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Reclaiming our spiritual independence

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IN the last episode, we began to look at how ngozi spirits are provoked and how they are appeased through payment of restitution.
It is commonly understood among Africans, that the spirit of one who is grossly wronged in life can, after death, return to demand justice from the culprit.
This is the ngozi spirit we are talking about.
It is not a demon or evil.
It seeks restitution for wrongs or crimes committed.
The amount of restitution will vary with the nature and gravity of the crime.
But let us leave these details for later episodes in our discussion.
The important question is how do we identify a ngozi spirit?
This week let us begin by finding out how a family comes to know that a ngozi spirit is affecting the family.
The term ngozi (Shona) or ingozi (Ndebele) denotes grave danger that can cause a catastrophe or destruction of life and property.
When a person behaves strangely and commits inexplicable acts that may endanger the life and health of others, people will often wonder if the individual is possessed by a ngozi spirit.
People will be heard to remark “Ah, asi unengozi nhai?/Ulengozi yini?”
So one sign that can denote presence of a ngozi spirit is strange unusual behaviour by one or more members of a family.
A once off occurrence will not raise alarm, but repeated acts of strange behaviours will invoke strong suspicion that a ngozi spirit is in action.
As T.N. Munhumutema explains in his book Mhuri ye Zimbabwe, the severity and scale of the events will often reflect the degree of anger of the aggrieved ngozi spirit.
In a family where a ngozi spirit is in action, roofs of houses may be blown off, catch fire or be struck by lightning.
During this initial phase, usually no deaths of family members will occur.
We can call this initial phase the‘notification phase’.
Family members will react by coming together and arranging to consult relevant diviners (mashopero/izangoma) so as to identify the ngozi spirit, establish the offence committed, the culprit family member and the nature and quantity of restitution required to settle the matter.
Where the offender or his family fails or refuses to recognise the alarm signals and to react appropriately, the ngozi spirit may move to the ‘offensive phase’ where it causes deaths among family members in various strange ways.
Ngozi-induced calamities including deaths may occur regularly.
Deaths induced by a ngozi spirit may come through road accidents, fire (kutsva nemoto), suicide by hanging (kuzvisungirira), murder (kupondwa), drowning or some other strange ways.
Freak accidents resulting in death are also indicative of ngozi in action if they occur regularly and target only certain families.
The key feature is that the events are repetitive and occur among closely related families.
In another category of ngozi-induced events, misfortunes, but not deaths are visited on the culprit’s family.
Daughters or sons from a family may fail to get married; chronic illness may dog family members.
Again if the family consults appropriately, they will discover the cause and be advised as to the restitution required to settle the matter.
Some ngozi spirits will possess a member of either the offender’s or the victim’s family and use such person as a medium through which they speak openly to identify themselves, the nature of the offence and the restitution that is required.
In murder cases were the victim’s body was not recovered, the ngozi spirit-possessed individual may lead people to the location of the remains and detail the events surrounding the murder.
In other instances, the ngozi spirit does not possess anyone, but still causes problems for the offender’ family.
To find out the source of the problem, family members will consult at least three or more spirit mediums, diviners, n’angas or prophets.
That is standard practice among Africans who follow their traditions.
The ngozi spirit will communicate its requirements through the spirit mediums or n’angas consulted.
As with all exercises seeking to establish the truth, consulting several different diviners removes bias and allows for some form of triangulation, itself a scientific method of determining the unbiased facts.
If all or the majority of diviners consulted identify the same source of the ngozi problem, the family is likely to accept and act on that position.
The nature and conditions for restitution are also established during these consultations.
Where the ngozi spirit is ready to receive restitution, it will communicate its needs clearly; but where the spirit is not ready to engage the offending family, diviners and others may fail to establish its identity or the offence giving rise to its actions.
In such cases, the ngozi spirit will continue to torment the offender and his extended family until such time as it is ready to open up.
Now turning to how ngozi spirits are appeased.
Some ngozi-affected people go to church where the pastor exorcises the ngozi spirit to leave the affected person alone.
This is a temporary reprieve.
The spirit will go to other family members and demand restitution for the offence committed.
They say in Shona, “Mhosva hairovi,” which is to say the case will not disappear or go away; it will continue to haunt the extended family who share the same blood with the culprit until restitution is paid in full.
One suspects that a good proportion of the thousands flocking to churches today are trying to avoid paying restitution for offences committed by themselves or their relatives.
Many have been brainwashed to deny their African roots.
Instead of stopping and confronting their real sins and paying restitution, they seek to hide in the church and to dismiss the ngozi as a demonic spirit.
Can we condemn all those who have been wronged as ‘demons’ just because they dared to demand justice?
Families hit by a ngozi spirit may engage a n’anga to perform rituals to disempower the ngozi spirit.
This is called ‘kutsipika’ and is equivalent to lulling the ngozi spirit to sleep or in some way casting a spell on the ngozi spirit so it loses its bearings and stops tormenting the culprit family.
Usually ‘kutsipika’ ritual is done by one out of a whole clan.
It provides temporary relief, leaving out the rest of the extended family who continue to be tormented by the ngozi spirit.
The ‘kutsipika’ ritual is a temporary measure which may keep the ngozi spirit at bay for some time.
Gradually, over the years, the effects of ‘kutsipika’ wear off.
The ngozi spirit, because no restitution was paid, will resume its assault on the culprit’s family.
Often the younger generations may have no recollection of the offences that provoked the ngozi spirits, but ignorance will not be an acceptable defence.
Many go to churches where they are taught to shun African spirituality and institutions such as spirit mediums who can explain the causes of these ngozi spirits and how to rectify the situation.
Such people are unable to access the various traditional strategies used to appease a ngozi spirit and may remain tormented for a long time.
That is the reason why it is generally accepted in African society that with ngozi there is no short cut.
The best way to appease a ngozi spirit is to pay restitution (kuripa) in full.
Some offenders get arrested by the police, go to court and are jailed for varying periods.
Readers should note that sending the offender to prison is not equivalent to paying restitution.
The ngozi spirit will still come knocking at the family’s door any time.
Many families have had the experience of settling the ngozi spirit’s demands by paying restitution even after the offending family member has served the prison sentence.
In African spirituality, the whiteman’s jail is not recognised as a justice delivery tool.
We shall continue to look at how restitution is paid for different types of ngozi situation in our next episode.

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