Sundaymail EditorStranger then Fiction
Tendai Chara
AN enforcer, according to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, is a person whose job is to make sure that people do the things they should.
Law enforcement agents such as the police, who are empowered by the State to enforce the law, are the most common type of enforcers.
But, even in the underworld, there are enforcers, whose duty is to make sure that dissident members are kept in check.
Strangely, there are unexplained circumstances in which supernatural forces are believed to act as enforcers of moral values.
According to a traditional myth, supernatural forces have ways to punish married women who either cheat or practice witchcraft.
The people living in Marange and some parts of Buhera in Manicaland strongly believe that once a married woman cheats or engages in witchcraft, that person will face enormous and life-threatening hurdles when she gets pregnant or when the time to deliver the baby comes. According to local tradition, the woman will either fail to deliver the expected baby or the infant will refuse to breastfeed after being delivered.
If the transgressing woman does not confess her sins before her relatives, it is believed that she will experience severe complications and eventually, death. Also, in the event that the woman elects not to confess, the newborn, who will not be breastfeeding, will die.
The most surprising part of this theory suggests that the expecting mother, who might have spent several horrific hours failing to deliver, will immediately deliver her baby soon after confessing.
It is also believed that the mother’s confession will make the newborn baby accept his or her breast milk.
This confession is commonly known as kureera.
What is baffling, however, is the fact that this cultural practice is now only confined to Marange and Buhera.
Although locals confirmed this unusual tradition, they were at pains to explain its origins.
Mbuya Hazvirowi Chishingwi of Mwapamba Village, which is located just outside the Chiadzwa diamond fields, said no one knows the origin of this unusual phenomenon.
“Asking me about the origins of this tradition is like asking what powers the sun to rise and set every day comes from. No one knows the origins of this tradition and we will probably never know. This is one of the many secrets of life,” said Mbuya Chishingwi, who does not know her age, although she is thought to be approaching 100.
Mbuya Chishingwi’s 60-year-old son, Tonias, also failed to give an explanation.
“This is part of us. No one knows when and how this began. I think it is one of the many ways that the spirit mediums devised to punish wrongdoers, therefore, safeguarding the moral fabric,” Chishingwi said.
Unlike law enforcement agents. who can be bribed or can be sympathetic to friends and relatives, it appears this invisible supernatural force cannot be stifled.
Whilst some cheating women and witches in other parts of the country are wary of being caught by their husbands, prophets or traditional healers, the women in Marange and Buhera fear this supernatural force which cannot be silenced.
This force literally takes the “law into its own hands”.
Online Reporter