Two witchdoctors promised to provide magic concoction with ground albino organs | |
| DEOGRATIUS MUSHI Daily News; Saturday,August 09, 2008 @20:02 | |
| Ntetema: On 17th December 2007 after filing my report to BBC World Service that since September it was feared that four albinos had been brutally murdered and also that one body was exhumed and limbs chopped off, I knew it was a serious problem which needed some form of investigation. My focus was on two areas: Who was responsible for these grisly murders? What is being done to stop it? But the 19th victim in March 2008 and the inaction of law enforcers even after the endless pleas by Tanzania Albino Society to protect the albino community and the arrests of the killers made me stop everything and start the investigation into the murders. How can anybody keep quiet after listening to a statement like this one here below from an albino? Christopher Dandendekye: "Even if the police would take up the case and arrest the culprits, it won't help. It will be just like pruning the trees but the roots are still intact. So what we are saying is that we want to ensure that the root is destroyed. We have to identify the witchdoctor who has evidence that albino body parts can bring wealth. And if this proves to be true, and bearing in mind that the economy of this country is poor, then we the albinos will sacrifice ourselves in order for our fellow Tanzanians to get rich." Q: How did you prepare yourself before leaving for Mwanza and Shinyanga? A: It was a difficult job just like looking for a needle in a haystack. Four things gave me a hint on where to start. Firstly, looking at the compass - north was the Lake Victoria Zone where most murders were committed and Mwanza had the highest number of these atrocities. Secondly, the main occupations in these areas are farming, livestock keeping, fishing and mining. The last two seem to be associated with the superstitious beliefs. The message from the witchdoctors is that one could prosper if albino body parts are mixed with a special magic potion. Thirdly, statistics show that Mwanza region has the highest number of witchdoctors with at least 3,000 registered sangomas of all types. And fourthly, I had come across a man called Shilinde, 41, who had confessed in a Sengerema Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania that he had been a wizard since he was three and that he had killed his first victim his contemporary aged eight in Magu. He said he was living in Gambusi Kuzimu (sometimes known as Gambosi or Gambushi) where he could not go back because his fellow sorcerers and witches are angry with following his first church repentance. But Shinyanga was a bonus for me. Accompanied by my host Osoro Nyawangah, a Magu freelance journalist and George Komba, a trustworthy Mwanza taxi driver I was going from one village to another looking for notorious voodoo men and women in Gambusi Kuzimu. In Magu I was told that the Gambusi Kuzimu had vanished many years ago, but if I wanted to see it, the heavies in the witchcraft could give me some medicine which will lead me into the village which Shilinde who wants to be called Daniel now says they have all professionals, all means of transport and everything you would find in a modern city. I was intrigued. But there is a limit to everything and I had to draw the line there. My task was to find the witchdoctors who are pedalling albino killings and NOT looking for the city of wizardry. However, not satisfied with day one of my investigation, and driving on my companions and I found ourselves in Gambusi village – the ordinary rural community with ordinary human beings but with a very famous witchdoctor (name withheld). There was a promising catch here! But then that was Bariadi in Shinyanga Region. Q: Was it difficult to get relevant sources to help you in your work? A: This was not a major task. Sources ranged from local government police, religious and traditional leaders, fellow reporters, victims' families and the general public. Would it surprise you if I said the speech by President Jakaya Kikwete when he condemned albino killings and ordered a crackdown of witchdoctors, their clients and hired killers? Here is what he said in March: "Experience shows that those who are being killed for witchcraft beliefs are elderly women who are accused of bewitching people and killing others. Such murders are deeply rooted in the Lake Zone in Mara, Mwanza, Shinyanga and even Tabora regions. They are carried out by a group of hired gangs and those who have been instructed by witchdoctors after tarot reading or fortune-telling… that their relatives are sick or have died because these old women have bewitched them. And the victims' families decide to take revenge against those who have bee named by the witchdoctors. "Some of the killings are instigated by superstitious beliefs that one can be a very successful businessman or woman and also in mining or fishing activities if they use human organs in their rituals. Others even believe that if one puts a child's arm when producing local alcoholic brew then the beer will be sold like hot cakes at a pub. This is ABSOLUTE RUBBISH!" Q: How many were A: I was the only one who faced the music in the witchdoctors' huts and taking you in the investigation? All the craps from these juju men and women. But I was accompanied by Osoro Nyawangah, the Magu freelance journalist and Mwanza taxi driver George Komba. They were waiting for me outside giving me assurance that they can raise the alarm in case of emergency or if I am harmed by the witchdoctors. At least they will explain what might have happened to me. The car was there ready for a quick gateway. On my second trip, the BBC TV Crew of three was there but did not get close to the witchdoctors. I had to do both the secret audio and film recording and for both our Radio and television programmes. Q: Did the witch-doctors discover or sensed your mission as you were conducting investigation? A: None of the ten of witchdoctors I visited from Sengerema, Bariadi, Magu. Lamadi to Nasa realized who I was and why I was there. I thank not only my stars but Almighty God. I have heard how ruthless some of them are when they are cornered. However, I think two of them were restless and declined from conducting the fortune telling and were quick to condemn albino killings. One of them, a lady, said as I was leaving her compound and this was after the second visit, "You are investigators, aren't you?" And another time when I thought I was about to be caught red-handed with my recorder was when my handbag fell as I was taking consultations fees from my purse. Phew, that was a close shave! Q: Can you explain the surroundings (house/environment) of these witch doctors? A: You will easily recognise the witchdoctors' compounds by the structure of their tiny round huts made of mud or sticks and grass or dry rice stalks and corn stems or reeds with thatched roofs. Most compounds are fenced with green sticky plants known as Minyaa or Minyala or jatropha trees. There are apache type miniature structures made of sticks and tied together with forest ropes at the front and back entrance and also in the middle of the complex. The apex of each structure is adorned with either animal horns or sea cowries. Many of them have grain barns and animal pens. They are always full of people whether they are patients, clients or what the witchdoctors call 'medicine children' (these are people who continue to work there for the witchdoctors after failing to pay for their treatment or services rendered to them). In urban areas witchdoctors live and operate in concrete or oven-baked bricked modern houses with corrugated iron roofs. But they will still have a compound with those tiny traditional huts. Q: Do (witches) take albinos as human beings? A: I do not think that these witchdoctors, wizards and witches have any regard for any human beings. Why would they ask their clients to bring albino organs if they valued other people's lives? After talking to some of them, as long as they get their money the life of any other human being is immaterial. Q: Can you explain your encounter with the witch doctors and what they wanted from you? A: Posing as a businesswoman interested in getting rich in the fishing and mining trade, I presented my case to the witchdoctors. The consultations included talking to a hedge and telling my problems to a chicken regarded as intermediaries between the witchdoctor, their ancestors and the spirits, or "jinns". They used old German and English coins with holes in the middle, cowry shells, pebbles, nails, nuts and bolts, screws, crosses with the little figure representing Jesus, and beads which they would shake in a red or white cloth and throw on the ground, while incense burned from all around. One by one was scrutinised and the sangomas told me what they meant. Some of them said that my parents and their ancestors were praying for me. Others said that I was being bewitched by my aunt who had six daughters. (In reality my only aunt who died in early 1990s had two sons). One juju woman told me that the Sukumas were blocking my progress. Another witchdoctor said that I my two close friends who live and eat with me in the same house were bewitching me. Another one said that I am being harmed by relatives who quarrelled with me in the past. I had to spit on a tiny chicken's head, back, tail and on my hand. It was then slaughtered, skinned and the investigation started. In other cases sticky green stems or old money notes are put between pages from the Koran. Then the witchdoctors would speak in Arabic and the local Sukuma language and translate or use an interpreter to get the message through to me. I presented the same case to all of them and got different solutions. The consultation fee ranged from $20 to $100 per session. All of them gave me different suggestions of who my enemies were - not by name but by description, but no one was able to reveal my true identity and mission. Things we do for investigative journalism! Never in my life had it occurred to me that I would one day be sitting in front of a witchdoctor. Coming from a religious family, it was unimaginable to approach or even go near the compound of such people. I met a registered traditional healer who uses African herbs to cure ailments in Magu in Magu district and the much praised hub of wizardry. This man condemned the way "conmen and foreign witchdoctors" lured locals into trusting them, before hiring murders to organise raids on homes of albinos just after sunset. Two witchdoctors promised to get me a magic concoction mixed with ground albino organs. The starting price was $2,000 for the vital organs. Another boasted that the police were among his customers and that he could make a special potion mixed with ground male and female private parts to enable people to commit armed robbery without being caught. The encounter with witchdoctor number three was in a village called Gambusi, the most feared area in the region. The compound had about eight huts around the outside, with a more elaborate structure in the middle. A forty something man in a white T-Shirt and khaki trousers with a mobile phone on his belt laughed at me when I told him that I did not come with the chicken. He demanded $2 for a tiny three-week-old chicken and $3 for the fortune-telling. He asked for $200 for the consultations and said I should spend two nights there before completing the process. But when I told him that I had only $30 he told me spend two nights there for half the treatment. I declined and he told me to go away and return when I had the full amount. When I went back with other BBC colleagues, his nephew was there to receive me. He had been groomed to inherit his father's throne which his uncle was warming for him. He said he knew what I wanted and said he would find me albino blood, hair, leg and palms for $2,000. I was charged me $55 for the initial consultations and asked me to return with the rest of the money. In Lamadi a tiny rural town which lies at the junction of the roads leading to Kenya and Uganda the witchdoctor charged me $100 for the first session and said that in August he would give me the magic potion with albino and other human organs for a price. He said that I was one day late as the vital organs have gone to another witchdoctor for a client in Bariadi. While I was there, a man came for a consultation - the witchdoctor said he was a police officer but he was wearing civilian clothes. He was made to wait until my session was over. I later was informed that the policeman told the witchdoctor that I was involved in a special investigation operation. That is when the threats started. Q: Were you shocked or pyschologically affected during the interviews? A: Shock cannot even begin to describe the situation I found myself in during and after the interviews. Grieving parents, relatives and friends, scared and frightened albinos, graves built with concrete, stones and metal bars within days of the burial, mutilated bodies of innocent albinos, including infants, charred bodies of suspected wizards, … the plea to be protected by of people like Winifrida Rutatiro and her six year old son after the murder of his brother in Misungwi, and the sobs of the mother of the late Wazia murdered on her way from school and who is worried about her other albino daughter going to the same school in Sengerema, the little girl in a Geita hospital who is not only maimed by her attackers who left with one of her legs but also very scared that they may come back for her … the brother of the murdered ten year old Rebecca who lives in hiding after murderers massacred the whole family when they tried to defend her… and then the laughter of witchdoctors when talking about the price of albino organs, and the mention of the police collaborating with the sangomas who would stop at nothing when it comes to looking for riches, inefficiency of some police quarters or failure to act promptly on information provided by victims or their families... These are the images that cannot be erased in my memory. But that is part and parcel of our job as journalists. Q: How much did it cost you to accomplish your mission? A: This is the most difficult question of all. Let me see, I need to count all the pennies: mobile phone top up vouchers, tickets car hire, accommodation, meals, hospitality for hosts, fixers, victims' families, secret audio and visual recording equipment, tapes, batteries, cables, internet access fees, fixer fees, fist aid kit, my replacement, time, psychological and physical pain endured in the course of duty, production, transmission, etc, etc…What about the anxiety that my family went through when I was away and also denying them that quality time they deserve? It is not easy to put a figure on the cost of my mission. A successful outcome is more valuable than the amount of shillings and cents spent on this trip. Q: You have been receiving death threats. Do you think your life is in danger after that job? A: I would not say death threats because no one said they were going to kill me. But I received a total of four phone calls with chilling messages such as, "What have you done now? We thought you were our genuine client! Watch your back!" And sometimes I got anonymous callers saying nothing on the line. Consider the following: I have stepped on people's toes… I have denied some witchdoctors their only means of generating income putting them out of service… I have audio evidence which states that some police officers are involved in witchdoctors' criminal activities,… I have exposed some of the illegal dealings and operations of the juju men and women including albino killings,… some Tanzanians depend on these sangomas for riches, treatment, bewitching others, and fortune telling,…. Some families may feel that they are humiliated by my report because their parents, spouses, siblings and relatives have been exposed and could be brought to book,... etc. The list is long and after receiving the scary phone calls don't you think that my life is in danger? But also experience shows that when journalists are successful results from their investigative reports, they may face threats and sometimes are attacked. My colleagues from the MwanaHalisi paper have scars to show that although investigative journalism is what the media should embark on if we are to bring about change in Tanzania, be it good governance, accountability, a corrupt-free government and society, peace and harmony or protecting human rights, there are those selfish few who would always oppose the progress in order to protect their interests. These are the enemies of the people of Tanzania and not adversaries of journalists. Q: Have you informed security organs about your threats and what has been their reaction? A: As soon as I came back from the villages, I briefed all relevant authorities at the regional level before even the BBC report went on air. I am disappointed to say that the police dragged their feet. But once the matter reached the national level, namely the DPP and the DCI, I am impressed with the speed at which operations have been conducted. They have assured me that no harm will come to me and they will ensure that those witchdoctors who feature in the investigation and their accomplices will be dealt with in accordance with the law without infringing their rights. They have also told me that their doors are open. Q: Will threats retard your efforts to do other kinds of investigative journalism? A: I would like to shout on top of my voice, "NO, [UTF-8?]NEVER!" I am even more determined now than ever. Q: Whom would YOU like to thank explicitly for what your have achieved in your work? A: I would like to thank God the Almighty who gave me the courage and protection throughout the trip, the albino community whose tears touched me and made be embark of this dangerous journey without fear, my editors in London who believed in me and gave me all the moral, financial and technical support, my colleagues at the Dar es Salaam office for their encouragement, my family and my mother who supported me and prayed for me, my Osoro and George who accompanied me to remote villages, and all BBC listeners. What I want to stress here is team effort and spirit are the key to a successful investigative journalism. One cannot work alone even if they originated the idea. Q: Do you think good financial resource for a journalist is an essential component in doing investigative journalism? A: Of course one has to be well prepared financially, morally and technically. But money should not hinder one from making a proposal to their media houses or editors indicating the intention and outcome of the investigation. I believe that professional editors will always support their journalists when the issue to be investigated is of benefit to the society. Sometimes it is worth exploring who else (in the print and electronic media can benefit from your story) will be interest in a joint venture so that you share the costs. Q: Any advice that you would like to communicate to journalists interested in investigative journalism? A: I will try my best to respond to this question without sounding as if I am in a classroom. Timing is of the essence and working in a team in vital. One has to ask themselves whether what they are pursuing is of interest to the public and whether the outcome will bring about any changes to the society. Apart from maintaining the basics such as the 5 Ws and 1 H, journalists should avoid compromising journalistic ethics even if the bare truth of atrocities affects them in one way or another. Before embarking on an investigative task journalists should take the initiative, study their topics very well, plan ahead, have an open mind, take in different views and sift those, be ready to learn, be creative, should refrain from being judgemental, always maintain the truth, balance the story and take the neutral ground (impartial). But most importantly, be ready for any eventualities, consulting lawyers when the topic is sensitive and could lead to prosecution and make sure that your idea is sellable to your editors as they are the ones who will support you morally and financially. |
--
Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm: +250-08470205
Home: +250-55104140
P.O. Box 3867
Kigali-Rwanda
East Africa
Blog: http://www.cepgl.blogspot.com
Skype ID : Kayisa66
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment