School drop-outs as ‘ghost granny targets Grade 6 girls’

Yoliswa Dube-Moyo, Matabeleland South Bureau Chief
GHASTLY visions of an old woman clad in black robes with gleaming white eyes and bloodied teeth haunts girls from Gwakwe Primary School in Gwanda District.

Some describe a dreadlocked creature carrying a knife, threatening to take the life of whoever tells of their paranormal encounter.

Others talk of an unsightly being carrying a cup which it uses to collect their urine whenever they visit the toilet.

Most of the affected girls speak of a trance in which they feel as though their spirit has left their bodies.

To their parents, they appear paralysed, as though they no longer have control of their actions – stiff limbs, rolling eyes and frothing at the mouth.

The Gwakwe community is confused and at a loss for words about what has taken over their area, as the creatures are only visible to Grade Six girls at the primary school.

Since February, the girls have been fitting while in class and entering into strange trances where they see frightening mystic creatures.

“When my granddaughter had her first encounter, she said she saw an old woman wearing black clothes, leaning on a tree while folding her hands.

When she asked her friends who the person was, they couldn’t see what she was talking about.

When they got to class, their teacher apparently gave them some work to do but she was just shaking uncontrollably.

Her teacher called me and I rushed to the school and found her in a bad state,” said Ms Julia Sibanda, whose granddaughter has been having paranormal experiences.

She said her granddaughter had fallen several times after the first incident and describes the same old woman every time she goes into a trance.

“It’s a very difficult situation and we don’t know how to handle it.

The worst incident was when the children started seeing this old woman and started running away.

They were just all over the place and we didn’t know what to do.

We don’t see what the girls will be seeing and I ask myself if this is something that will ever go away.

Now she’s not going to school and I wonder what kind of a life she’ll have,” said Ms Sibanda.

The children had been given a two-week break from school but some have since dropped out as they are now afraid.

Ms Loice Sibanda, another guardian whose grandchild is affected said prayers have not helped.

She has been living in Gwakwe since the 1990s but says she has not seen anything like it before.

“When it first happened, my granddaughters’ friends brought her home saying she had collapsed along the way.

When I asked her what had happened, she said she saw an old woman with blood dripping from her teeth wearing black clothes.

I was shocked and said some prayers with her.

The second time it happened, she had gone to the dam to do some laundry.

She described the same woman but had initially not mentioned the incident because the person she was seeing was carrying knives and instructed her not to tell anyone about what she had seen,” said Ms Loice Sibanda.

She said after a trance, her granddaughter struggles to breathe as she says she’ll be experiencing tightness in her chest.

“I give her holy water and pray with her.

She feels better at that moment but has an encounter with the strange creature within days of the previous incident.

My grandchildren love school but they’ve been told not to go to school until further notice.

This is a spiritual war which we need help with.

We’re all just confused and don’t know what to do but our children need to be saved from this situation,” said Ms Loice Sibanda.

Teachers are equally spooked and are failing to deal with the situation.

Sources said school authorities have called in some church members to conduct prayers at the school but parents say the situation has deteriorated since the prayers started.

They said school authorities have since handed over the situation to the community to deal with in a manner they see fit.

Some community members said they knew where the “things” were coming from but could not openly say names.

Sabhuku Maloni said the paranormal occurrences at Gwakwe Primary School were a first in the area.

“We’ve never seen anything like it and we don’t know where it’s coming from.

It’s a really difficult situation and we don’t know why it’s only happening in one class, the Grade Six class,” said Sabhuku Maloni.

He said in the olden days, people who had imikhoba (goblins) for whatever purposes kept them at home.

“They were not seen by other people except themselves.

What we’re seeing now at the school is out of this world.

We need traditional healers to come and cleanse the school.

They need to remove all evil elements so that our children can learn freely,” said Sabhuku Maloni.

Gwakwe Primary School falls under Chief Mathema’s jurisdiction and he said consultations were underway to forge a way forward.

“We’re talking to elders who are seasoned in such things to come and assist us,” said Chief Mathema.

– @Yolisswa