adminToday the worms frolic, crawl and scamper, forming an uncharacteristic web where she is now entangled and battling to set herself free.
Authorities at the Registrar-General’s office rejected her birth certificate, insisting, it was fake. No such record existed in their master file. Shocked and confused, she confronted her grandmother, Enert Mbigi, and all hell broke loose.
“The woman I had grown up to know as grandmother told me I was not related to her. She had kept me on good will because my mother had stolen me from a clinic in Seke, just after my birth. My mother who is now late, she said, had stolen me to appease her boyfriend, whom she had lied to that she had fallen pregnant.
“She even gave me a birth record that showed that I had not suckled from ‘my mother’, as proof that I was a stolen child. The world collapsed on me. Honestly, the record shows I never suckled from my mother and, to me, that confirms, I was stolen,’’ claims Chipo.
Tall and slim with an expression that seeks answers, the 19-year-old girl claims to be a victim of child theft.
“It is a painful experience to discover that all your life you have been living a lie. Finding out that the people you knew all your life are not who they say there are. And you are not even the person you thought you were.
“My grandmother told me that I was not her biological granddaughter and that Elizabeth stole me from a clinic in Chitungwiza. What hurts the most is that she said Elizabeth wanted to sacrifice me in a money-making ritual in exchange for a kombi, but the ritual backfired and killed her,” she said.
Chipo claims that her “mother”, Elizabeth, pretended to be pregnant by one Clever Tapera, also deceased, and he believed that the latter was indeed pregnant.
“Even a relative from the Taperas last month came to my grandmother to claim me but he never returned or left his contact details,” she said.
“I have also heard stories that people in the community once had Elizabeth arrested after they noticed that she was not breast-feeding.”
Chipo said Elizabeth was bailed out by her mother and they both fled Chitungwiza to stay in Tynwald. This is where I have been staying until this story broke out. Neighbours confess to hearing the child-theft story but would rather not be involved.
“It is a long story. There is a problem at that house. The story of Chipo being a stolen child is an open secret but the family tries to cover it up. It is a story that needs to be investigated. Chipo is a victim of circumstances. On a good day the grandmother confesses but on a bad day, she tells a different story. The truth is somewhere in between,’’ said a neighbour who refused to be named.
However, Mrs Enert Mbigo dismissed her “granddaughter’s” allegations saying Chipo was her wayward biological grandchild who was being influenced by devious individuals.
She claims Elizabeth did, in fact, give birth to Chipo before she died.
“My daughter passed away in August 1996 when Chipo was two-years-old and she left Chipo under my custody. I raised her as my own child and it hurts me that some people are saying she is not my granddaughter.
“I am hurt by what Chipo is doing and she claims to be staying with a man in Norton but we do not even know him,” she said.
Chipo grew up with three other siblings Nyarai, Zororo and Tonderai (deceased) and claims that Nyarai used to insult her claiming that she was not her mother’s child. After falling ill in September last year, she claims that her cousin Kelvin, one Lovejoy and her grandmother took her to a traditional healer in Warren Park who forced the grandmother to confess that Chipo was stolen from her real mother.
“The traditional healer instructed my grandmother to take me to a river inhabited by a mermaid with two elderly women and cast the evil spirit “yeNgozi” that was on me. Gogo agreed to take me to the river in the presence of the traditional healer but when we left her shrine she declined accusing me of trying to expose the family,” Chipo said.
Mrs Betty Mabhiza, Ambuya Mbigi’s daughter, was also in support of her mother saying the family had consulted the traditional healer on many matters but not on Chipo.
“Chipo was my sister’s daughter. Why would we raise a child for 18 years when she is not ours? The traditional healer said Chipo’s father would come to claim her and we are still waiting for that prediction to be fulfilled because the man who came to claim her came on his late brother’s behalf,” she said.
Chipo confesses to eloping to Jonah Jezare in Norton. Jezare said the couple was living a tormented life.
“There are nights when Chipo wakes up and is possessed by some spirit that threatens to harm us.”
He said the family has since been attending church to overcome the challenges through fellowship.
Jezare said he wanted to pay lobola to Chipo’s relatives so that they can settle down, but he was in a quandary because of the complications associated with his wife’s life.
Whether the truth will eventually come out or not, Chipo is really in quandary.
Online Reporter