Opinion / Columnist
Avenging spirits: Are they real?
26 Mar 2017 at 10:02hrs | Views
When Pastor Charles Chiriseri died in a traffic accident in September last year, his death left the nation shell-shocked. Even those who didn't know him, felt the sorrow. That is how shocking sudden death can be, especially if it is of a public figure.
To worsen the sorrow, it took another month for him to be buried, as his congregants, friends and family prayed for the recovery of his wife, Petunia, who was badly injured in the horrific accident that claimed him.
About six months later, when the world had seemingly gotten over the sorrow of his death, intriguing stories in and around the circumstances surrounding his death started to emerge.
To those who might have missed the story so far, here is a brief summary. Soon after the accident a number of people arrived at the scene, of which Forget Chikweya, then a bus conductor, and now deceased, was one of them. He is said to have helped himself to a Samsung S6 mobile phone when he helped retrieve Chiriseri's body from the accident wreckage.
He died on November 9 last year, in a bus accident along the Bulawayo-Plumtree highway. His was the only death in that accident.
Naturally, the Chiriseri accident was attended to by the fire brigade and police. Honest Hleza, one of the fire brigade officers who attended to the scene, also helped himself to a laptop during the course of helping the Chiriseri's.
He died in December last year in a car accident, whilst reporting for duty. Of all his workmates in the car transporting them to work, he was the only death.
A colleague of his, Mtandazo Rick Dube, who is now before the courts, accused of helping himself to $200 of the money that was on Chiriseri's body, was injured in the accident that claimed Hleza. He spent some months, though, in hospital.
Dube was not alone in helping himself to the $200. Mkhokheli Mpofu, a police constable, was one of the trio that helped Dube steal the $200. When Chiriseri died, he had $505 in his pocket, an amount which was logged down and Dube, Mpofu and Tawanda Mawere (another fire officer) signed as witnesses. However, only $305 was passed to the Chiriseri family.
As fate would have it, Mpofu, the constable, while manning a roadblock just a few metres from where Pastor Chiriseri died, was knocked down two Fridays ago, by a motorist who claims he didn't see the police officer, as it was around six in the evening. Mpofu died on admission at UB Hospital in Bulawayo.
Three deaths, in different circumstances but all of a similar nature (through accidents) and all at different times – November, December and March.
That about summarises the sequence of events since Pastor Chiriseri passed away on the fateful night of September 15 last year. And this sequence of events has left social media and forums, bar talks, conspiracy theorists and all those with idle time on their hands, with a lot to talk about.
Stranger than fiction, indeed. But what have been the theories?
Touch not the anointed has been one school of reasoning. If so, aren't we told that our God is not a God of vengeance?
Or are they avenging spirits at work? But then how then do we reconcile the world of Christian faith and avenging spirits, of which the latter are said to be mainly a domain of African traditional spirituality?
Some have gone on to suggest that, most probably, the man-of-cloth might have been clothed heavily in issues to do with strengthening of powers. You probably would get the drift of this if you are schooled in African traditional religion. But then again, touch not the anointed.
And there have been another school of thought, which has largely been dismissed on account of watching too many Hollywood, or Naija, movies.
That there must be a massive cover-up going on. According to this theory, a pastor of the stature of Chiriseri would not move around with a mere $500. How many remember how much was involved when a minister's son died in another tragic accident along the Chirundu highway some three years back? The amount was said to have been in the region of $20 000.
So according to this conspiracy theory, Chiriseri might have had an amount of money, which might have been much more than the $500 reportedly logged down. If this was case, this amount might have been retrieved much before the arrival of Pastor Gordon Dube, who was witness to the logging down of the $500.
And there must be someone big, or influential, who witnessed this heist – before allocating this loot to himself. And it is this same big fish that is eliminating the small fish from the equation, one by one.
This theory, however, has been dismissed by other theorists, as lacking credibility and integrity as Pastor Chiriseri's widow could have raised an official complaint that such an amount went missing from their car. That is if she knew of the existence of this amount in their car in the first instance. Or if the amount could be explainable.
Proponents of this theory argue that they can only be convinced that these deaths happened through accidents, if and only when such evidence of the accidents has been availed. That it has been reported that they died in accidents does not mean that the accidents, in actual fact, happened.
And there have been some, who have been quick to dismiss the whole set of theories, arguing that this is just pure coincidence – people just dying one after the other. In any case, we are living in a world where we don't belong, we are mere mortals. Just visitors to planet Earth.
But those who believe in spirituality, whether African or borrowed, argue that you cannot just tamper with a dead person's belongings and get away with it. They argue that there is a world of spiritual power out there, much more powerful than we can perceive, reason why we are publicly asked if there is anyone owing, or owed by, the dead at funerals. To make peace.
To this school of thought, the three deaths are not, and cannot, just be mere coincidence, but an act of the hand of vengeance, squaring up of equations. An eye-for-an-eye scenario.
This school of thought further argues that in spite of the arrival of colonialism and its attendantism's, Christianity involved, the world has paid a blind eye to African traditions and its values, spirituality being one of them. That even if you are schooled in matters biblical to whatever level, you remain purely and truly an African, as does your spirit. Hence when your spirits are tampered with, there is room and reason for proving that one's spirits should not be tampered with, even in death. Room and reason why these three deaths occurred, albeit in different spatial circumstances and at different times.
But then again, issues of faith and spirituality are usually beyond human comprehension, they belong to the other world, a world which we don't have access to. And at times, a world which we don't dialogue with.
To worsen the sorrow, it took another month for him to be buried, as his congregants, friends and family prayed for the recovery of his wife, Petunia, who was badly injured in the horrific accident that claimed him.
About six months later, when the world had seemingly gotten over the sorrow of his death, intriguing stories in and around the circumstances surrounding his death started to emerge.
To those who might have missed the story so far, here is a brief summary. Soon after the accident a number of people arrived at the scene, of which Forget Chikweya, then a bus conductor, and now deceased, was one of them. He is said to have helped himself to a Samsung S6 mobile phone when he helped retrieve Chiriseri's body from the accident wreckage.
He died on November 9 last year, in a bus accident along the Bulawayo-Plumtree highway. His was the only death in that accident.
Naturally, the Chiriseri accident was attended to by the fire brigade and police. Honest Hleza, one of the fire brigade officers who attended to the scene, also helped himself to a laptop during the course of helping the Chiriseri's.
He died in December last year in a car accident, whilst reporting for duty. Of all his workmates in the car transporting them to work, he was the only death.
A colleague of his, Mtandazo Rick Dube, who is now before the courts, accused of helping himself to $200 of the money that was on Chiriseri's body, was injured in the accident that claimed Hleza. He spent some months, though, in hospital.
Dube was not alone in helping himself to the $200. Mkhokheli Mpofu, a police constable, was one of the trio that helped Dube steal the $200. When Chiriseri died, he had $505 in his pocket, an amount which was logged down and Dube, Mpofu and Tawanda Mawere (another fire officer) signed as witnesses. However, only $305 was passed to the Chiriseri family.
As fate would have it, Mpofu, the constable, while manning a roadblock just a few metres from where Pastor Chiriseri died, was knocked down two Fridays ago, by a motorist who claims he didn't see the police officer, as it was around six in the evening. Mpofu died on admission at UB Hospital in Bulawayo.
Three deaths, in different circumstances but all of a similar nature (through accidents) and all at different times – November, December and March.
That about summarises the sequence of events since Pastor Chiriseri passed away on the fateful night of September 15 last year. And this sequence of events has left social media and forums, bar talks, conspiracy theorists and all those with idle time on their hands, with a lot to talk about.
Stranger than fiction, indeed. But what have been the theories?
Or are they avenging spirits at work? But then how then do we reconcile the world of Christian faith and avenging spirits, of which the latter are said to be mainly a domain of African traditional spirituality?
Some have gone on to suggest that, most probably, the man-of-cloth might have been clothed heavily in issues to do with strengthening of powers. You probably would get the drift of this if you are schooled in African traditional religion. But then again, touch not the anointed.
And there have been another school of thought, which has largely been dismissed on account of watching too many Hollywood, or Naija, movies.
That there must be a massive cover-up going on. According to this theory, a pastor of the stature of Chiriseri would not move around with a mere $500. How many remember how much was involved when a minister's son died in another tragic accident along the Chirundu highway some three years back? The amount was said to have been in the region of $20 000.
So according to this conspiracy theory, Chiriseri might have had an amount of money, which might have been much more than the $500 reportedly logged down. If this was case, this amount might have been retrieved much before the arrival of Pastor Gordon Dube, who was witness to the logging down of the $500.
And there must be someone big, or influential, who witnessed this heist – before allocating this loot to himself. And it is this same big fish that is eliminating the small fish from the equation, one by one.
This theory, however, has been dismissed by other theorists, as lacking credibility and integrity as Pastor Chiriseri's widow could have raised an official complaint that such an amount went missing from their car. That is if she knew of the existence of this amount in their car in the first instance. Or if the amount could be explainable.
Proponents of this theory argue that they can only be convinced that these deaths happened through accidents, if and only when such evidence of the accidents has been availed. That it has been reported that they died in accidents does not mean that the accidents, in actual fact, happened.
And there have been some, who have been quick to dismiss the whole set of theories, arguing that this is just pure coincidence – people just dying one after the other. In any case, we are living in a world where we don't belong, we are mere mortals. Just visitors to planet Earth.
But those who believe in spirituality, whether African or borrowed, argue that you cannot just tamper with a dead person's belongings and get away with it. They argue that there is a world of spiritual power out there, much more powerful than we can perceive, reason why we are publicly asked if there is anyone owing, or owed by, the dead at funerals. To make peace.
To this school of thought, the three deaths are not, and cannot, just be mere coincidence, but an act of the hand of vengeance, squaring up of equations. An eye-for-an-eye scenario.
This school of thought further argues that in spite of the arrival of colonialism and its attendantism's, Christianity involved, the world has paid a blind eye to African traditions and its values, spirituality being one of them. That even if you are schooled in matters biblical to whatever level, you remain purely and truly an African, as does your spirit. Hence when your spirits are tampered with, there is room and reason for proving that one's spirits should not be tampered with, even in death. Room and reason why these three deaths occurred, albeit in different spatial circumstances and at different times.
But then again, issues of faith and spirituality are usually beyond human comprehension, they belong to the other world, a world which we don't have access to. And at times, a world which we don't dialogue with.
Source - sundaymail
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