Mystery as women woke up to find their knickers removed and hanging from trees

In an unusual incident that has left villagers in the Gokwe South District of Zimbabwe, shocked, women in Chibarirwa and Demawatema last week woke up without their panties while their babies’ nappies miraculously disappeared. The strange incident was confirmed by Headman Madzivazvido, under whose jurisdiction the two villages fall.

Sources said the undergarments and nappies were found hanging from trees in a bushy area. They said the incident is still the talk of the two remote villages. “The areas are isolated and bushy. There are no homes nearby hence it is difficult to pinpoint someone as the culprit. Some women from both villages claim they just woke up in the morning to find that their undergarments had been stripped off while they were asleep,” said the source.



The source said other villagers said their panties and their children’s nappies vanished from the lines where they had left them to dry after washing. All victims were later asked to identify their panties, the source said. “The majority were able to positively identify their clothes and their children’s nappies though all were reluctant to take them as they suspected witchcraft,” said the source. Headman Madzivazvido said when he received the report, he quickly sought spiritual intervention. “I received a report about the strange incident last week and we are trying to seek answers from spirit mediums and local prophets in our area.

“They are telling us that the ancestral spirits are the ones behind the whole issue,” he said. Headman Madzivazvido, however, said the incident could be an act of mischief by a naughty villager. He said he does not subscribe to the notion that ancestral spirits could strip women of their panties. The village head said when he reported the matter to the police, they told him it needed a cultural solution. “The police told me they could not handle the matter as they felt no law had been broken. They advised me to deal with the matter culturally,” he said.