A spirit medium claiming the identity of a Zaka man who allegedly died nearly a decade ago manifested itself through a 24-year-old daughter born out of wedlock, accusing its embittered aunt of casting a spell on one of its surviving children.
The spirit medium identified itself as the late Crispen Mapurisa Chidembo, started manifesting itself through Miriam Sondayi, last week Wednesday, in Muchakagara Village in Nhedziwa, Chimanimani.
The incident came about as members of the Zion Apostolic Faith Mission Church conducted prayer sessions in the area.
Prophet Peter ‘Baba Peace’ Khumbula, who was supposed to exorcise the spirit medium took long to turn up, and after three hours of waiting, that is from 1300hrs to 1600hrs, the avenging spirit pleaded with The Weekender to be patient in order to get a clear understanding of the saga.
“My name is Crispen Mapurisa Chidembo from Chapfuwa Village in Zaka.
“Ndiri kuda kuti vekwaSondayi vasunungure vana vangu. Kushungurudzika kuri kuita mwana wangu ndiko kwati ndive pano. (I want my in-laws, the Sondayi’s to remove the spell cast on my children).
“My daughter is in trouble because of your charms. The Sondayi family summoned me here. My daughter is now cursed because of your charms. They are not coming from my side of the family and I want you to come out clean,” demanded Chidembo’s avenging spirit.
Chidembo’s spirit pointed Miriam’s aunt – Tinotenda Sondayi – accusing her of crude bitterness and hatred.
The spirit further accused Tinotenda of causing misfortunes in his daughter’s life.
When asked to respond to the allegation, Tinotenda at first denied, nursing any grudges against her brother. However, when pressed further by family members, she owned up and confessed.
Her grudge stemmed from the manner Steven squandered all the money paid for Miriam’s lobola.
It was, however, resolved by the second eldest brother, Morris that Steven pays damages (three goats) to Tinotenda to bury the hatchet.
Prophet Khumbula finally arrived around 5pm, midway the confession.
He performed cleansing rituals on Tinotenda and Miriam by tying two porcupine spikes with red, green and white yarn to make a cross and then poured some ointment oil into a dish of milk and started shouting in some incoherent tongues.
He recovered some strange objects, which he claimed to be a warthog’s tooth in one of the bedrooms which used to be an old bedroom of Tinotenda’s son, Albert.
The other object, collected hidden in the roof, could not be discerned.
Prophet Khumbula said the aunt had incision marks (nyora) which he vowed to remove on Tuesday to mark the completion of the cleansing process
His alleged spirit medium started manifesting itself on Miriam in May 2014.
Then it was demanding that his in-laws surrender his two children to his Zaka-based family, so that they become vested with their ancestry.
The Sondayis complied with the demand.
The children were welcomed by the Chidembos and all was well until last week Wednesday when the spirit resurfaced.
The spirit’s host, Miriam, has not been eating or drinking water since last Wednesday.