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Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu
The recent Zimbabwean Government’s condemnation of the activities of tsikamutandas was a very welcome breath of fresh air in a rural cultural environment polluted with fraud and extortion.

On innumerable occasions at numerous places ignorant people have been intimidated and literally made to attend spatial cleansing gatherings where some of them have been labelled witches or wizards.

Those thus accused have been ordered to pay the tsikamutandas with some livestock, in most cases oxen, or cows, heifers or weaners.

On a few occasions, payment may be in the form of nanny-goats or wethers, fowls or sheep. We are unaware of cases of donkeys or pigs having been used as payment.

That does not mean that those types of livestock cannot be acceptable to the obviously cunning tsikamutandas, particularly donkeys whose utilitarian value is very high in drought-prone regions.

Pigs too are of high, dietary value to tsikamutandas who do not regard them to be biblically cursed. Pork is a delicacy during the festive seasons — Easter and Christmas.

It is quite likely, therefore, that some tsikamutandas do accept donkeys or pigs as payment for their undoubtedly extortionate services in certain circumstances.

Let us hasten to explain that we are here not concerned with how tsikamutandas are remunerated, whether it is in cash or in kind, by sexual services or however else.

Of concern to us here is that they are allowed to operate wherever they please, and that in some areas, they are encouraged and abetted by traditional and/or by other leaders.

Certain negative factors contribute to the existence of tsikamutandas. One such negative factor is ignorance, and the other is poverty.

Many communities in many African, Asian and Caribbean countries tend to attribute causes of illnesses, economic and other misfortunes to witchcraft.

A road accident, a loss in a sport, a divorce, an academic failure, a miscarriage, a drowning, an agriculturally poor season, a disappointment in love, a gambling loss, a death or property destruction by a lightning bolt, and indeed even a nightmare (because of sheer constipation or dyspepsia) may be attributed to witchcraft.

And because where ignorance is bliss, it is folly to be wise, as they say in English, it is not easy to convince some ignorant people that causes of most misfortunes are natural and other factors and not human engineered magic.

Tsikamutandas take advantage of that ignorance to extort such communities. The salvation of the affected people is, of course, in the State.

National laws must mete out effectively correctional punitive measures against those who practise harmful magic against others. To identify such people, the state must research thoroughly to be able to distinguish a witch or wizard from a traditional medical practitioner.

We should not bury our heads in the sand by denying the existence of witchcraft.

The State should, instead, actually fund and run scientific centres that can establish and maintain data about witchcraft, its sources of strength, its motivation, its aims and objectives, its practitioners, their modus operandi and its disadvantages and benefits to society.

The centres can help identify those with power against witchcraft, and that should include Christian leaders such as major prophet Shepherd Bushiri who could be senior consultants of research groups.

That project could tame witchcraft by making it scientifically understandable and usable for the betterment of humanity, and tsikamutandas could play a significant role if their services are genuine at such research centres.

An approach that merely suppresses without trying to understand a social, cultural, political or economic practice drives it underground, and turns it into a worse danger to society than one that openly analyses and exposes it.

That is because some aspects of that practice may be harnessed and utilised for the good of the people at large. Those aspects can be identified through research, by which is meant a planned and detailed investigation of a practice, an idea or issue or phenomenon.

A couple of examples to support this proposal will certainly help. A few years ago, the Zambian print media published a story about a boy who was able to create and direct lightning to strike whatever target or targets he selected.

That boy was said to be living in Lusaka’s Chilenje, high density suburb. If that boy had been properly handled by the Zambian government and qualified physicists had used him to delve deeper into that story, Zambia could most probably be an exporter of solar energy today.

Here in Zimbabwe, a year or two ago, a Harare newspaper carried a story about two women who had allegedly flown in a winnowing basket overnight from Gokwe and inadvertently landed in one of the city’s high density suburbs.

If that story was authenticated, it could have prompted Zimbabwe’s scientists, actively assisted by the State, to investigate how those women had actually done it, and today the country could be in the early stages of an aeronautical industry, very much aided with technical information by those witches!

In cases of diseases caused by witchcraft, such as those where some people are diagnosed with needles in their bodies, if those diagnoses are done by tsikamutandas, and the witches pointed out accept responsibility publicly, that could be golden opportunities for the medical profession to enter into a new radiological and surgical era.

Yes, we certainly should admit that some tsikamutandas are charlatans, criminals who masquerade as witch-finders. But it is advisable for the Government to accept that some tsikamutandas are genuine witch-finders.  In any case, why not pass a law that requires one to be thoroughly tested, in order for him or her to be certified as a qualified tsikamutanda? Anyone found operating without a certificate would be imprisoned for a minimum of say, five years.

Why legalising, tsikamutandas? Because many, one may almost say “most”, Zimbabweans believe in witchcraft and tsikamutandas. It would be unrealistic to expect most — rural-based Zimbabweans to be suddenly culturally transformed into the 21st century scientific world of cause — and — effect type of intellectual life.

Belief in witchcraft and its practice are found in various countries such as Haiti where one of its past national presidents, the late “Papa” Doc Duvalier, was said to be an accomplished wizard. He was overthrown and later died in exile.

The Indonesian archipelago are also home to witches and wizards, so are virtually all African countries, especially those lying five-degree south of the Equator, that is to say, the Bantu region of the continent.

So, the belief is deep-rooted and will take a long time to die a natural death, a development that is bound to occur as a result of a combination of the effects of modern education, belief in Christianity, and a cultural transformation due to racial social interaction.

Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu is a retired, Bulawayo- based journalist. He can be contacted on cell 0734 328 136 or through email. [email protected]