admin
To the southeastern parts of Gokwe town, a low sounding drumbeat can be heard and in the background are melodious voices of people singing.
After driving our Mazda B1600 truck for about 15 minutes along the Gokwe-Kwekwe highway, the drumbeat and singing become louder. Two other Mazda trucks overtake us and are probably heading the same destination as ours.
After travelling for less than two kilometres, we are now in a convoy of six vehicles which all turn into a bumpy and dusty road that leads to the where the drum-beating and singing are taking place.
The truck now leading the convoy belongs to Chief Njelele who has organised a cleansing ceremony to try and unravel mysterious happenings in his area after 26 women woke up one morning without their undergarments which they had on the previous night.
The women, all from Charisekera Village including village head’s wife, Ms Silvia Marume, had a nightmarish experience when they all woke up one morning to find themselves without their panties.
After all efforts including reporting the mysterious happening at Gokwe Police Station failed to identify the person or persons behind the disappearance of the undergarments, Chief Njelele was left with no option but to invite an exorcist, commonly called tsikamutanda and a prophet from an apostolic sect to conduct a witch-hunting ceremony.
After travelling another two kilometres along the dust road, we are finally at village head Charisekera’s homestead, the venue of the cleansing ceremony.
The villagers, men and women are so absorbed in their singing and beating of drums that they seem not to notice the arrival of the vehicles. Even the elderly who have difficulty in walking are trying hard to dance to the sound of the drums while at the same time attempting to be in unison with the rest of the singers.
The drum-beating is conducted by two young men who seem to have mastered the art much to the amusement of the elderly who cannot resist dancing despite their advanced ages. At the other end of the homestead, there is a makeshift structure (mutanda) where the actual witch-hunting or cleansing ceremony is taking place. Here individuals walk in and are supposed to step on the mutanda and if they are involved in witchcraft they start confessing. At the other end of the mutanda are two men with girdles around their loins. One of them is wearing headgear made of fowl feathers and is barking instructions to the elderly in the make-shift structure.
“Tsika mutanda changamire, simudza mawoko ako changamire, tenderera, (step on the mutanda sir, lift your hands, turn around)”. While this is happening, the drum-beating and singing continues.
“Mungabude henyu changamire, fambai nerugare makachena imi. (You can get out and go in peace, you are clean),” thundered the bald inyanga putting on a combination of goat, leopard and lion skins.
“Those putting on the loin cloth are part of tsikamutandas and this is the witch hunting process whereby people go one by one and stand before the tsikamutanda to establish whether or not one practises witchcraft,” explained Chief Njelele to the puzzled Chronicle news screw.
It takes less than five minutes for a “clean” man or woman to be cleared by the tsikamutanda.
To the villagers present, it is very easy to tell whether one is clean or practises witchcraft from the way one is treated by the tsikamutanda once he or she is inside the makeshift structure.
When an individual practising witchcraft steps in the makeshift structure, the tsikamutanda orders the crowd to beat the drums harder and sing louder while he groans like an angry lion, probably to frighten the culprit into confessing.
After groaning, crawling and conducting some rituals, the tsikamutanda would then ask the crowd to be silent as he explains what the suspected witch possesses.
The naming and shaming of the suspect is more startling as the puzzled villagers listen to tsikamutanda asking the suspect questions.
“Amai munoroyaka imi?” (Do you deny that you are a witch?), the tsikamutanda asks one elderly woman before dipping what looks like an ox tail into some liquid concoction and spraying her with the concoction.
“Ndiri kuzvihwa ishe,” (I agree my lord) replies the elderly while looking down.
After groaning and speaking in a language, which could not be decoded, the tsikamutanda poses another question to the elderly woman.
“Munodya nyama yevanhuka imi?” (You eat human flesh?)
“Yes my lord,” replied the elderly woman.
More villagers later confess to practising witchcraft but none of their nocturnal exploits are linked to the mysterious disappearance of the 26 women’s undergarments which caused Chief Njelele to call for the cleansing ceremony.
When the villagers had lost hope of unravelling the panties’ mystery, Mr Lumeck Ncube (64), appeared before the now tired-looking tsikamutanda and confessed to be in possession of a goblin which he said was responsible for the disappearance of the women’s underwear.
After the confession, an inyanga in the company of few other villagers are dispatched to collect the goblin from his homestead.
The decorated goblin was then paraded before the crowd.
The crowd was taken aback when Ms Marume claimed that the pair of blue panties that the goblin was putting on was in fact hers. She said she mysteriously lost the garment in 2004 much to the shock of the villagers.
“I lost it in 2004 soon after giving birth to my fourth child and I am shocked to learn that it was taken away by this goblin,” she said.
The goblin was later burnt and most villagers especially women said they were pleased that the goblin which had been tormenting them had been destroyed.
In an interview soon after the burning of the goblin, the suspect confessed that he obtained the creature in Chakari near Kadoma in 1983.
“When I acquired it from a certain inyanga in Chakari in 1983 I wanted to improve luck both at my workplace and in my life. I was given a concoction but only came to know that it was a goblin after retiring when I tried to get rid of it,” he said.
He said he was not aware that the goblin had become sexually obsessed to the point of going around sleeping with female villagers while taking away their panties.
One of the victims, Ms Loveness Chaya said she woke up very dizzy one morning only to discover later that her pair of panties was missing.
“I remember on the fateful day, I could hardly walk and I was feeling very tired. This was when I realised that I did not have my pair of panties on despite the fact that I did put the panties on before going to sleep. I was very frightened when I could not locate the pair of panties. I later reported this mystery to other family members,” she said.
Another victim, Ms Ida Guvamombe said she actually felt her pair of panties being removed on the day she lost them.
“I remember on the day in question I felt it when my pair of panties were being removed but I was just powerless and thought I was dreaming.I don’t remember what happened next and the next morning I discovered that the pair of panties was missing,” she said.
Chief Njelele said he was not amused by the cases of witchcraft that were happening in his area.
“I hope the villagers will behave well following this cleansing ceremony because it’s not good for my area to be known the world over for the wrong reasons,” he said.
Chief Njelele said he hoped the new proposed constitution would acknowledge the existence of witchcraft especially in the countryside.
“These witches and wizards are being left to terrorise fellow villagers. I had to be cleared by the police for this cleansing ceremony to be conducted in my area because witch-hunting is against the laws of this country,”he said.
derick.khumalo