By Phyllis Kachere recently in Honde Valley.
“IN the commotion, I heard several voices of the Mukonas yelling that they were not leaving our homestead without me.
“I could hear my mother pleading with them that I was not at home and that she would accompany me to their homestead in Honde Valley.
“Escaping through the granary window was a non-starter as I was going to land right into the hands of the Mukonas. My mother’s pleas fell on deaf ears and eventually she was forced to fish me out of my hiding place. We were bundled together into the vehicle that the Mukonas had brought and taken away.”
As 17-year-old Varaidzo (name changed) Nyabunze of Matunduwere Village in Nyanga’s Tombo II area narrated the ordeal she suffered at the hands of the Mukona family who abducted her in March in the long-running saga of appeasing the avenging spirit of their dead relative, a stream of tears silently cascaded down her cheeks.
Varaidzo is the fourth girl to be taken away from the Nyabunzes as compensation to the Mukona family for the murder of Cloud Sundai Mukona, believed to have been murdered by her great-grandfather Sebastian Nyabunze in the 1930s.
No murder record relating to the matter exists at the Nyamaropa Police Station.
After failing to report for school at Crossdale High in Nyanga where she was doing Form 4, Varaidzo said the headmaster, Mr Mandikutse, later advised her father, Mr Thomas Nyabunze, to make a police report.
Explaining from his home in Tombo II, Mr Nyabunze (52) said he was away when the Mukona family members, some of whom were identified as Junia (35), Cloud Jnr (52) and Violet (30) came to his homestead and abducted his daughter Varaidzo.
“I then made a police report at Nyanga Police Station, but they advised me that I should make a report at my home station, which is Nyamaropa Police Station,” said Mr Nyabunze.
“They eventually accepted my report, but they said they would hand over the docket to Nyamaropa police.
“After the report, I was given a letter to take to Ruda Police Station in Honde Valley where two police details were assigned to rescue my daughter Varaidzo from the Mukona homestead near Muparutsa School,” said Mr Nyabunze.
Mr Nyabunze said during the rescue, police told him the named Mukona family members would be charged with kidnapping a minor, but until today, no one has yet been charged.
Ruda police confirmed to The Sunday Mail In-depth that they had indeed rescued Varaidzo and that Junia Mukona had been arrested by their colleagues from Nyamaropa Police Station.
“A Constable Topera from Nyamaropa Police Station came here and arrested Junia Mukona. Another elderly woman from Mukona came here and caused a stir claiming to be possessed and demanding that Junia be released,” said a police officer at Ruda, who declined to be identified as he is not authorised to speak to the Press.
“But I don’t know what later happened as we only assisted Nyamaropa police in locating the village.”
Both the officer-in-charge and his second in command at Nyamaropa Police Station professed ignorance over the matter and referred this reporter to police in Nyanga district where the officer commanding the district, Chief Superintendent N. Moyo, also professed ignorance over the matter but promised to investigate.
Violet Mukona, who was part of the group that abducted Varaidzo, said she and her sister Junia were being possessed by Sundai’s spirit in turns and it is that spirit that pushed them to go and take Varaidzo away.
“My sister Junia is the one who started to be possessed by uncle Sundai’s spirit,” she said.
“It demanded that we go and take a fresh bride from the Nyabunzes and we obliged. The Nyabunzes know their obligation and they gladly offered us Varaidzo.
“We were surprised to see Varaidzo’s father coming with policemen to take her away and arrest Junia.
“This is a long-running story and the Nyabunzes know their obligation. This spirit is the one that led us to take her.”
Violet also narrated how several Nyabunze girls had been offered to her family only for them to go back and find other men to marry them.
“This matter has been dragging on and on for too long,” said Violet Mukona during an interview at her home in Muparutsa Village.
“The Mukona family men who are supposed to be marrying these girls have not been forthcoming. Their wives have advised them against marrying the girls, but Uncle Sundai’s spirit is manifesting through my sister and I and is forcing us to go and get girls from the Nyabunzes.”
Violet Mukona said after Junia was arrested, police later released her and said she had no case to answer.
Mr Nyabunze said his family only became aware of the alleged murder by his grandfather in 1961 when his then 18-month-old Grace was handed to the Mukonas as appeasement for Sundai’s avenging spirit.
The handover, he said, was after the Nyabunzes were struck by a spate of mysterious deaths and events at their homestead, which a traditional healer attributed to Sundai’s avenging spirit.
“Grace grew up with the Mukonas until she was 18 or 19 when she joined the liberation struggle. At independence, she came back and went to the Mukonas who said they did not want to have anything to do with her because aive abata unga (she had been spoiled by gunpowder).
“They sent her back and demanded a fresh girl, leading to my other sister Norah (who was then 21) being handed over. Norah lived there for about five years and in the fifth year they called us and said she was sick,” said Mr Nyabunze.
Apparently, Norah had fallen victim to some strange sickness that resembled mental illness, said Mrs Emerentia Nyabunze, an aunt to Mr Nyabunze.
She said Norah was treated by a traditional healer and recovered, but the Mukonas sent her back in 1994, demanding a fresh bride “immune” to such illnesses.
“In 1995, I was forced to give up my daughter Monica who was doing Grade Four then. I pleaded but to no avail. They (Mukonas) took her and lived with her until she was around 19 or 20 years old,” said Mrs Marian Nyabunze, Varaidzo’s mother.
And Monica left the Mukonas to get married to another man, prompting yet another frenzy from the Mukona women who became possessed and forcibly took her away from her new husband’s family.
“Monica knew she was bequeathed to us. Why her parents allowed her to marry another man is beyond our comprehension. So we took her away from her husband and told the Nyabunzes that she could not go back until they gave us a fresh bride to replace her. And that is when we started to demand that Varaidzo be brought to us,” said Violet.
When the Mukonas took Monica from her new husband’s family, Mr Nyabunze said he had to secretly go and rescue her, but his wife, Varaidzo and two aunts remained hostage to the Mukonas.
“My wife, Varaidzo and our two aunts were only rescued by the police as the Mukonas would not let them leave, insisting they would only leave after Varaidzo had been taken to one of the Mukona men who lives in Mutare,” said Mr Nyabunze.
Sub-Chief Mary Muparutsa, under whose jurisdiction the Mukonas live, declined to comment, saying she was not aware of the matter.
“Besides, the issue of the avenging spirit is a contentious issue that has left chiefs and other traditional leaders divided. One group insists girls should form part of the payment to an avenging spirit while another group says it’s a violation of one’s human rights. So I don’t want to comment. These people never brought this matter to my attention,” said Sub-Chief Muparutsa.
There is a common belief in Zimbabwe that a murdered person should be compensated by a virgin girl, but it is a criminal offence under the Domestic Violence Act to use a girl or woman as compensation for avenging spirits or to bequeath a girl in marriage in exchange for material gain.
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