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Tendai Gukutikwa
Weekender Reporter
A ZIMUNYA man wants to ‘marry’ his octogenarian mother after realising that their father never paid dowry for her during their more than 60 years of marriage.
A feud has erupted between the man, Panganai Tazirekufa and his maternal uncles, the Munyoros, who are flatly refusing to accept the bride price of their sister, Mwarasheni Munyoro (88).
Tazirekufa who is in his 60s, said he teamed up with his siblings to pay their mother’s lobola after finding out their father had never paid a dime to the Munyoros as bride price.
The Munyoros are refusing to accept the bride price, arguing that Mwarasheni allegedly had a hand in the murder of her brother’s teenage son for rituals in the 1970s and failed to appease his avenging spirit.
The matter has since appeared before Acting Chief Zimunya’s court.
“My mother is alleged to have killed her brother’s son she was staying with in 1976. After the boy went missing, my mother told everyone that he had gone to Mozambique to train as a freedom fighter. However, the dead boy’s spirit started manifesting on his sister recently, disclosing everything that happened leading to his death,” said Tazirekufa.
Mwarasheni is alleged to have handed over her then 16-year-old nephew to businesspeople to have him killed for wealth enhancing rituals.
However, to this day, Mwarasheni still insists that her nephew left to be trained as a freedom fighter in Mozambique and denies facilitating his murder.
“Yes, I was staying with him, but he left with others for training in Mozambique. He did not return after the liberation struggle. Like everyone else, I am still eagerly waiting for his return. I believe this whole avenging spirit manifesting on his sister is a hoax. They want to associate me with his disappearance since I was staying with him when he went missing,” she said.
This is despite the fact that after the avenging spirit started manifesting, various traditional healers that were consulted also fingered Mwarasheni as the culprit behind the death of the teenager.
At Acting Chief Zimunya’s court, Mwarasheni was ordered to appease the spirit with eight beasts.
The court’s ruling was that seven beasts would go to her brother, while the last one was for the court.
The Tazirekufas believe that their only task is to pay their mother’s bride price and not help her appease the avenging spirit.
“I am supposed to marry my mother on behalf of my father because nothing was paid as her bride price for the more than 60 years they were cohabiting. After paying the bride price, we will take our mother to the Munyoros to enable her to appease the avenging spirit.
“We are in-laws to the Munyoros and cannot lead in the appeasement of one of their own’s avenging spirit. Her brothers should help her appease the spirit, not us,” said Tazirekufa.
Mwarasheni and Tazirekufa’s father had 13 children together.
However, the Munyoros will not have it, saying they want Mwarasheni’s sons to help their mother to appease the avenging spirit.
During the court appearance, the father of the slain child, Henry Chizomba-Munyoro called for the immediate appeasement of his son’s spirit.
He, however, died recently before receiving either the bride price for his sister or the appeasement of his son’s avenging spirit.
The avenging spirit continues to torment the Tazirekufa family.
“My siblings’ children are all suffering. We need to surrender our mother to the Munyoros after marrying her,” said Tazirekufa.
This was after Acting Chief Zimunya had ordered that Tazirekufa and his siblings should help their mother to appease the Munyoro family.
“You have to help your mother to appease her nephew’s avenging spirit first before paying the bride price. It is obvious that you want to dump her with her family soon after marrying her. The appeasement should be done forthwith before the avenging spirit’s retribution becomes worse,” he said.
Online Reporter