MARY* knows for a fact that she has a “spiritual husband”. She attests to that without a hint of shame or fear of being judged.
From the look of it, she has been through it all, the strange stares, the quizzical looks, the labelling, the whispers and the finger-pointing. As if to silence the tick-tock of the clock on the wall, which seems too keen to quicken her sell-by-date, she says she has given her life to God and prayer will soon banish the unwanted husband and bring her mother a proper son-in-law. The mysterious sexual encounters with her “spiritual husband” are now an everyday thing, but she is optimistic of victory.It has been 10 years since the 35-year-old started experiencing these nocturnal visitations from a shadowy apparition, yet she can hardly explain his identity, how he visits and how he leaves her in the dead of night.
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| Spiritual Husbands Terrorise Women |
The Standard sought an explanation over the existence of spiritual husbands from church pastors and traditionalists.
Eternal Word Ministries International pastor Lucia Gunguwo, who is popularly known as Mai Gunguwo, said spiritual spouses have been in existence for centuries, adding that in the past, society used to have provisions for dealing with such. She said this phenomenon was mostly pronounced among women more than men.
Several people claim that they have had encounters with “spiritual spouses” and they give accounts on how they do not allow their victims to make any meaningful progress in their lives and this results in frequent marital disappointments and problems. They say the husbands/wives from the spirit world visit them in their sleep and manipulate them sexually through inducing activation of the victims’ sexual systems without any visible signs.
“Families used to build a hut called a chitumba [out building] and the girl chosen to appease the spiritual husband would stay alone in that hut to entertain her unseen partner,” said Mai Gunguwo.
“The cause of this was a ngozi [an avenging spirit from a murder case] that would have been committed by the girl’s family. Nowadays people in relationships exchange vows before marriage and when they break up they experience what is known as a soul-tie.”
“The public should be educated on how to uproot the soul-ties so that they might not encounter problems in the long run because spiritual issues like these need total deliverance, as well as the victim’s participation in her deliverance and salvation”, she said.
Kennedy Kachuruka, aka Sekuru Mbeve, a traditional healer from Zinatha, said that he usually meets five to eight people a week who encounter these spiritual problems.
“We call these spiritual husbands gonzo buda [the rat is out] because unlike mubobobo [daylight sexual manipulations driven by lust], these happen at night and take the form of a rat. The rat can use any opening to enter the room. It then illuminates the shadow of a man before taking advantage of the victim,” said Kachuruka.
“This is caused by a family member who has committed murder. To appease the spirit of the dead man, the family goes on to offer a young girl as the price. When she matures, she might start experiencing spiritual sexual encounters with a person she has never seen.”
“In some circumstances, the family member might die before receiving his intended bride and hence his spiritual form seeking his restitution then visits a girl in her dreams at night and she experiences sexual relationships with the spiritual partner.”
“We deal with these problems through giving the victims herbs [mushonga] and normally ask them to return for a review a week or two after and in most cases we have recorded success,” he said.
One is suspected to have a spiritual spouse when he or she is used to eating in dreams and gets intimate with known and unknown people in dreams.
Some people think these dreams might be a result of psychological trauma, while others think this is an issue that warrants a visit to traditional healers or is a sure sign of a ngozi in the family.
* Mary’s surname was withheld to protect her identity.
spiritual manipulation at play: father luphahla
Spiritual husbands or wives are not a figment of one‘s imagination and it is a very common phenomenon among women.
Claudious Luphahla from the Roman Catholic church said that spiritual husband attacks are not random but a manipulation of forces to inflict pain, injury and suffering on the victims.
“Personally, I would not call them spiritual attacks because some people who are victims have no link whatsoever with prayer life”. “I would not call them spiritual because they harm the body, I would say they do exist but are not visible,” he said.
