Europe's inner demons

‘I know a native woman by the name of Chirunga, she is a witch. We go about at night bewitching people. We have gone out five times. The accused came to my hut one day and said she wanted to be friendly with me. Later she came again and we went to the fields and there I made certain incisions on the accused on the hips. I applied some magic to these cuts, some white medicine. This is the same stuff that Tsatsawani had given me some years previously. The accused was at this time quite a young girl, she was not married and was still living with her parents. I explained — to Dawu, the accused, that this meant she was now a witch. I explained that we should go about at night bewitching people. Once I went out with Chirunga and the accused to see my husband. They both came to my hut, that is the accused and Chirunga. They came riding hyenas at night. We all went to my husband’s hut. They came with me in order to bewitch my husband Chidava. This was also to teach the accused. I cannot explain the reason, for this, it only comes to us in a dream. We poured some maheo

or sweet beer into Chidava’s mouth, there was bewitching medicine in it. We then sprinkled some more medicine on his body. We then left and went to bed. The accused and Chirunga then took their hyenas and rode away into the night. Three days later my husband died. A little later my two friends, the accused and Chirunga, came at night on hyenas and we all went to the place where the body was buried. We exumed the body of my husband, we skinned the body, we cut a piece of meat and took it to my hut. We reinterred the body in the grave. At the hut we cooked the meat and ate it, it was good. We departed then. Some time later we three went to visit Meke, the brother of Chidava. We all rode hyenas. Near the kraal we talked amongst ourselves and decided to kill Meke. We went into the village and we found him sleeping. We each of us laid hands on him. The next morning Meke was ill. The kraal head then came to us and said that we should not bewitch the man Meke so we relented and Meke lived. After this the accused married and went to live in Maranda’s area. Quite recently myself and the mother of the accused were attending a beer drink. A report was made to us by Maswirira. Two days later I went to visit the accused in chief Maranda’s area. I went at night on a hyena’s back. I stood outside the hut where the accused was sleeping. The infant was in the accused’s arms. We pulled the baby and later I rode off on my hyena.... We wanted to bewitch the child — I cannot tell the reason because it only came to us as if we were dreaming. We fought over the child. We wanted to bewitch the child so it would die. We wanted to eat it. The child was never dropped during the struggle. I then returned to my kraal.... ’

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