Last week, our nation was privileged to host the landmark World Health Organisation (WHO) Health Summit in Lusaka. During his keynote address, President Hichilema raised an issue that couldn’t easily escape our attention.
“I’m an African who does not believe in witchcraft, I want to tell people to reduce on this and embrace the use of vaccines.”
Such sentiments couldn’t have come at a better time than this one as they resonate with some of us. In this era of computer age, we expected our people to have emancipated themselves from such warped reasoning and backwardness by now! Alas, many of us still see it prudent to visit the witch doctors when we are diagnosed with HIV/AIDS who advise us to defile minors if we are to get cured. When someone dies in the family, we look around for the nearest “gogos or madalas” and attach the tag of wizards who are “eating us” on them! In the place where we come from or in Luapula, there’s still a strong belief that humans can turn in crocodiles to prey on their enemies; honestly…..how long will it have to take for this education we sit in classrooms pursuing to completely erase the witchcraft mentality from our minds?
In 2019 I found myself driving to my home village, Zambezi in the company of a colleague during the proverbial witch hour. As we approached a small town called Mufumbwe, I saw three hyenas transfixed on the middle of the road. I systematically elbowed my friend who had already transitioned into the Dream Land and snoring, spasmodically.
“Are we safe where we are going,” his mumbled. “Someone is trying to bewitch us, stop the car…..”
Nonsense! I pressed the accelerator hard on the floor of the car as my friend protested, vehemently! In no time, the three creatures were scampering in different directions.
As we finally got to Mufumbwe, I pulled up at a layby to deliver a small lecture. I explained to the gentleman we had just driven through what used to be rebel leader, Adamson Mushala’s sanctuary, the Jivundu Game Reserve.
“Before Mushala and of course the poachers wreaked havoc, the reserve was home to a variety of game, including the big five….” I laboured to explain. “What is left now is just small game and the hyenas.”
I was flogging a dead horse, of course; he continued eyeing me incredulously.
Around that period, I was embroiled in a war of words with an uncle who was somehow convinced my aging mother was a wizard hellbent on drinking his precious blood and making choice meat of his flesh, so I could become a Chief…..
Anyway, we made it into Zambezi and came back alive. Bashi Muzo, does this ring a bell?
Our continued belief in witchcraft drives me crazy! Surprisingly, it’s not just the villagers who are still stuck with such stone era beliefs, but even the learned, including the elite in affluent neighborhoods. Even on the impasse regarding the burial of former president Edgar Lungu, it’s shocking to hear his relatives and cadres hallucinating that someone wants to use it for rituals.
If we want to insist witchcraft is real, how come we can’t use it to our advantage ……come up with Earth shattering inventions or even the cure our life debilitating ailments such as HIV/AIDS, cancer or Ebola?
If we can indeed turn into crocodiles to sort out our enemies, what’s stopping us from turning into Lions or pestilent that may bring terror to the world until everyone comes to beg for leniency from us? What about sports…..we are ever the weeping boys at world tournaments; what’s stopping us from using witchcraft to win the world cup? Or witchcraft can only work in the African set up? My foot!
Prince Bill M Kaping’a
Political/Social Analyst
Zambezi
2 Corinthians 11:14
And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
He likes it when people think he doesn’t exist