A visit to Harare’s mystery ruins

Problem Masau Lifestyle Writer
Zimbabwe’s capital city, Harare, has evolved over the years, a development that has seen skyscrapers of different shapes and sizes, changing the landscape of the city. The capital city has become a symbol of modernisation and is slowly taking after other metropolises like New York and Michigan. However, on the peripheries of the capital, there is a place that is shrouded in mystery and controversy and has remained unscathed with changes that are taking place elsewhere. The Hatfield ruins that resemble the mighty Great Zimbabwe are intricately made and lie just 10 kilometres south of the CBD.

Right in the middle of the ruins, there is a double storey white house and a shrine where all forms of rituals take place. Reed mats serve as curtains.
Saturday Lifestyle visited the place where a faceless figure called “Mufemberi” and his followers conduct their rituals and daily routines.

The people who live there are so secretive and it is very difficult to get information from the inhabitants. One has to use military tactics to gain admission into the yard. When our news crew visited the place recently, they were welcomed by four bare-footed women between the ages of 20 and 60, who immediately declared that they were not allowed to talk to the public.

At the place, which is occupied by a cult whose leader is merely referred to as “Mufemberi”, people are not called by their names but their totems. The access to the “Mufemberi” is difficult because his “handler’’, who leads “Dare Remufemberi”, does all the interrogation and talking, before one is allowed to see him.

Having thoroughly interviewed the Saturday Lifestyle the handler denied the team a chance to see “Mufemberi” and volunteered to answer all the questions. The handler who identified himself by his totem, “Soko”, said the history of the place dates back to pre-colonial times.

“You have to remove shoes before getting into the house. Anything red is not allowed into the house,” he said. The handler claims that the place was part of the Munhumutapa Empire, although this claim could not be substantiated from available literature.

During the greeting formalities, visitors joined in a systematic clapping of hands seated on rukukwe as different totems were being shouted out.
Posters of all African presidents were plastered in chronological order in one big room- the only place where visitors were allowed to access. “Mufemberi speaks to all African presidents cautioning them about impending danger. He also speaks about the political and natural situations in their country. He has visions for all the black people in the world including Obama,” claimed the handler.

As he was speaking with the team, all the women in the house were ordered to go out, a practice, which the handler claimed was followed religiously at the shrine, whenever there were visitors. Inside sources said the women have been living at the shrine for close to 20 year as followers of the iconic “Mufemberi”.

The women are not allowed to talk to strangers except when greeting them. There are also males at the place who help in maintaining the ruins and the daily running of the place.

“Once one becomes a follower of Mufemberi, he or she has to be abided by his 10 commandments. Most of the followers live at the house. Mufemberi and his followers believe in Musikavanhu and only clap hands as part of his healing process for the sick,” said Soko.

Soko castigated the advent of a new crop of prophets in the country, whom he said were misleading people and leading the nation astray.
“If Makandiwa comes here, he is certainly going to die. Our ancestors used to go under the tree and ask for food and they would get it. Why is it that these prophets use miracle towels and matombo for their healing sessions? Narrating the origins of the cult, Soko says “Mufemberi” started to have visions, while very young, adding that he had the power to foresee what was going to happen in the future.

“Everything has its place in time. The spirit came to a 17-year-old in 1985 and instructed him to live here in the heart of the city,” he said.
“Mufemberi’s” job description includes talking and giving advice to chiefs, police and healing the lame. While the handler claimed that the ruins where built long back, National Monuments of Zimbabwe said they were not aware of the existence of the ruins.

“We do not know about the ruins, we do not have them in our register,” said Godfrey Bvocho, of the National Monuments of Zimbabwe.