Shaved hair, disappearing underwear haunts family

ACASE of mysterious shaved hair and disappearing underwear has resulted in bad blood between a Makoni man and his uncle. All is not well in the Pambana family of Bvume Village, with some family members waking up with their hair mysteriously shaved, while others complain of disappearing underwear.

Zafari Pambana who operates a grinding mill, stands accused of being the hand behind the mysterious occurrences.

Zafari is also alleged to have stolen his nephew, Simbarashe Pambana’s underwear and has been allegedly using them together with shaved hair to enhance his grinding mill business.

The matter appeared before Chief Makoni’s community court recently where Simbarashe’s mother, Florence Masimiruhad yanked Zafari, begging the court to order him to join her in consulting traditional healers over the mysterious occurrences in the family.

Making her application before the court, Masimiru said ever since her son, Simbarashe’s hair shaving incident while in his sleep, his fontanelle became very soft like a newly born baby’s. Simbarashe is in his 20s.

“At one time, Simbarashe went to stay at Zafari’s son’s home. One night, he was slapped by an invisible person. He fainted and only woke up around 5am.

“He realised that while he was unconscious, someone had shaved all his hair. This has been happening to him since then,” said Masimiru.

She also claimed that Simbarashe’s underwear and her own clothes have been mysteriously disappearing from her washing line, and spiritual healers advised them that Zafari is behind this.

“We were told that he is using my son’s hair and underwear to attract customers to his grinding mill. I confronted and told him that I wanted my son’s underwear and hair back.

“He agreed to return them, but has failed to do so up to now,” she said.

Masimiru said all started when her brother-in-law, Zafari visited their homestead and told those who were at home that he had been sent by his late elder brother to perform some rituals there.

This happened in Masimiru’s absence. “He came to my homestead sometime in November 2019 and I was not there, but my husband and children were present. I had gone to fetch firewood and my children told me upon my return that Zafari had come with home-brewed beer and told my husband that their late brother had instructed him to conduct a ritual to appease our ancestors at our homestead. Their elder brother died a long time ago.

“My husband refused,but Zafari forced his way into our kitchen hut and carried out the rituals alone. He was seen with snuff and whispering while performing the rituals,” she said.

Masimiru said soon after Zafari’s departure, her husband could not hear and talk clearly and the problem has persisted.

“Up to now, my husband is mute. Zafari performed his rituals at our homestead.

Besides that, my son, Simbarashe has been suffering from epileptic seizures from that day. He falls to the ground each time he is at our homestead.

“As a result, I am now being forced to rent a room for US$75 every month elsewhere as he does not get the seizures when he is away from home.

“I called Zafari to assist us in finding a solution to the challenges bedevilling the family, but he refused to cooperate,” she said.

She said all her six children are exhibiting weird behaviour, as some of them manifest in broad daylight, while others make strange utterances at night.

Masimiru also said snakes have become regular visitors at her homestead.

“We no longer sit outside because our yard has become a playground for snakes. It is like there is something that is attracting them there. This never happened before Zafari’s rituals. We have approached countless healers who told us that Zafari is responsible for all this,” she said.

However, Zafari denied performing the said rituals.

“These are all lies. I never went inside their kitchen hut with a clay pot. Instead, on this day, they had prepared homebrewed beer which they were selling and I was seated inside the kitchen together with my brother, her husband. I was never left in the kitchen alone, nor did I perform any rituals.

“The only rituals that we have ever performed as a family was when my brother came back from the DRC campaign.

“I suspect that all these mysterious things are happening to them because they have so much faith in traditional healers. Their shenanigans are backfiring on them,” said Zafari.

Chief Makoni referred the feuding parties to a traditional healer for the truth to come out.