After all Gokwe is just like any other place

…Chief Njelele speaks on mysterious happenings in his area

By Robert Zvidza

The old Shona saying which says; Hakuna dunhu risina muroyi loosely translated to mean; there is no land without witches, may, on face value, seem false if one is to read on the happenings in Chief Njelele’s area in Gokwe South.

The stories that are emanating from the area seem to suggest that Gokwe is where all witches are made to stay. Forget the Zaka stories back in the day when a purported lighting manufacturer left the Zaka police officers shell shocked when he had gone to surrender his tools of trade.

The Zaka man is believed to have demonstrated his lightning manufacturing prowess on a tree at the station which today stands there half dry.

But for Gokwe, hardly a day passes with no stories associated with witchcraft being reported.

Chief Njelele born Moses Misheck Njelele, however, argues that Gokwe is just like any other place in the country and says it is only that their policy is to publicize anything that is connected to witchcraft which occurs in his area to shame the doers.

“These cases are not particular to Gokwe alone but they happen everywhere in the world including the European nations where they have vampires. It is only that we have made it our policy here that all that which happens in our area, we have to tell it to the people so that it is exposed. Others tend to hide such incidents.

“There are a lot of stories that happen in the country, some even worse than what happens here. Recently, there was a story of a pregnant lady who gave birth to a pair of slippers but it did not make noise because it was hidden from the public eye,” said Chief Njelele in a long-ranging interview with this magazine in Gokwe recently.

He however confirmed as true most of the stories that have been reported in the local papers.

It is in his area of jurisdiction where 26 ladies from Village Head Pauro and Chariseka under Chief Njelele mysteriously woke up one morning without their undergarments despite going to bed with them on.

The panties are said to have been found stashed in a bush and 17 women positively identified their undergarments in the presence of the police with the remaining ones not finding owners may be due to their state.

The Outpost confirmed an incident where the Chief instructed the two Village Heads to conduct a cleansing ceremony with their subjects. At one of these ritual ceremonies, a more mysterious event occurred. It is said that a big eagle came and picked a full-grown dog from the homestead of Village Head Pauro were the cleansing was supposed to be carried out. This occurred in full view of the villagers. The headman immediately abandoned the cleansing ceremony.

It is in Chief Njelele’s area also the place where, in July last year, three children aged five, two and three from the same homestead in Mhokore Village died one after the other in a space of three days.

The deaths of the three siblings came following utterances by a local village head that three members of the family would die in mysterious circumstances to compensate for his three chickens that were accidentally killed by one of the family members.

In a more recent case, a woman from Sidojiwe Village who was pregnant is said to have gone into labour and gave birth to a frog-like creature in a case largely linked to witchcraft.

These, though they seem as scripts taken from horror movies, they are only a pick from most cases that have occurred in Chief Njelele’s area in recent years, most of which are all are witchcraft-related. These cases, says Chief Njelele, emanate from marriage disputes, infidelity or adultery. He also said some cases normally occur during the ploughing season where they fight for farm boundaries and also during harvesting time.

But how did he handle such cases which already seem insurmountable and rampant?

He said he always involved police in the cases but at the end they have nothing to do with the cases as general law and customary law sometimes do not mix.

“As the custodians of the culture and ubuntu in Zimbabwe, when anything happens in my area which is culturally related, I am the first person to know and where we feel the police can be called in, we call them and sometimes we are advised to deal with the cases at my courts which I preside over.

“We have had many cases, which we have sent to court and they end up losing it because of inconsistencies between customary and general law. Witchcraft is there and it’s real, our laws should punish people who engage in these activities and Zimbabwe Traditional Healers Association (ZINATHA) should also work with our courts so that such cases are clearly examined fully,” said Chief Njelele.

Officer-In-Charge Gokwe, Chief Inspector Shellington Mhlanga concurred that they are times they get information on what will be happening in the villages but when we get on the ground no one would volunteer information.

“Villagers here seem comfortable with what their traditional leaders prescribe. They prefer a traditional solution to their problems in the form of inviting witch hunters.

Even though there are some cases where a crime might have possibly occurred; they don’t open up to police or make any report. Sometimes we learn of it from the media,” he said.

But Chief Njelele maintains that culture doesn’t change and the only solution to witchcraft issues is dealing with it through cleansing ceremonies. During the cleansing ceremonies - a hen, goat or a even a beast is slaughtered per the traditional norms and values to cleanse the evil spirits which will be wreaking havoc in the community.

“I deal with qualified people who are vetted and cleared by ZINATHA to partake these ceremonies sometimes on request of villagers. All we want at the end of the day is for the sinner to make himself well to the community,” he said.

Gokwe is largely a settlement of diverse people from across the country who many believe were chased from their original places due to witchcraft activities hence the name of one of the places there being named Gandavaroyi.

However others argue that people came to Gokwe in search of fertile lands after their original home soils no longer offered much food in the fields without applying soil nutrients.