The sad
incident orchestrated by a self-styled prophet has also ignited debate about
the existence of mermaid spirits, popularly referred to as manjuzu.
A sojourn by
five young women into the wilderness of Bindura in the Chief Masembura area
ended in tragedy.
The self-styled
prophet who was leading them explains what happened.
“I went with
some women to pray and I wanted to invoke the mermaid spirits. These people had
their own issues and during this process one of us was taken by the spirits. We
then went into the water to try and rescue her and one of them died, in the
process, my wife also died during the rescue,” he said.
Headman
Masembura warned people not to play with sacred water bodies.
“These are
sacred waters, and there are underground spiritual creatures there. So, every
time you go there you must follow proper rituals and you must ask the leaders
of this place. We asked these people what exactly they were doing and this
self-styled prophet said he brought rice, sweets and biscuits and wine to
appease the mermaid spirits of their deceased colleague. In this river, we have
never heard of mermaids but spiritual things are hard to understand because
there are spiritual beings under water so it could be like that,” said the
Chief.
Manjuzu or
mermaid spirits have become a hit among young women who believe that if you are
born with this spirit or nurture such spirits you can become rich or famous.
But do manjuzu
really exist?
“The thing that
has happened here is shocking, some people are just saying we are mermaids but
there are procedures to be done and people who go down with people to rivers
should have spiritual eyesight,” said Sekuru Nzou, a traditional healer.
“What I know
regards manjzuu is that there are real manjuzu and those which are fake, those
who buy fake mermaid spirits use magic and they can end up in Satanism, there
are three types of mermaid spirits, they are manjuzu enhope, they dream of
spirits and fetch medicine in rivers, then there are some spirits who make
people rich.
“Manjuzu are
there but many people especially us young women, are abusing them and being
conned by fake prophets all in the name of getting rich quickly. So, if you go
to rivers with a hidden agenda you can end up drowning because you won’t get
along with the mermaid spirits,” explained an expert on the matter, Nyasha
Simon.
What is evident
is that manjuzu do exist but like any religion or spiritual field the world of
marine spirits is difficult to understand.
As with
Christianity, the proliferation of fake prophets exists in African traditional
religion, thus calling on traditionalists to be vigilant in safeguarding their
culture. ZBC
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