Brilliant Mukaro
BIKITA – A haunted family from Murahwa village under Chief Mkanganwi is living in constant fear with mysterious stones reportedly hitting them whenever they set their foot outside.
The Musirinofa family suspects that the bizarre incident is being caused by an avenging spirit (ngozi) of a family member killed by the father.
Since the attacks began, Koniwai Musirinofa was living alone, locking himself indoors to save himself from the stones that are reportedly hurled from all directions, hitting the doors, windows and roofs whenever he set his foot outside.
The old man has, however, now been given refuge at the home of one of his sons, with his own haunted homestead now abandoned.
Headman Murahwa, Godfrey Murahwa, who lives close to the Musirinofa homestead, confirmed the predicament of the family.
Murahwa said the weird happenings began in December last year when the elderly Musirinofa was working in one of his fields.
He said a sack containing maize seed started ‘leapfrogging’ on its own before vanishing into thin air. Utterly shocked, Musirinofa tried to run after the sack but his walking stick was snatched from him and it also disappeared.
This was, however, only the beginning as the stones menace was soon to come, preventing the family from going outside and to work in their fields.
Murahwa said a village meeting was recently held after Musirinofa had spent the whole night yelling for help. At the meeting, the distraught Musirinofa revealed that his bed had been turned upside down before stones began falling on the bed which had trapped him.
One of Musirinofa’s sons who declined to be named for fear of disrupting family ties said the family also convened its own meeting where elders asked Musirinofa to confess whatever he could have committed.
He said his father made a horrendous confession that he was behind the death of his daughter, their sister, back in 2004. After the confession, Musirinofa began living under self-imposed house arrest for fear of the stones.
This reporter could not risk going near the house after a close neighbour, Dennis Mugari warned that people who had previously tried to reach the place to give Musirinofa advice had also fallen victim to the stones.
Looking from a distance, the reporter managed to see scattered stones at the homestead where a house with cracked walls and broken windowpanes stood.local
