Opinion / Columnist
Don't trust these sangomas
13 Feb 2015 at 10:44hrs | Views
THE story that we have today, of a sangoma that has caused panic in Makuvise Village after proclaiming that one of the villagers is a witch and trying to make that villager pay over 40 cattle to hand him a stick that he gave the alleged witch, highlights some of the things that people are being made to go through out of their fear of sangomas and fake prophets.
The easiest way to imprison oneself and live your whole life in fear is to believe in things that can never be proven and just take sangomas' words for law.
These sangomas will come to your villages and make all sorts of claims because they know your hearts are already inclined to hear such claims that seek to divide families and villages.
Once you go from sangoma to sangoma asking how a villager has died, you are only waiting for the sangomas to point to one of you as the witch so that you may start hating each other and plotting to kill one another.
The sangomas will tell you what you want to hear and then the troubles begin.
You will then start losing ALL your livestock and wealth to the sangomas - paying for crimes you never committed and being held to ransom by things as ordinary as sticks.
It is a good thing the stick in the aforementioned story will soon be burnt and then people will know that they have been duped by a fake sangoma and would have lost all their livestock to a mere conman posing as a sangoma.
Instead of labelling people as witches, genuine sangomas should find a solution that does not leave villages divided and people developing hatred and enmity that leads to crimes as grievous as murder.
There should be countrywide awareness campaigns to educate villagers about these fake sangomas that are taking advantage of mostly rural people's belief in n'angas and witchcraft.
People who are falsely labelled witches in their villages by such unscrupulous sangomas or fellow villagers should be told to report such matters to the police as it is against the law to label someone a witch - especially when it leads to the stigmatization of such an individual and his or her family.
Such sangomas are criminals and must join the over 18 000 prisoners in the country's jails.
Lawmakers must realize the detrimental effects of the actions of such sangomas and other villagers who usually push people to go along with the sangomas' claims.
These actions divide villages and cause eternal suffering to people that would have been labelled witches and therefore deserve the full wrath of the law.
The easiest way to imprison oneself and live your whole life in fear is to believe in things that can never be proven and just take sangomas' words for law.
These sangomas will come to your villages and make all sorts of claims because they know your hearts are already inclined to hear such claims that seek to divide families and villages.
Once you go from sangoma to sangoma asking how a villager has died, you are only waiting for the sangomas to point to one of you as the witch so that you may start hating each other and plotting to kill one another.
The sangomas will tell you what you want to hear and then the troubles begin.
You will then start losing ALL your livestock and wealth to the sangomas - paying for crimes you never committed and being held to ransom by things as ordinary as sticks.
It is a good thing the stick in the aforementioned story will soon be burnt and then people will know that they have been duped by a fake sangoma and would have lost all their livestock to a mere conman posing as a sangoma.
Instead of labelling people as witches, genuine sangomas should find a solution that does not leave villages divided and people developing hatred and enmity that leads to crimes as grievous as murder.
There should be countrywide awareness campaigns to educate villagers about these fake sangomas that are taking advantage of mostly rural people's belief in n'angas and witchcraft.
People who are falsely labelled witches in their villages by such unscrupulous sangomas or fellow villagers should be told to report such matters to the police as it is against the law to label someone a witch - especially when it leads to the stigmatization of such an individual and his or her family.
Such sangomas are criminals and must join the over 18 000 prisoners in the country's jails.
Lawmakers must realize the detrimental effects of the actions of such sangomas and other villagers who usually push people to go along with the sangomas' claims.
These actions divide villages and cause eternal suffering to people that would have been labelled witches and therefore deserve the full wrath of the law.
Source - H-Metro
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