I
have
always
been
dismissive
of
these
beliefs,
thinking
that
they
were
just
remnants
of
the
past.
How
wrong
I
was!
Supernatural
beliefs
about
livestock
are
still
very
much
part
of
day-to-day
practices
in
rural
Zimbabwe,
as
well
as
in
South
Africa and
elsewhere
in
the
region.
We
need
to
understand
them
when
responding
to
the
health
and
management
of
livestock
systems.
The
use
of
secret
charms
and
potions
Various
secret
charms
or
potions
are
used
by
stock
owners
for
various
purposes
in
livestock
systems.
A
common
magic
charm
employed
in
Matabeleland
is
‘umthuso’.
This
charm
is
used
to
enhance
the
productivity
of
animals
(such
as
getting
more
calves).
This
the
equivalent
of
‘divisi’
in
crop
farming
areas
in
Mashonaland
regions. Divisi is
a
secretive
charm
or
potion
used
by
some
farmers
to
increase
the
productivity
of
the
soil
and
crop
yields.
Such
charms
and
potions
are
used
secretly
and
are
only
of
use
to
the
owner.
If
used
on
others’
animals,
they
can
have
devastating
effects.
During
the
2011-12
season,
there
was
a
severe
drought
in
Matobo.
With
smaller
herds
and
relatively
larger
tracts
of
land,
the
households
in
Vimbi
–
one
of
the
two
A1
land
reform
villages
that
I
conducted
fieldwork
in
for
my
PhD
research
–
decided
to
lease
out
grazing
on
a
short-term
basis
to
herd
owners
from
the
drought-stricken
areas
in
the
south
of
the
district
in
exchange
for
heifers
as
a
strategy
to
build
up
their
herds.
Many
households
got
between
two
and
five
heifers
as
payment.
Yet
many
of
the
households
sold
these
animals
as
soon
as
they
received
them.
I
asked
why
they
decided
to
sell
such
valuable
assets.
They
told
me
that
they
feared
that
mixing
their
pre-owned
herds
with
the
new
animals
would
lead
to
abortion.
They
believed
that
some
stock
owners
used
the
‘umthuso’
charm
to
enhance
the
productivity
of
their
animals,
and
the
charm
would
affect
those
without umthuso if
in
the
same
kraal.
I
came
across
similar
beliefs
in
Hwange
communal
areas
where
I
conducted
fieldwork
for
my
Masters’
research
on
the
impacts
of
a
community-based
‘Holistic
Management’
programme.
Here,
stock
owners
were
encouraged
to
combine
their
herds
together
under
Holistic
Planned
Grazing
for
perceived
ecological
benefits.
However,
most
herd
owners
disliked
this
idea
due
to
fears
of umthuso,
which
was
believed
to
cause
abortion.
In
the
end,
the
sign-up
to
the
programme
was
very
low,
and
the
project
failed
completely.
A
local
veterinarian
in
Insiza
district
once
told
me
that
she
doesn’t
enter
into
a
kraal
without
asking
for
permission
from
the
owner
when
treating
a
sick
animal.
“When
I
was
new
in
the
area,
I
once
entered
into
someone
kraal
without
seeking
permission
and
he
screamed
to
me
saying,
‘Oh
no,
you
have
rendered
my umthuso ineffective’.”
It
is
stock
owners
with
very
large
herds
who
are
believed
to
use umthuso.
In
southern
Matobo,
I
was
told
about
one
large
herd
owner
with
over
200
cattle
who
could
not
sell
some
of
his
animals
to
educate
his
children.
“All
of
his
seven
children
never
went
to
school,
but
he
had
a
kraal
full
of
cattle.
Those
are muthi cattle”,
my
interlocutor
declared.
My
informants
emphasised
that
when
such
owners
die,
the
cattle
will
usually
die
too.
I
was
consistently
told
that,
“those
people
die
with
their
things
(cattle)”.
This
is
because
other
family
members
won’t
know
how
to
handle umthuso.
When
buying
cattle
for
breeding,
one
is
often
urged
to
avoid
buying
cattle
from
herd
owners
suspected
of
using umthuso as
such
animals
will
abort
or
have
still
births.
As
one
of
my
informants
told
me:
“I
bought
a
cow
from
one
of
the
farmers
in
the
village,
and
that
cow
never
gave
me
a
single
calf.
It
will
get
pregnant,
but
have
abortion
in
the
late
stages
of
the
pregnancy.
One
of
the
old
men
in
village
later
told
me
that
I
made
a
mistake
buying
this
cow
from
that
old
man
as
he
was
known
for
bewitching
the
cattle
he
had
sold.”
While
it
was
very
possible
that
the
cow
was
simply
suffering
from
bovine
brucellosis,
the
neighbours
claimed
that
the
old
man
had
used
a
potion
on
the
cow
because
he
was
‘jealous’
of
the
buyer
expanding
his
herd.
Some
herd
owners,
people
argue,
use muthi to
make
their
bulls
breed
with
other’s
cattle,
so
that
their
cows
will
experience
prolapses
or
abortions.
‘Witchcraft’
as
the
cause
of
livestock
disease
Livestock
owners
very
often
attribute
certain
animal
diseases
to
‘witchcraft’,
especially
if
they
cannot
diagnose
the
disease.
The
sudden
death
of
an
animal
with
no
apparent
cause
is
sometimes
associated
with
‘witchcraft’.
The
death
is
of
even
greater
concern
to
the
owner
if
it
is
preceded
by
strange
behaviour.
One
A1
farmer
in
Matobo
experienced
sudden
and
unexpected
deaths
of
his
goats.
He
suspected
some
type
of
suspicious
intervention.
As
a
result,
he
decided
to
dig
out
all
the
manure
in
the
goat
kraal,
and
found
‘a
lot
of
rats’,
which
he
said
were
responsible
for
killing
his
goats.
Instead
of
consulting
a
veterinarian
for
a
scientific
diagnosis
of
what
disease
was
killing
his
goats,
he
was
convinced
that
the
rats
were
responsible
for
the
death
of
his
goats.
Despite
his
efforts
to
dig
out
the
manure
and
kill
the
rats,
his
goats
continued
to
die.
Another
A2
farmer
in
Matobo
told
me
that
he
had
to
change
the
site
of
his
kraal
because
his
milking
cows
were
discharging
pus
instead
of
milk,
and
his
calves
would
eventually
die.
As
a
result,
he
suspected
that
someone
had
planted
a
charm
in
his
kraal
to
damage
the
udder
his
cows.
As
a
result,
he
was
losing
half
of
his
calves
every
year.
I
asked
whether
he
had
consulted
a
veterinarian,
but
he
said
no.
His
solution
was
to
move
the
kraal,
although
he
admitted
that
the
problem
persisted.
Yet,
to
me
the
symptoms
seemed
very
much
of
mastitis,
which
is
easily
diagnosed
and
treated.
Protective
spirits
In
2016,
when
I
began
my
fieldwork,
I
visited
the
Shashe
Block
in
the
southern
part
of
the
district
to
learn
about
‘mlaga’
(transhumance)
system
practised
by
herd
owners
as
a
strategy
to
deal
with
environmental
variability.
Once
there,
I
was
told
a
story
about
a
certain
large
herd
owner
who
had
over
1000
head
of
cattle.
“His
cattle
are
grazed
at emlageni (cattle
post)
throughout
the
year.
He
leaves
his
animals
at
large,
but
they
are
not
stolen”,
my
interlocutor
told
me.
Given
the
rampant
stock
theft
in
the
area,
I
was
baffled.
I
asked
why
this
man’s
cattle
were
not
stolen
like
others.
He
replied:
“He
has
a
strong muthi (potion).
It
is
believed
that
when
thieves
try
to
drive
his
animals
away,
they
will
see
things!”
By
‘things’,
my
interlocutor
was
referring
to
ape-like
‘tokoloshe’.
In
recent
years,
I
have
also
heard
many
stories
of
‘ngozi’
spirits
in
relation
to
loaned
cattle.
For
example,
in
my
own
village
in
Zvishavane,
there
are
two
stories
of ngozi spirits
concerning
(loaned)
cattle.
In
the
early
2000s,
following
land
reform,
a
man
in
our
village
asked
his
neighbour
to
loan
(kuronzera)
him
20
head
of
cattle
because
he
had
acquired
an
A1
plot
and
had
no
cattle.
The
neighbour,
a
single
old
woman
who
had
acquired
the
cattle
through
traditional
healing,
agreed.
The
agreement
was
that
the
loanee
would
get
manure,
milk
and
draught
power
in
exchange
for
looking
after
the
cattle.
The
loanee
then
moved
the
herd
to
his
newly
acquired
farm.
Years
later,
the
loanee
started
selling
the
cattle
without
the
knowledge
and
consent
of
the
cattle
owner.
The
cattle
owner
decided
to
recall
the
herd
but
found
out
that
only
five
cattle
remained.
A
conflict
ensued,
but
the
cattle
owner
passed
away
a
few
years
later
before
she
was
paid
back
her
cattle.
Today,
rumours
abound
that
the
late
cattle
owner’s
avenging
spirit
is
demanding
her
cattle
back.
It
is
claimed
that,
because
of
the
haunting
by
the ngozi spirit,
the
loanee
joined
the
‘Mapostori’
religious
sect
in
order
to
seek
protection
from
the ngozi.
In
another
story,
I
heard
about
a
woman
who
died
and
her
children
decided
not
to
pass
on
her
‘mombe
yehumai’ (cow
of
motherhood)
to
her
maternal
relatives.
A ngozi spirit
returned,
demanding
that
the
cattle
to
be
given
to
her
relatives.
It
is
claimed
that
the ngozi spirit
was
causing
infertility
and
marriage
problems
amongst
female
children
and
other
misfortunes.
The
children
made
monetary
contributions
and
bought
a
cow,
which
they
then
gave
to
their
maternal
uncles
(vanasekuru)
to
settle
the ngozi spirit.
In
sum,
supernatural
beliefs
around
livestock
(especially
around
cattle)
are
still
important
today,
influencing
livestock
management,
loaning
practices
and
animal
health
treatment.
While
some
beliefs
such
as ngozi are
effective
at
claiming
stolen
wealth,
others
are
clearly
problematic,
particularly
when
it
comes
to
failing
to
diagnose
easily
treatable
animal
health
problems.
Whatever
you
think
of
these
practices,
they
remain
an
important
part
of
livestock
systems
in
Zimbabwe
today
and
should
not
be
ignored
as
I
had
been
doing
until
conducting
my
research.
This
blog
was
written
by
Tapiwa
Chatikobo,
post-doctoral
researcher
at
PLAAS,
UWC,
South
Africa.
It
first
appeared
on Zimbabweland
Post
published
in:
Agriculture