Family flees own 20 goblins

A FAMILY in Insuza, Matabeleland, has fled its home after being harassed by the father's goblins now said to number about 15.

The named family left its homestead in Village 1C after the goblins' began assaulting them. The family is said to have first moved into the bush before fleeing all the way to Bulawayo in fear of the tikoloshis that are said to now have the run of the mill at the home. The owner of the homestead left the homestead on Thursday last week, while the rest of the family including his third wife, left long before that.

According to one neighbour, Philane Jubane, the family had resorted to staying in the bush after the goblins followed them from the original homestead to a new one they were building.

He said the family had told them that they were being assaulted at night, while the women were being forced to 'sleep' with the goblins.

He also said that the man was in the habit of dressing in traditional attire and 'lying' with his dead wife on her grave. The dead wife is said to have been the first wife, while the second wife ran away in fear of the goblins arid her husband's habit of 'lying' with his 'wife'.

Jubane said his neighbours had called in tsikamutandas to cleanse their home of the goblins, but they had only managed to capture and destroy five.

He said a cleansing ceremony was arranged by the goblins' owner, with the help of the locals, The locals arranged for members of the Every Home for Christ Apostolic and Faith Mission Church.

The ceremony was held late last month and the church's leader, Archbishop Kenneth Munsaka reportedly "captured and killed" five of the goblins, Munsaka is said to have burnt them at a fire near the homestead.

"We have known about the goblins at the homestead for a while, but we could do anything about it. We were only able to help when they began harassing him and his family and he asked us to assist. The tsikamutandas who came to help managed to capture only five, but we believe he still has about I5 left that were in the bush when the ceremony was being held," said Jubane.

Jubane said the five goblins, one of which was In the form of a snake, had been captured and destroyed in front of the locals from the village. Asked to describe them, Jubane said they were like carved dols, but were 'alive'.

Interviewed by reporters, the leader of the sect that performed the cleansing ceremony, Musanka, said he had prayed to 'spirits' who had told him where to find the goblins. He said one of them, escaped, but he managed to apprehend it later and destroyed it.

During the ceremony, the owner of the homestead was asked where he got the goblins and he reportedly said he got one from his sister, while the other was a present from a Malawian friend.

He is said to have confessed that he had kept the goblins in the hope that he would get rich and be "respectable" in the community.

Mimsaka said he had asked him if the goblins had been able to enrich him and he confessed that, his material wealth was the same from the time he got the goblins.

'When I asked, him why he got them he'said he wanted to get rich. However, he told me in front

of the entire community that this had not happened and instead they had become a constant problem to him and his family said Munsaka.

The archbishop said after he had captured the goblins, the "spirit" told him to open up one of them because it had a picture of the man's children "inside" it and feared that if the picture was destroyed with the goblin it would harm them. Munsaka said he proceeded to cut the goblin open and found the pictures in its "belly".

Asked how he had captured them, Munsaka said he had done it with his bare hands since the goblins were not "aggressive".

Munsaka said although there are said to be more goblins left, they had prayed and left mhiko (a vow) to stop him from possessing anymore goblins. He said in the event that he attempts to acquire more goblins, they would cause him untold suffering.

Of the 15 goblins said to have survived the ceremony, Munsaka said they would no longer bother anyone as the vow would protect the family and the homestead.