admin
Thandekile Moyo
I REMEMBER visiting my grandparents in rural Kezi, Zimbabwe when I was young. Every school holidays, my grandfather would come to Bulawayo and take all of us home for the holidays. It was a fun and exciting experience. Everything about it was cool. From the bus ride, to the packed lunches and the fantas and buns he would buy for us without fail from what I now see as some dingy tuckshop at the bus rank. Back then it was not dingy. It was the place to be!
Ekhaya (home) is where I had some of the best times of my childhood. We used to play outside until the cows came home, literally! Our days were filled with a lot of joy, laughter and mischief. The nights though, were a different story.
In the dark, everything seemed scary. The trees took a different form, amadwala (large rocks) we would have spent the day rolling upon, seemed ominous. Every sound had us jumping and every movement would get us in panic mode. All lights seemed like ghosts and all snakes were considered to have been sent by witches. At night, nothing was taken to be what it really was. Everything had a new meaning, a different implication and a frightening interpretation.
I do not recall personally being afraid, but the general consensus was that at night witches came alive. The fear of witchcraft took the joy away from people as soon as the sun set. People would sleep with one eye open, counting the hours till the sun rose again and made things look beautiful yet again.
The general belief was that there were people out there who did not want to see you prosper. These were the witches of this world who were thought to be filled with so much hatred and jealousy that they would do anything to destroy your happiness.
Witches are said to have supernatural powers that enable them to harm you without ever coming into contact with you. Apparently they also travel at night on evil missions and can enter your home and cast spells on you. Their so called powers are what make witches so scary.
It seems as if in each community, there are people who are known to practice witchcraft. These are usually toothless, wrinkled old women. I have often wondered why I have never been shown a beautiful young witch. Maybe there is an age restriction to the practice, who knows?
My heart breaks when the thought that these women who are labelled witches could actually be innocent. Imagine living your life shunned by everyone because they say you are evil. How painful it must be to know that the entire village is afraid of you and believes you are cruel and soulless.
In this day and age of fake prophets and sangomas, have you ever stopped to think just how many people are falsely accused of witchcraft on a daily basis? I have seen people going through difficult times being told that the person causing their misery is their mother or grandmother. I do not understand how the majority of Africans are so ready to believe that their mothers; who breastfed them, spent sleepless nights nursing them, and sacrificed their own needs to provide them and take them to school; would then turn around and be hell bent on making sure they do not go on to succeed in life!
It boggles the mind how we are so ready to take the word of some unknown stranger over that of people we have known and loved all our lives. I cannot deny that there are evil mothers out there, but not all parents are evil. Most mothers have an instinct that makes them want nothing but the best for their children. I feel sad when I think of how many African mothers cry themselves to sleep because their only sons and only daughters no longer want to have anything to do with them, simply because they suspect them of witchcraft.
The belief that someone is a witch breeds hatred and animosity. The “witch” will hate everyone who suspects and accuses them of witchcraft and the one who feels bewitched will hate the ones she feels are bewitching her. Imagine if all this hatred is based on a false accusation. It means we go through our lives hating each other unnecessarily.
Families are broken every day because of suspicions of witchcraft. People keep their children from their grandparents because they fear that the people who brought them up will somehow harm their children. The unfairness of taking away the joy of loving one’s grandchildren because of false accusations is too much.
The fear of witchcraft has impeded development in African villages for years. People are afraid to build beautiful homes because they are afraid they will invite jealous witches into their lives. Those with money in abundance are also afraid to invest in their communities because if they are seen to be too rich, they will be accused of being witches. This has led to Africans investing mostly in urban areas, or relocating to new areas just so they run away from the hateful eyes and minds of their families and communities.
In Zimbabwe, we do not have a social grant for the aged. I shudder to think how many old men and women are neglected by their children who now accuse them of witchcraft and refuse to have anything to do with them. How many of our neighbours suffer in the rural areas for they know that if they come and ask for sugar from you, you will think they only came to your homestead to bewitch you.
Sometimes, without even accusing our parents and grandparents of bewitching us, we make them suffer because we believe in witchcraft. We only visit them for short periods of time because we are afraid that if we overstay, witches will pounce on us. We make our parents suffer because, due to the fact that we only visit home briefly, we do not invest in our homes. This is the reason why our old people live and die in dilapidated huts which they built themselves. They never get to reap the benefits of educating us because we turn our backs on the villages as soon as we can.
We need to emancipate ourselves from the fear of witchcraft. My father once told me that we can never be truly free until we are free from superstition.
As long as we are afraid, there will be no development. As long as we are afraid, we cannot love each other. As long as we are afraid we cannot support each other. Without development, love and support, we are nothing!
derick.khumalo