Thread by @ikentanzi_

Unknowingly A Witch.

A Thread.

#Threadist

Today I am going to tell you a story about how I almost got burnt by the community of Ezakheni, Ladysmith. I will not tell you which section of the Ezakheni Township this took place in, for the protection of my parents who still reside there.

There is one thing that I am going to be completely truthful about though… and that is how it all started.

Believe me when I tell you I was as shocked and disgusted as everyone else that watched me as I struggled to cover my womanhood, at the expense of leaving my breasts, and every other part of me available for public scrutiny.

Every scar, stretchmark and bump was left bear for the whole community to cast stones of judgement upon. To shame and to ridicule. To make I the spouse of the terrible prince of lies. I remember it all as if it was yesterday.

It started as dreams.Dreams that I didn’t think too much of. In those dreams,I was either swimming in a lake of sewage,or conducting a choir of disfigured little children, and sometimes,digging & vomiting in other people’s yards.I thought these were just random,insensible dreams.

I was wrong. I was wrong because all those dreams were signs that I was no longer the captain of my body. That I was now being used to destroy and to harm, without my own knowledge. Who would’ve thought people were capable of such? Taking ownership of you, without you knowing?

I’ve heard of warlocks and witches having the ability to mask themselves using other people’s appearances in dreams, or when you as their victim, seek divinations from seers, so that you get convinced that you are being cursed by the person they used as their scapegoat.

I think this is why a lot families fight amongst themselves, accusing one another of witchcraft, meanwhile the real culprit is an outsider, using their faces in dreams that are suggestive of one, having evil intentions about the other.

What I didn’t know was that they can also hijack your body and use it as they please, like how it was done to me.
My life at Ezakheni wasn’t interesting at all, perhaps this is why I am struggling to even give you a context of the kind person I was when I still lived there.

There’s nothing much to tell, except that I worked an 8-to-4 as a cashier at a retail shop in town, and helped out at my friend’s salon on weekends…well that’s if you consider drinking coke and gossip, help.

I think if I am going to tell you this story, I have to also discuss my relationship with Percy’s mom. She had her right leg amputated due to sugar diabetes when she turned 40, and seldom came out of the house after that.

I always went in the house to greet her, before heading to my friend’s salon that was in their garage. She wasn’t a lady of many words, but she was a kind woman. Even with her difficulty to walk, she’d still bake muffins and scones, & basically force me to take some home with me.

I could never say no to her. Not after Percy told me just how much her mom ‘’came alive’’ every time when baking. This is why Percy always bought baking stuff with the little profit she made from her hustle. She just wanted her mom to snap out of her self-pity tendencies...

...and to blossom into the fine entrepreneur she once was, before the snares of diabetes caged her.

‘’Nisale kahle Mah’’ I said to her as I peeped through the front, lounge door after helping Percy lock up. It had been a long day, so I wasn’t planning on staying for long.

‘’Kahle wena! You can’t leave without drinking tea. Come in!’’ She instructed. I just couldn’t say no to her, not with those three cups already steaming with black tea, with butter scones on a white plate next to them. I sat down, and Percy followed after me.

I took a sip, bit into the scone and complimented Percy’s mom as she looked at me as though she was anticipating feedback on how her butter scones tasted. She smiled when I complimented her.
I took a few more sips then convinced the watchful baker to release me.

When I got home, I took a bath as always, & I remember that I got really itchy as I was bathing.I was scratching & cooling every part of me that stung and burnt, until my mother came to knock at the door asking why I was crying.I didn’t even realise I was crying until the knock.

I told her that I was just itchy. She opened the door, witnessed the red hives that were all over my body, and poured some Jeyes fluid onto my bathing water. The smell was terrible, but it did help a bit.

She then drugged me with allergex, saying that what was happening to me was nothing but an allergic reaction of some sort.

When I woke up the next morning, the hives were gone.

I was relieved because I would’ve had to call in sick at work,& I know my manager wasn’t going to believe me- partly because I’m black,& according to her; ‘’You people don’t like to work! You call in sick,& then go drinking or visit your boyfriends so you can make more babies.’’

When I went to the kitchen to put the kettle on for my bath, I found my mother at the door twiddling the door knob as if she was fixing it.

‘’You up so early today Mah…’’ I said to her.

‘’I couldn’t sleep properly last night, didn’t you hear the dogs barking and whimpering throughout the night?’’ She answered.

‘’Nope, that allergex must’ve really knocked me out...’’

‘’…And you know what’s even more interesting? I found this door half open in the morning, and I’m certain I had locked it last night. You know I always lock and put the key in this basin.’’ She said, pointing at the beaded-basin on top of the microwave.

‘’That’s strange.Did you ask if uBaba open the door again,after you had locked?’’

‘’He didn’t.’’ She said,with her face still indicating suspicion.

I put my kettle on, took a bath,&while bathing I realised that my right thing had a mark that had not been there,the night before.

It looked like a bite mark of some sort, but I obviously dismissed it and carried on preparing for work. When I was done, I bid my mother goodbye, and went out the door that was now a potential crime scene.

Dwinky, a brown pit-bull that was a gift from our neighbour to my little brother, started whimpering when she saw me approach the gate. I paid no attention to her, and carried on my way. Haibo! She started barking at me, with her canines out for blood.

VOESTEK! VOETSEK! VOESTEK!

Aahh shit she got me!

VOETSEK!

Mah came running to the scene with a broom in her hand and managed to scare the hysterical Dwinky away.

‘’You’re lucky she only bit into your pants. I don’t know what has gotten into this dog! Haibo, ubesho ukuk’qeda!’’ Mah says as we go back into the house. I changed into a skirt, and went to work.

When I came back at dusk I found my attacker already tied onto our Avocado tree, courtesy of my father.
TAKE THAT, DWINKY!

I fell asleep early that night, and when I woke up in the morning, both my parents were fiddling with the kitchen door knob.

They complained of the same thing that had occurred the day before. They had found the door unlocked and half-opened. uMah was freaking out,she said all the dogs from the neighbourhood were restless again,& that she had to stay awake & keep guard in case housebreakers were around

She had heard about three break-ins at Ezakheni section B, and she was convinced they were coming for us next. I took my bath, and realised that the soles of my feet were dirty, even though I had bathed the night before.

Dwinky threw a fit when she saw me again.

‘’Haibo! Do dogs get dementia too kanti?’’ I exclaimed to my father as I rushed to the gate before my attacker broke loose from her chains.

On the weekend, I went to my friend’s salon as usual, but she was closed on that day.

She said she thought it would be insensitive to open for business when their neighbour had just been announced dead the night before.

‘’Yoh! Life is unpredictable hey. His practice was doing so well, I’m sure his parents were even hopeful they didn’t have anything to worry about now. That he’d step up, and take good care of them.’’ I said to her.

‘’Oh, you’ve already heard about his death too?’’ Percy asked.

‘’Uhm no…’’

‘’Then how did you know he’s the one who passed away?’’ Percy interrupted me.

‘’..Ahh, detective Percy! So what are we going to do today since you’re closed?’’ I redirected her.

Her question really bugged me because it was valid. How did I know it was him who died? How was I so sure it was him? I had no idea how I knew this.

On the day of his funeral, I heard from Mah that the parents of the deceased vented out on how their son’s death was far from being a natural death and swore that justice was going to be served.

Mah was so touched she couldn’t stop sighing and cursing death saying, ‘’Aycha ukufa ave kuphoxa kodwa bakithi! Ebephila phela loyamfana. Esefunde kangaka nkos’ yami!’’.

The next couple of weeks after that were even stranger.We woke up one morning & found Dwinky dead. No injuries. No sign of suffocation his chain. No sign of poisoning.She was just gone.‘’She was old anyway,we will get you a new dog.’’ My father consoled my twelve year old brother

I won’t to lie to you,Dwinky’s death stroke the wrong chord in me.I somehow felt guilty,even though I was certain I hadn’t done anything to him.
Soon after his death,Mah got a bit paranoid,saying she always hears footsteps of someone or something running around our yard at night.

My dad would always get up when my mother heard these running footsteps, but he could never hear them. They wouldn’t see anything even when they peeped out the window. We thought Mah was losing it because she was the only one who heard these sounds at night.

My father changed the locks when we continued to wake up to the door unlocked every morning, with everyone denying they unlocked it. Every night after that, my father would lock up and take the keys to their bedroom.

Interestingly enough, the waking up to the kitchen door open, stopped. It was then clear that between my mother, my father and my brother, one of them was guilty of the unlocked door pending investigation. I wasn’t doing it, so it had to be one of them.

As if things couldn’t get any tense in the house, my father got mad at me for no apparent reason. When I asked Mah why uBaba wasn’t speaking to me, she said I knew why, and that it had to do with a boy.

I wanted to howl at her when she told me this.

I didn’t understand why my father would be mad about my non-existent boyfriend. Even if I had a boyfriend at that time, time would’ve allowed it! All my peers had kids already, and some were engaged. I, on the other hand was a nun.

My father even had a spur of the moment informal family meeting with us, where he revised curfews and gave a lecture about sneaking out at night. I knew this was directed at me, even though I didn’t understand why he’d want to discuss this with me.

I never went out at night. I also know my brother was scared of the dark, and he was 12… there’s absolutely no reason why he’d ‘’sneak out at night.’’ Judging from the man’s tone, I knew this wasn’t about uMah neither. Which leaves me… the night sneaker.

HA!

I added fuel to the fire when I asked him to bluntly admit that that meeting was somehow about me. That fire almost burnt me because the man was ready to scourge me at my big age.

He accused me of sneaking out of my window to see my man at night, and that he had come into my room for two consecutive nights and found my window wide open, and me, gone.

Shocked and confused,I openly denied his allegations.
‘’HHE?! You’re calling me a liar?! Come here! …’’ He roared at me, while my mother shielded me to what would’ve been the hottest slashes of my life. To be fair,he wasn’t lying, but to some extent,I was also telling the truth.

Flabbergasted by my father’s allegations,I went to bed early that night,& I had the longest,most vivid dream ever!

Just when I had laid my head on the pillow,I heard a knock at my window from outside.I got up and looked out the window,but didn’t see anyone so I went back to bed

The knock came back for the second time, and I got up again and furiously looked through the window.

There was no one.

All I could see was Dwinky’s vacant kennel by avocado tree that would look like a behemoth creature to those that didn’t see it during the light of day.

I blinked & thought I had seen two shadows vanish right before my eyes.I was now alarmed,but I wasn’t scared. I almost expected to see the shadows again.

The same shadows unexpectedly swoop past the kennel that saw my guilt over its owner’s death, & decided to grab my attention.

I then saw two shadows swopping past the window. I took a closer look and realised it was one of those disfigured children from the choir I sometimes conduct in my dreams. One signals for me to come outside. He has three fingered little hands.

I opened the window & the other one with a drooling face leaped with joy as I jumped out my bedroom. They took my hands & then I saw myself at an open veld,without the pyjamas I was wearing.The children I was with were also naked,& the 3-fingered one had shockingly large genitals

It was very dark, and the wind wasn’t kind against my skin.

I was calm, and then I saw from a distance, a full figured woman, clothed by the night. She spoke to me from a distance, and her voice was distorted, as if her speech was mixed with whistles.

Her words carried a force I can’t explain. A force that carried in it, the ability to sculpt defiance into obedience and had authority over nature.
Her whistles put me into a trance that made me drowsy, but incredibly powerful too.

I saw myself grow into a giant, such that the houses in my neighbourhood were beneath me. She stood in that same spot, and pointed me to KwaMkhize. I took two giant steps and I was there. Mightier than ever...

I leaped into their yard and started spitting foul scented, yellow sputum all over their yard.
While doing this, a light from one of the rooms in the seven roomed house came one, and I presumed someone had heard, or even worse, saw me.

My heart started beating fast, but the whistles from the lady in the bushes pillared me, giving me confidence that I would finish what I was set out to do.
A few minutes later, another light came on from a different room.

The mysterious woman from the bushes saw that I was getting nervous. As much as she was far away from me,everything that I saw,she saw.Everything that I felt,she felt too.I then shrank to my normal size & ran to the back of the house to wait for whoever was up,to go back to sleep

The dogs in the neighbourhood were restless. Forty minutes later, the light from the two rooms that had quickly sent my tail underneath my legs, went off.

WHEW!

I tiptoed back to their veranda to now spit on their doorstep so that misfortune would embrace everyone that was going to come out of that door in the morning. While doing this the light from their lounge came on.

SHIT!

I dashed to their backyard again.

While hiding behind their house, the two disfigured children appeared right in front of me, giggling and cavorting in the dark.

‘’Sshhh!’’ I said to them.

Sigh. They wouldn’t listen to me.

The light from the room I was standing behind came on, and before I could even flinch, a loud voice called out to me saying; ‘’Yey! Who are you? What are you doing in my home?’’

I ran to their front gate but my feet were now incredibly heavy.

I tried to whistle back to the woman in the bushes so she could help me,but my mouth wouldn’t open anymore.
I knew something was wrong!

Then from their front gate, appeared a tall man who stood with his one had on his waist, and had a glistening red staff on his other hand.

‘’I asked you a question!’’ He said to me.

I then realised that this was Bab’ uMkhize.I had no idea he was a warlock.The longer I stood there, the weaker I became. My two little disfigured friends appeared and tried to fight him of as he beat me down with his mysterious staff.

I escaped while he was pinning both hands of My disfigured friends to the ground.I ran back to the open veld where I had left the whistling lady,but she was already gone

I woke up the next morning with bruises all over my body. My feet were swollen,I couldn’t even get out of bed

‘’Are you not going to work today?’’ My mother asked as she open the door to check why I wasn’t getting ready for work. I showed her my feet and she stepped inside to get a closer look at my mushroomed feet.

She also saw the bruises that were all over my body and concluded my non-existent boyfriend was the one who beat me up. I started crying as she was insinuating this because I was also confused...

…and then, just as uMah was comforting me, the vivid dream I had the previous night came rushing to me like strong tide against a feeble little boat. I immediately paused crying and looked at my mother to see if she had felt the change of atmosphere in the room, as I did.

‘’What is it?’’ She asked me.
I then told about the dream I had about kwaMkhize and the strange whistling lady from the bushes. She had both her hands over her chest as I was telling her all about it.

She called my father to come to my room and retold the dream I had just relayed to her, but with much more emotion then I had. He was also staggered.

A strange thing happened when they took me to see a prophet from Ezakheni section C.

The prophet rudely prohibited uMah from entering his indumba where he revealed that I was being physically used without my own knowledge at night. I almost fainted when I hear this, but I believed it. Deep down I had already suspected this was the case.

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