The ManicaPost
Samuel Kadungure Senior Reporter
THE Kanjanda family in Honde Valley has been torn to shreds as two siblings are entangled in a ferocious war that has led to the torching of the elder brother’s kitchen hut hours after the poisoning of the young brother’s cattle.
So bad is the blood between Douglas (75) and Offard Kanjanda (66), of Mutsaka Village that, they do not attend funerals at each other’s homestead despite living a stone’s throw apart.
Offard accuses Douglas of committing a ritual murder in the 70s to enhance his now defunct grinding mill business. He argues that the spirit of the deceased Mozambican national, Thomas Dhliwayo now possesses and torments his daughter, Abigail.
Douglas refutes the allegations and accuses Offard of vandalising his property and hauling him before several traditional healers and long garment prophets who performed several “useless cleansing rituals” at his homestead.
Douglas accuses Offard and his “ritual cleansers” of stealing $2 000 that was in one of the rooms and causing his arrest to create a way for them to perform “their dirty rituals in which animal blood and milky substances were splashed all over the homestead, including the garden”.
“I have not known peace since 2011. My kitchen hut was set ablaze at night after his cattle were found dead in the kraal. They accused me of poisoning the cattle and hours later my hut was torched. What do you make of it?” asked Douglas.
“We retrieved nothing. We could not go out to investigate as we feared for our lives. The intention was to kill us. We are living hell on earth,” added Douglas.
Douglas dismissed an avenging spirit purportedly manifesting through Abigail as counterfeit since it had previously accused his late father, Leonard of the same offence before shifting the blame on him.
“The allegations that I killed someone for ritual purposes were concocted. My hands are clean. I don’t understand why a boy I fend for until he got married is destroying me this way. Offard and our sister, Tredah hired a prophet from Rusape on March 25, 2012 to cleanse my homestead.
“The prophet planted six bottles with eggs and other strange things around my homestead, vowing that the charm I had would be destroyed after a month,” he said, adding that the prophets refused to return after a month forcing him to remove the bottles with the blessings of the local traditional leadership and police.
Douglas was ordered by traditional leaders to resolve the issue traditionally or risk banishment.
“They dragged me to a female traditional healer in Dangamvura on July 16, 2012. The n’anga performed some strange rituals before Abigail started hallucinating accusing my father of killing Naboth and Lazurus Mavhiza. The n’anga further threatened us, saying the ngozi would wipe the entire family if not appeased.
“I made a commitment to solve the problem and on July 28, 2012, the n’anga came again and performed some cleansing rituals during which the avenging spirits demanded to be appeased with a wife and 10 beasts.
“Offard and Tredah influenced the n’anga to suppress the spirit (kutsipika), to which she demanded a payment of $2 000 and instructed us to get a male goat, cock, white, black and red pieces of clothes, gourd (mukombe), sorghum and chimera. I refused to the suppression idea, insisting that we appease it as per tradition. That was the genesis of the family feud,” he explained.
He said the avenging spirit shifted goal posts accusing him of killing a Mozambican after it emerged that Naboth was alive and Lazarus died recently in Mozambique.
The avenging spirit, he said, led them on a wild goose chase in Mozambique.
“We were led to a homestead which the avenging spirit claimed was its home and everyone there was shocked by the lies she peddled. That family disputed all her assertions. The name, totem and year of the ritual murder were all proven false. Offard is the best person to tell you why he fabricated all this, mwana wandakadzidzisa kusvikira kuUniversity,” said Douglas.
The family has even approached Prophetic Healing and Deliverance founder, Prophet Walter Magaya for intervention in a bid to appease the alleged avenging spirit, but it all has been in vain.
Offard’s wife, Cecilia Mutonono-Kanjanda, accused Douglas of killing Thomas in the 70s and used some of his body parts in some business enhancing rituals.
She was bitter that his spirit was tormenting her daughter and son.
She further alleged that Douglas confessed to killing the Mozambican and went on to pay a traditional admission of guilty fine (matenda ndava) at a local traditional court.
“If a spirit manifests, something is wrong. If we take joy in such things without doing what is required traditionally, do you think you will be resolving the matter? The spirit is becoming aggressive and that is why you see people destroying property, killing cattle and burning huts. At their house, 16 window panes were destroyed and 19 were destroyed here. That is revenge and revenge is sour. They are fighting at this juncture, killing each other’s cattle and setting houses ablaze,” she said.
“My son should be doing Lower Six, but the ngozi is manifesting, preventing him from going to school. I also have a girl, a graduate, who is manifesting, but in Artwell’s family the manifestation happened only twice.
“I am going back to Kacandika tomorrow to see Thomas’ family,” she said before turning hostile to the news crew for taking her photograph and recording the interview.
She threatened to report the incident to one minister (name withheld) and went to make threatening calls to one alleged law enforcing agent.
As the news crew left her homestead, her husband, a lecturer at a university called the reporter ordering him to drop the story.
“Who told you about the story? Why didn’t you come when my child died? Unozozvigona ere? I do not want that story published, if you do, you will see what will happen to you,” he threatened.
Someone who identified himself as one Advocate Samkange called the reporter a day later using +263 736420130 at 10.55am demanding that the story be dropped.
“Why do you want to write the story yekwaKanjanda. What is your interest? How did you come to know about it? How did you get there? Don’t write the story,” he said. I will call your bosses in Harare”.
