Kuuchika: Sangoma send baboons to collect debt
Innocent Ndaruza, a resident of Nyanga, is living in fear for his wife’s well-being as she approaches her sixth month of pregnancy.The source of his anxiety stems from the frequent visits of baboons to their home, who demand payment for a debt he owes to a local traditional healer known as Sekuru Chihwa.
Mr. Ndaruza, aged 29, believes that Sekuru Chihwa played a role in helping his wife conceive.
However, along with the baboon visits, he and his wife have been experiencing eerie occurrences during the night. They hear voices singing outside their home, with the voices specifically demanding that Mr. Ndaruza settle his debt with Sekuru Chihwa.
Whenever they venture outside to investigate, they find no one present, yet the voices persist in their demands. Mr. Ndaruza recounts the struggles he and his wife faced in trying to conceive prior to seeking Sekuru Chihwa’s assistance. After years of failed attempts and several miscarriages, he decided to consult the traditional healer.
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To his dismay, Mr. Ndaruza’s brother, citing religious beliefs, refused to participate in the consultation.
However, Sekuru Chihwa assured Mr. Ndaruza that the person responsible for their difficulties would fall ill once his wife became pregnant. True to his word, Mr. Ndaruza’s father fell ill upon his wife’s conception and has remained bedridden since.
Sekuru Chihwa initially charged Mr. Ndaruza $150 for his services, with a payment plan spread over two months.
Unfortunately, Mr. Ndaruza lost his job a month after consulting the traditional healer, rendering him unable to fulfill his financial obligations.
Despite his efforts to reason with Sekuru Chihwa upon raising the necessary funds later on, the healer refused to accept the payment, claiming that the allotted time had expired.
According to Mr. Ndaruza, Sekuru Chihwa warned him that his homestead would be regularly visited by baboons. Sometimes a single baboon would appear, while other times an entire troop would arrive. These unusual visitors would sit in the yard and demand the money owed to Sekuru Chihwa.
When the first visit occurred, Mr. Ndaruza promptly brought $200 to Sekuru Chihwa, yet the payment was again rejected.
The baboon visits continue to transpire once a week, both in broad daylight and during the night, accompanied by voices singing that Mr. Ndaruza must settle his debt.
This situation has left him deeply concerned for the safety of his pregnant wife.
He fears that the baboons and voices may cause harm, potentially resulting in a miscarriage, as they claim they will reclaim what is rightfully theirs—the pregnancy.
Mr. Ndaruza’s neighbor and uncle, Mr. Jack Ndaruza, corroborates the baboon visits, describing them as stranger than fiction. Witnessing the baboons’ ability to communicate vocally has left him startled, as he has never encountered anything of the sort before.
In an interview, Sekuru Chihwa denies any involvement in sending the baboons or orchestrating the mysterious events transpiring at the Ndaruza homestead.
However, he attributes these occurrences to his ancestral spirits, who seek to collect the dues owed by Mr. Ndaruza.
Sekuru Chihwa clarifies that he is merely a vessel for his ancestral spirits, who aided Mr. Ndaruza’s wife in conceiving. They performed a ritual to counteract the person responsible for the couple’s infertility.
Sekuru Chihwa claims that he never requested consultation fees when Mr. Ndaruza sought his services, as he empathized with their struggles.
However, Mr. Ndaruza failed to honor his promise of settling the payment, even though he returned five months later with the money.
According to Sekuru Chihwa, the outstanding debt of $150 has incurred an additional $300 as interest.
Yet, upon receiving this call, the traditional healer decides to show mercy. He agrees to intercede with his ancestors on Mr. Ndaruza’s behalf, seeking their approval to accept the original amount owed.
Sekuru Chihwa states that he will waive the accumulated interest, recognizing the effort made to resolve the debt.
However, he emphasizes that the payment must be made before the end of September, cautioning that failure to do so would have dire consequences.
Sekuru Chihwa said that his role is to assist people, not to intimidate or threaten them, as appears to be the case in this situation.
He stresses the importance of honoring commitments to prevent such unsettling events from occurring.
Source|Manica Post