Online Reporter
Miriam Tose Majome
Correspondent
Like most Africans, I grew up hearing stories about witches, goblins and zombies.
They were the stuff of fireside folklore, sometimes entertaining, but usually terrifying and real to the mind of a little girl.
I never thought that as an adult, in 21st century Zimbabwe, I would still be surrounded by people who genuinely believe in these things and insist on doing so.
Educated professionals and people with degrees and wifi and international exposure still whisper about mermaids and snakes that vomit cash.
It needs to be said that our stubborn clinging to superstition is embarrassing. It is harmful and should never be an accepted culture. As a culture, it is damaging, dangerous, and retrogressive.
What the law says
As a lawyer, I have dealt with many cases involving accusations of witchcraft almost always between family members.
The law is clear. Sections 97 to 102 of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act deal with witchcraft and related offences. The law does not dictate whether witchcraft is real or not.
It wisely avoids that debate, but takes note of the beliefs and way of life of the majority of people in the environment it operates.
The statutes simply say behaviours commonly associated with witchcraft, and which cause harm or fear, are a crime.
Accusing other people of witchcraft without any basis is also a crime and this is what most people struggle with. They believe they should have the right to freely call out what they believe to be witches and witchcraft.
However, it will not be so pleasant if other people also feel free to exercise the same right against them.
The legal position is not about disrespecting anyone’s beliefs, but is about protecting society from descending into chaos. Section 99, which criminalises baseless witchcraft accusations, is one of the most forward-looking pieces of law.
Without it, we would have total anarchy. If everyone was free to accuse anyone of witchcraft just because their cow died or their marriage fell apart, there would be pandemonium in society with the way people hold these beliefs dear. We already teeter on that edge as it is.
We’ve seen this before
Some may have learnt about the Salem witch trials which took place in 17th-century Massachusetts, United States of America. Hundreds of women, usually old or single, were hanged simply because someone had accused them of causing illness or bad luck.
There was no proof; no science; just hysteria. The repercussions from that era were so damaging that it forced western society to change its approach and adopt more science-based approaches to living in society. From that time, beliefs in witchcraft were treated as private beliefs and discouraged.
In most of Africa, we never had that kind of turning point. In fact, in this country we seem to be going backwards.
People with mental illness, or epilepsy or those with albinism, are regarded with suspicion in many places, and some people are even killed.
Cancer and vehicle accidents are sometimes regarded as spiritual attacks or plain old witchcraft. Some people die from manageable conditions, like hypertension and diabetes, because they are taken to prophets instead of medical facilities.
Many families deplete rare financial resources and go broke chasing spiritual causes and cures for such a thing as mental illness. Superstition literally kills.
Sunningdale worm and other madness
Once upon a time around 2007 or 2008, rumours started flying about of a young woman who had become successful in business.
That was her first sin, for being young, prosperous and female usually leads to suspicion of either prostitution or witchcraft. It is accepted that one cannot be a woman and be financially prosperous.
One must pick a struggle.
The gossip mill said this prosperous young woman had brought back a mysterious money-making worm from South Africa or Malawi, or the Democratic Republic of Congo, depending on the storyteller’s imagination.
The mysterious worm supposedly grew bigger as the young woman got richer. Eventually, as the story went, the worm outgrew the bathtub and took over the whole bathroom, threatening to take over the whole house.
People came from all over Sunningdale, Harare, to her house to see the worm.
Some came just to confirm their own envy. Soon enough as the mob swelled, people pelted the house with stones.
ZBC reporters, to the station’s credit, got wind of the story, and reported on it. They toured the house, and to the crowd’s dismay, there was no worm to be seen.
Still the crowd and other superstitious punters watching on television were not satisfied. They just refused to believe it, because they wanted it so badly to be true.
A new theory rippled across the town that the worm had magical invisible powers in front of cameras. These were grown men and women saying these things in real life and not quoting from fairytales.
Before that, in the 1990s, there was the tale of the Zengeza zombie. It was said two female neighbours, who sold doilies in South Africa, had seen one become very successful and the other not.
It was rumoured that the not so successful one had killed the successful one and kept her zombified body crocheting non-stop like a machine day and night in a locked room.
In no time, as the rumour spread, a crowd quickly gathered and stoned the house and were only dispersed by the police who dispelled the rumours. There is no reason to be this way. It is counterproductive. That is the reason everyone needs to be protected by the law from whimsical accusations.
Cost of magical thinking
Superstitious thinking makes people afraid of everything they do not understand.
Instead of asking, “What’s the cause of this?” they ask, “Who did this to me?”
This kind of thinking leads nowhere. It keeps people suspicious of success and paralysed by fear, and unable to take responsibility for their own lives. The worst damage is to health.
People delay getting lifesaving treatment because of mystical beliefs. People with epileptic fits and mental illnesses are often subjected to beatings as a way of exorcising the “demons”.
How many more people need to die before we realise that our beliefs are literally killing us? Prayer is not chemotherapy, anointed oil is not insulin, prophesy is not a CT scan. We need to create room in our culture for rational thinking, logic and science.
It’s time we called superstition out for what it is: a barrier to health, a threat to education, an enemy of justice.
We need to teach our children critical thinking skills. We need health workers, teachers, and leaders who do not promote superstition, and are not afraid to speak up.
We need to stop applauding ignorance just because it dresses itself as culture, tradition, or faith.
Miriam Tose Majome is a lawyer and a Commissioner with the Zimbabwe Media Commission. She writes in her personal capacity and can be contacted on [email protected]
