Ngozi wipes out family. . . demands 10 beasts

THE avenging spirit of a man who was allegedly murdered and his body parts used for ritual purposes in Sahumani Village, Honde Valley is on a rampage as it is causing countless deaths and untold sufferings to the family of his assailants.

The spirit is demanding 10 beasts as appeasement. Sylvester Chakambesu Nyakurimwa's avenging spirit is alleged to have caused the deaths of countless members of the Hambira family whose sons are alleged to have murdered the former. The late Nyakurimwa's last born son, Webster Nyakurimwa Chakambesu (78), recently let the cat out of the bag when he took the matter to Acting Chief Mutasa's court.

The court ordered the Hambira family to appease the spirit with the 10 beasts which the spirit is demanding. The matter was once heard by the same court five years ago, but the Hambira family has been dragging its feet to bring finality to it.

"When the avenging spirit manifested during our last court session, you the Hambiras admitted that you murdered Sylvester Chakambesu Nyakurimwa and used his body parts for ritual purposes. You were ordered to appease the spirit. You were ordered to compensate the Nyakurimwas with 10 beasts, but you have failed to do so for the past five years. You only gave them a goat and a small portion of finger millet (zviyo/njera).

"It seems you are reluctant to appease the avenging spirit. Because of your lackadaisical approach to this issue, we are now giving you a timeframe. You should come up with your own dates to have this issue finalised," said Acting Chief Mutasa in his ruling.

During the court session, the Hambira family was represented by Lazarus Hambira (46) who acknowledged that their relatives had murdered Nyakurimwa.

"The murder of Chakambesu Nyakurimwa is common knowledge within my family. The assailants are our relatives. When the issue came to light some years back, we agreed as a family to contribute towards its appeasement.

"The problem is that some of our family members no longer want to be a part of the appeasement process. They have turned their backs on us. No-one can deny that we shed Nyakurimwa's blood. We have been exposed as the culprits by a number of traditional healers. Nyakurimwa's spirit is also manifesting through some of our relatives," said Lazarus Hambira.

The late Nyakurimwa was allegedly waylaid and murdered by some of the Hambiras on his way from Nyamukwarara area of Honde Valley. The Hambiras allegedly set their vicious dogs on him and was mauled to death. After murdering him, they allegedly removed his private parts, his tongue, feet, palms and ears which were found missing from his corpse. The murderers are alleged to have sold Nyakurimwa's body parts to a local businessman whose name was not revealed during the court session.

The names of Nyakurimwa's murderers were revealed as Hillary Hambira, Moses Hambira, Ambrose Hambira and another who was only identified as Nyamukondiwa from another family during the court session. The court ordered that all the men should be present when the matter would be brought back before Chief Mutasa's court on December 25.

"Webster Nyakurimwa, the complainant whose father was murdered, should be present together with the Hambira and Nyamukondiwa families on the said day. An agreement on how the two families will appease the avenging spirit should be hammered on that day. You should also know that appeasement of avenging spirits with a girl was outlawed.

"Our law states that the appeasement of avenging spirits should be in form of cattle, other domestic animals and money. Go and consult your families and come back with something that we can work on. Your warrant of arrest will be ready then so that you can pay up and appease the spirit," said Chief Mutasa.

Deputy Manicaland provincial police spokesperson, Assistant Inspector Luxson Chananda, said they wanted time to research on what the law says on murder cases that are revealed through avenging spirits, years after the murder would have been committed.