WHO SHALL DELIVER US FROM THIS SWAMPY DARKNESS?

Tricky question. Death has overcome many human beings. Everywhere. Maybe because even when you read the bible, you are informed that “God has set the world in their heart (KJV), has even put eternity in their heart (NWT), has planted eternity in the human heart (ESV)." Even translators had to figure out the right meaning of the original Hebrew word “Olam,” which means eternity, or darkness, depending on the context. Is it any wonder that many people all over the world fail to come to terms with death?

In trying to understand it, people in my village have usually turned to supernatural sources such as divination. And all sorts of crooks, manipulators, and downright conmen have taken advantage of the “eternity in the human heart’’ to earn a living. They have misled communities into believing that there’s no such thing as an accident, natural death, or sickness. They will always point at a malicious causer to every illness, incident, accident, and death, regardless of the circumstances. Imagine the death of my cousin working in Switzerland, who is hit by a drunk motorist, being attributed to my grandfather at Ponga fishing camp in Lunga!

In the Bangweulu swamps, death has been used by many to inflict pain on others, to con them, and set families on fire. Nuclear families have declared war on each other, clans pitted against clans, and innocent people falsely accused and have suffered unjustified retribution.  This has resulted in backwardness, fleeing of the most progressive entrepreneurial minds to areas where they feel their investment would be safe, in addition to fueling hate against each other.

In Chiunda Ponde chiefdom, a man was set on fire right in his hut. His relatives turned their kinsman’s poor home into Gehenna. All because someone told them he was the killer of all deceased family members. The man pleaded his innocence in vain. The diviner had earned and went to his bank smiling.

Another old man was lured by his two nephews to go and consult a diviner. They had, for long, suspected him of being behind many deaths in the family. Earlier, in his absence, one diviner told the two young men to look no further; for the villain was their mother’s elder brother. And so, they took him along so he could be exonerated by divination. But, when they reached a forest, they murdered him in cold blood and buried him in a shallow pit.

Somewhere on one of the islands came a story of a prosperous businessman who was accused of turning into a predator that snatched and killed a relative to boost his business. The man’s shop and house were brutally damaged and was forced to flee the area. Their family relationship permanently soured and severed.

I can go on and on narrating these gloomy stories of many innocent victims of death in families. There’s no family in the swamps that has remained unscathed by these imprudent actions.

The most interesting thing about these all accusations is that in the long run, many of them turn out to be fake. But people never learn from past experiences. They continue to be fooled by men of far much less intelligence than themselves. All because these conmen pretend and claim to have supernatural powers to delve into the world beyond human understanding. It would be, therefore, foolhardy to leave this situation unattended while we seek development in these areas.

Can people develop without working together? If families are in tatters, how can the community unite? Should we go to school to master conflict resolution without first addressing the source of conflicts?

And the other critical question is: Can someone address this question of witchcraft in our area? Who should that be? When can that be done?

Thousands of our men and women in the swamps are not even aware of the illegality of accusing another person of practicing witchcraft. Because the accused never seek legal resolution of such conflicts, accusers are never punished for the offense. And so, the retrogressive practice goes on and on.

 

The Witchcraft Act, Chapter 90 section 3 of the Laws of Zambia states that:

“Whoever- (a) names or indicates or accuses or threatens to accuse any person as being a wizard or witch, or (b) imputes to any person the use of non-natural means in causing any death, injury, damage or calamity; or (c) asserts that any person has, by committing adultery, caused in some non-natural way death, injury, damage or calamity; shall be liable upon conviction to a fine not exceeding seven hundred and fifty penalty units or to imprisonment with or without hard labour for any term not exceeding one year, or to both.”

There you are. The government has done its part to end the circus. Who else, amongst us, shall address this darkness? Who shall enlighten our people on this? Can Lunga Development Association (LDA) and the Member of Parliament be part of the solution?

Just ruminating!