DEAD SOLDIER ‘KILLS’ HEADMAN? – in perceived case of revenge from the grave
Written by Millennium on May 30, 2019
SANFROSSA MANYINDA writes
VILLAGERS in Chongwe’s Mwantalasha area are convinced that their headman who died last week was killed by the dead former soldier whose murder by local people he had earlier masterminded.
Headman Mwantalasha is believed to have led the vicious attack on the hapless former soldier, Saulos Mbewe, by villagers who mercilessly hacked him and clubbed him with pangas and sticks in a bitter dispute over a piece of land.
In what is perceived as a typical case of ‘payback time’, the headman was afflicted with a strange illness after the death of the former soldier, which finally killed him a few days ago.
Before his death, eyewitnesses say, the headman had been behaving strangely, claiming to have been seeing visions of the dead former soldier.
The headman had allegedly also been parroting what he (the former soldier) had allegedly been telling him.
Headman Mwantalasha allegedly mobilised a mob of fellow villagers who descended on the defenceless Mr Mbewe, battering him to death over a piece of land three weeks earlier.
The headman wanted to sell the land which was in the name of Mr Mbewe as the occupant.
But Mr Mbewe had refused to vacate the land because he was the legitimate occupant, which angered the headman.
An eyewitness, James Zulu, a villager of Mwantalasha area, narrated that the headman together with other unknown people beat up Mr Mbewe who was living all by himself with pangas and sticks.
Mr Mbewe is reported to have died instantly.
Mr Zulu said four days after battering Mr Mbewe, some villagers noticed a strong smell oozing from his thatched house.
He said that after checking the hut, the villagers found Mr Mbewe’s body swollen and in a decomposed state with maggots.
Mr Zulu said the headman instructed the villagers to bury Mr Mbewe immediately without waiting for his family members.
The villagers were dismayed when the headman, who Mr Zulu said could not speak English, started imitating what the dead man was allegedly telling him.
“The man was shouting. Words like ‘you killed me, but you will soon follow me’ were heard coming from his mouth. He has also had less sleep since the time Mbewe died,” Mr Zulu said.
He said the headman, who had been to various clinics and given all kinds of medicine, had lost his appetite as well as his weight.
He said the headman had been ill and bed-ridden at his house for the last three weeks just after the death of his subject, Mbewe.
