[Some “supernatural” fun in Africa. Don’t know what to make of it. I don’t take it too seriously. Jan]

By: Chrispin Inambao & Katima Mulilo

SEVENTEEN solar panels and a water tank are what make Makusi quite
different from other thatched settlements whose people can only envy this
infrastructure.

In fact, the Government erected the solar panel at Makusi Solar to power a
water pump that caters for the needs of livestock and the 17 villages
clustered around it.

A closer look reveals that most of the thatched huts at Makusi Solar, some
65 km outside Katima Mulilo, have crumbled and there is very little human
activity going on.

Another closer look shows there are no free-ranging chickens, no dogs and
no livestock foraging about.

The village is deserted apart from the people from nearby villages who
jealously guard the solar panels and the water tanks that are solely meant
for their use.

Volunteers from the 17 villages guard the facility around the clock, as
they fear it might be vandalised. Women are tasked to do the daytime shift
that is seemingly less risky.

The inhabitants of this once thriving village fled from what they strongly
believe are supernatural activities that took place at Makusi and involved
some genius of evil.

One morning a few months ago, three people and a dog died after they
reportedly witnessed something spectral.

It all started with the dog that howled loudly and died on the spot. When
an elderly woman Kahose Muhandu went to investigate the cause of the
howling, she also screamed and died just some minutes after she staggered
into her hut.

Survivors say the dog’s howling was blood-curdling while the elderly
woman’s screams were spine-chilling.

And a minor Kubilwa Kubilwa, who witnessed the death of his grandmother,
fell sick and he also died within a few minutes while another inquisitive
villager paid dearly with her life just some minutes after she also tried
to find out what the commotion in the other hut was all about.

A few minutes after the howling and after the dog had its last breath,
three villagers lay dead at Makusi Solar in the Kaliyangile area in the
Sibbinda Constituency in Caprivi, so the story goes.

Before the three villagers died, four others also lost their lives under
highly mysterious circumstances at the village.

The seemingly unearthly happenings at the once thriving settlement were
confirmed on Tuesday when New Era visited the village that has been
deserted by those related to the victims. These seemingly spectral events
were confirmed by Victor Bona and by his uncle Watson Kachelo, who is the
headman at Makusi and who is still grief-stricken.

A health official at the State hospital at Katima Mulilo who is related to
the victims also confirmed the stranger-than-fiction events that befell
Makusi Solar.

The inhabitants of Makusi Solar are closely related to villagers under
Kachelo at Makusi proper. Bona is a community leader who chairs a
water-point committee.

He says villagers usually guard the facility at Makusi Solar with fear
because of the unexplained deaths attributed to possible sorcery in the
Kaliyangile area.

They have appealed to the Government to relocate the facility to a
populated village because they say apart from living in fear, the
villagers are not adequately attending to other communal activities such
as cattle herding because they have to ensure the facility is guarded
around the clock.

The villagers who are convinced Makusi is a target of supernatural
activity say they do not have the money required to pay a traditional
doctor to cleanse the settlement.

Traditional healers reportedly command fees of N$5 000 or even N$10 000 to
perform a cleansing ritual that is apparently too “risky” a business even
for seasoned herbsmen.

Source: AllAfrica.com
URL: http://allafrica.com/stories/200408200648.htm…/p>