News / National
Girl, 15, in spine-chilling witchcraft confessions
10 Oct 2014 at 11:26hrs | Views
IN a macabre real life drama, a 15-year-old Mutare girl stunned people who attended Acting Chief Zimunya's court recently with her spine-chilling confessions to witchcraft.
The teenage witch (name withheld) shocked the court as she narrated her witchcraft adventures which sounded more like Nigerian African movies which live little for imagination on juju theatrics.
Her confession implicated 12 other cohorts in the nocturnal game all from Mambondiani Village who, however, denied the allegations leveled against them.
Most of them were women who are frail looking showing their advanced age. However, some of the alleged witches are said to be in their early 30s.
The girl boldly confessed to being a witch since the age of 10 when she claimed to have been initiated by her maternal grandmother.
She narrated the chilling events of possessing hyenas and flying in weaving baskets to far-away lands hunting fresh corpses.
"When I was 10 my grandmother initiated me into witchcraft and inserted incision marks on me (vakanditema nyora). I was given a hyena that I would ride at night during our hunt. When she passed on she gave me her hyena called Merjury which was very big and is the one I have been using ever since.
"During the night we go out to look for meat usually fresh corpses that would have just been buried and dig them out.
"We have eaten many dead bodies in Dora and Dangamvura. We ate the corpse of sekuru (Grandfather) Mukodza's son, but the others finished all the meat and left the head for me which was very cruel of them.
"The hyenas opened the way for us and gave us powers so that we would not be seen. There were some houses we failed to attack, like at the Manhanga family shrines. We failed because they had cleansed their shrines to protect them from witchcraft (musha wavo wakagadzirwa)," said the girl.
She said she was also given two owls which also gave her power to practice witchcraft, but one of the owls was killed by her grandfather, Machoba, last year.
The teenager said one of the witches had 15 hyenas which she kept as induction tools for new recruits, while others had tokoloshis that they keep. But all of them feast on human meat, but sometimes were forced to kill people when meat was hard to come-by.
Getty Muzengwa, a widow who employed the teenager as a domestic worker said she worked for her for two-months in July and August and it was during her employment there that she started confessing about her shenanigans.
Muzengwa said when she heard about her story she called her paternal grandmother, Mbuya Machoba, who told her they had resolved the problem and she was now free from her curse.
"After her grandmother told me they had fixed the curse I decided not to be cruel and chase her away.
"However, one day in the evening there were noises outside and in the morning we woke up to see blood spilt on the wall outside and big footprints which were evidently not from a dog's paws. I asked the teenager whether she heard anything and she told me it was Merjury, her hyena.
"She said Mejury had come to get her, but she was refusing to go and the other witches were also forcing her to go, threatening to kill everyone at the Muzengwa homestead if she refused her calling. She said the blood was from a human kidney taken from a dead body at Dangamvura cemetery," said Muzengwa.
Muzengwa said after that incident the teenager opened up and confessed that ever since she started working at the Muzengwa homestead she had not slept indoors a single night as she would be out on their night-time hunting.
The teenager said she wanted a new clean life.
She further revealed that Merjury spared Muzengwa's life because she liked bread and knew Muzengwa was the breadwinner.
She said the footprints were not supposed to be seen because usually they flew but that night Merjury was running around the yard in protest.
Acting Chief Zimunya said all the 12 implicated witches were supposed to go to a traditional healer for consultation to ascertain whether or not they were witches.
He set the date for October 22 and instructed each one to look for $50 for consultation fee at the traditional healer and another $5 each for the chief's policeman who will escort them.
Acting Chief Zimunya said he would pass his verdict after the outcome from the traditional healer's consultations.
The teenage witch (name withheld) shocked the court as she narrated her witchcraft adventures which sounded more like Nigerian African movies which live little for imagination on juju theatrics.
Her confession implicated 12 other cohorts in the nocturnal game all from Mambondiani Village who, however, denied the allegations leveled against them.
Most of them were women who are frail looking showing their advanced age. However, some of the alleged witches are said to be in their early 30s.
The girl boldly confessed to being a witch since the age of 10 when she claimed to have been initiated by her maternal grandmother.
She narrated the chilling events of possessing hyenas and flying in weaving baskets to far-away lands hunting fresh corpses.
"When I was 10 my grandmother initiated me into witchcraft and inserted incision marks on me (vakanditema nyora). I was given a hyena that I would ride at night during our hunt. When she passed on she gave me her hyena called Merjury which was very big and is the one I have been using ever since.
"During the night we go out to look for meat usually fresh corpses that would have just been buried and dig them out.
"We have eaten many dead bodies in Dora and Dangamvura. We ate the corpse of sekuru (Grandfather) Mukodza's son, but the others finished all the meat and left the head for me which was very cruel of them.
"The hyenas opened the way for us and gave us powers so that we would not be seen. There were some houses we failed to attack, like at the Manhanga family shrines. We failed because they had cleansed their shrines to protect them from witchcraft (musha wavo wakagadzirwa)," said the girl.
She said she was also given two owls which also gave her power to practice witchcraft, but one of the owls was killed by her grandfather, Machoba, last year.
The teenager said one of the witches had 15 hyenas which she kept as induction tools for new recruits, while others had tokoloshis that they keep. But all of them feast on human meat, but sometimes were forced to kill people when meat was hard to come-by.
Getty Muzengwa, a widow who employed the teenager as a domestic worker said she worked for her for two-months in July and August and it was during her employment there that she started confessing about her shenanigans.
Muzengwa said when she heard about her story she called her paternal grandmother, Mbuya Machoba, who told her they had resolved the problem and she was now free from her curse.
"After her grandmother told me they had fixed the curse I decided not to be cruel and chase her away.
"However, one day in the evening there were noises outside and in the morning we woke up to see blood spilt on the wall outside and big footprints which were evidently not from a dog's paws. I asked the teenager whether she heard anything and she told me it was Merjury, her hyena.
"She said Mejury had come to get her, but she was refusing to go and the other witches were also forcing her to go, threatening to kill everyone at the Muzengwa homestead if she refused her calling. She said the blood was from a human kidney taken from a dead body at Dangamvura cemetery," said Muzengwa.
Muzengwa said after that incident the teenager opened up and confessed that ever since she started working at the Muzengwa homestead she had not slept indoors a single night as she would be out on their night-time hunting.
The teenager said she wanted a new clean life.
She further revealed that Merjury spared Muzengwa's life because she liked bread and knew Muzengwa was the breadwinner.
She said the footprints were not supposed to be seen because usually they flew but that night Merjury was running around the yard in protest.
Acting Chief Zimunya said all the 12 implicated witches were supposed to go to a traditional healer for consultation to ascertain whether or not they were witches.
He set the date for October 22 and instructed each one to look for $50 for consultation fee at the traditional healer and another $5 each for the chief's policeman who will escort them.
Acting Chief Zimunya said he would pass his verdict after the outcome from the traditional healer's consultations.
Source - manicapost
