Online Reporter
Tendai Gukutikwa
Weekender Reporter
AN elderly Nyanga woman has dragged her great-granddaughter who is accusing her of harvesting her brain and storing it in her shop for wealth-enhancing rituals to Chief Mutasa’s court, ending 10 years of caregiving with bitter recriminations.
Esnath Nyamhanza petitioned the court last Saturday, arguing that her reputation was severely damaged by the fabricated accusations.
She said she had raised the girl, Nokutenda Chidziya, since 2016 after her mother failed to pay her school fees.
The widow said she had sacrificed a decade of her life to provide shelter, food and education for her great-granddaughter, whom she took in when other family members had abandoned her.
She said the decision was made out of the desire to secure her future.
Relations deteriorated after years of care, culminating in the allegations that Nyamhanza was using parts of the girl’s body for ritual purposes to generate wealth.
“When my great-grandchild was only seven-years-old, they stopped her from going to school, citing lack of school fees. I took and enrolled her in school. I stayed with her until she was doing Form Three last year,” she said.
Nyamhanza said Chidziya became part of her household and rarely visited her mother during school holidays.
“She would refuse to visit her mother during school holidays. In fact, she would only go there once a year. In 2020, my husband died, and I told her mother to take her back, but she insisted that I should continue staying with her.
“She never contributed anything towards the child’s upkeep, but I accepted that because I wanted her to have a future,” she said, adding that she continued raising the girl for another five years before their relationship unexpectedly changed.
“In December last year, she went to spend the holidays with her mother. I did not know she was pregnant. When schools opened this year, she never came back. Whenever I phoned her, she kept saying she would return.
“Later her brother informed me that she had travelled with her mother to Mozambique. She was supposed to be in Form Four this year,” said Nyamhanza, adding that she was later informed that Chidziya had fallen ill while pregnant, and begun manifesting what relatives believed to be a spiritual force.
She said in February, Chidziya’s mother died, and she attended the funeral in Sakubva.
“I travelled to Mutare for the funeral, expecting to mourn my granddaughter, but instead found myself at the centre of extraordinary accusations. After the burial, Gladys Muchitywe, my other grandchild, suggested that a faith healer be called because Chidziya was manifesting after losing her mother. When the prophet came, Chidziya claimed that I had taken her brain and placed it on a shelf in my shop,” she said.
The elderly woman said she could hardly believe what she was hearing.
“She also alleged that while she stayed with me, I stole her underwear and used it for rituals. She claimed that because of that she performed poorly at school and her teachers hated her. I was shocked because everything appeared to have been planned between Chidziya and Muchitywe,” she said.
Nyamhanza questioned why the faith healer allegedly did not challenge the accusations.
“The prophet never addressed these allegations or questioned them. That made me suspect he also knew it had been stage-managed. I left the funeral immediately and went back to my home in Chikanga,” she said.
However, Muchitywe dismissed claims that she had conspired against her grandmother. She said Chidziya’s strange behaviour only began after the funeral.
“After we buried Sarah, I announced that someone had to take the children because one of them was manifesting. Chidziya said she was being used while under a trance. It was only at the funeral that she started saying our grandmother had taken her brain and was using them for rituals,” she said.
Muchitywe maintained that she never coached the teenager.
“After the funeral, the children continued staying at my house and she would repeatedly manifest. I do not know whether it was stage-managed or not,” she said, further telling the court that Chidziya repeatedly begged to be taken to her father’s family in Mozambique.
“She insisted she wanted to go to her father’s home, and said she would lead us there. We took her there, but they refused to accept her, saying they could not receive a possessed person. We returned with her, but whenever we got home she would collapse and insist on going back,” she said.
Chief Mutasa said the court could not determine such serious allegations without hearing directly from the person at the centre of the dispute.
“We want that child to come before this court because we need to hear from her ourselves. When someone is manifesting, they do not normally address themselves in the first person because they are believed to be speaking on behalf of another spirit. We need to establish exactly what happened,” he said.
He also ordered witnesses who attended the funeral to appear before the court.
“There is a need for all those who witnessed the alleged manifestations at the funeral to come and testify so that this court hears every side before reaching a conclusion,” he said.
Chief Mutasa adjourned the matter to the end of July to allow Chidziya and other witnesses to appear before the court.
