matters spiritual. They suggested a long list of prophets.
However, on each occasion, he produced the same results and effect with some of the prophets being said to have fled the district for good. Not until one brave one managed to fix the problem and burn the paraphernalia in front of a cheering crowd that included the local chief. He was ably rewarded with a number of beasts levied on the community.
Why am I telling you this? The issue here is not so much that the whole story sounds like something out of the Twilight Zone, but rather, the fact that here was someone confessing to the fact that he was a wizard with a live demonstration to boot. This incident received wide coverage by the Herald newspaper and the ZBC. Now hold it, before you doubt the credibility of the two sources, I should vouch for them on this point though painfully so.
The question that came to my mind was why witchcraft cannot be turned into doing good rather than evil? I know that I am wading in highly contested territory here, but let us just say that there was a way in which we can tap into this technology which has consistently fallen in between the cracks of superstition, religion and legislation. The Witchcraft Act in Zimbabwe outlaws the practice, in fact, it denies the existence of it and it is a heinous crime to label someone a witch.
Yet the reality, and I am placing my head on the chopping block here, is that these things exist whether we believe them or not. Religious personalities have been known to exorcise evil spirits, products of the principality of the devil. But that is knowledge gone to waste if you ask me. For a start the Zimbabwe Electricity Sometimes Available (ZESA) would benefit immensely from such technology.
Engineers will agree with me that a few channelled bolts of lightning would alleviate Zimbabwe’s nightmare of blackouts and load shedding. The construction industry would use the same to clear land demolish stuff. Lightning might even be bottled for domestic use. Imagine not having to rely on conventionally generated electricity for cooking and lighting which as we all know costs an arm and a leg.
Witches have also been known to travel by other means. They either ‘teleport’ themselves or ride a broomstick or hyena depending in which part of the world you live in. Riding a hyena would not make a pretty sight though. It could get you in trouble with wildlife activists. I know what the sceptics among you are thinking, that this guy is busy legitimising the absurd, cultivating the fertile minds of the primitive among the human race. Or that I am just pain crazy.
While I appreciate the compliments you should accept the reality that Africans are among the most superstitious in the world including the ones who claim to be educated. Many are finding it difficult to come to terms with everyday challenges. We believe witchcraft is real acting to influence, intervene and alter the course of human life for good or bad.
You will sure find people who bear witness to witchcraft or even actively participate in it. Like politicians who in an election year take the beaten path to an Inyanga (traditional medicine man) to boost his or her chances of winning? One was even caught with a human head in the boot of his car!
How about the short hairy creatures we know as Tikoloshi, those short ugly bearded creatures that have incredible strength and a voracious sexual appetite. They are used to gain wealth and come with instructions that are broken to one’s peril. A recent case is Ramotswa in south eastern Botswana; a young man committed suicide after a female manager at his work place called him into some secluded room and showed him her breasts. Before the hot bloodied males among you speculate whether they were worth dying for, there is more to the story.
Apparently, the woman who is much older than the unfortunate young man had pursued him quite some time. The implication being that she desired him in more intimate ways. He had deflected her so many times but realising that his job was on the line he finally gave in. In the suicide note that was found after he was found hanging from a tree, he described the whole episode where the woman said she wanted to show him something. She called him into her office and slowly opened her blouse... to reveal a hairy human like creature suckling from her breast. He must have snapped.
Then there is the portion that enables the user to have sexual intercourse with any woman he pleases without her permission! One such man was severely assaulted at a popular fleamarket in Bulawayo earlier this year. This is how it is said to work: the offender identifies a victim and then ‘imagines’ being intimate with her while clasping the root in his pocket.
The victim will feel everything though the offender could well be standing some distance away reading a newspaper or something. The chap who was caught confessed to using the muti. I should add that it is now inadvisable to read a newspaper with your hand in your pocket at fleamarkets in and around Bulawayo. You have been warned.
I do not believe that rational people are making all these things up given the frequency that they occur. One might argue that unless these incidents are verified and placed under scientific scrutiny, they belong to the realm of fiction. What if these occurrences do not subscribe to known laws of science. Scientists do admit that there is much more that is yet to be discovered. From a religious point of view, the existence of evil is widely accepted in the context of the great controversy that began when Satan was expelled from heaven.
We should be aware of the conflict between the forces of good and evil so that we can take evasive action. Those who have dabbled in witchcraft are paying the price and live a life of regret, if they are not already dead. We just have to walk the world with our eyes wide open and not take things for granted just because one cannot explain them rationally.
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