The power of the local’s belief in the spirits.
It is no secret that African people and in particular rural Africans believe strongly in the spirits of their ancestors. I have never thought much about this and normally dismiss the idea as soon as I hear one of these strange and mysterious stories. That is until earlier this season on a hunt in our Block L1 concession.
At the beginning of the season, I was approached by some of the local trackers and told they thought that I should get a Mudzimo or witch doctor to come and give us his blessing because the spirits were not happy and they feared we would have bad luck on our safaris. I immediately shrugged off the idea and told them to stop their nonsense, at which point they shook their heads, muttered their disapproval and shuffled back to their quarters.
The first hunt started and as I previously wrote about our client’s bag that contained all of his hunting gear, including his boots, didn’t arrive to camp. The saga continued throughout his hunt and the bag was not located until after he was back in the U.S.
Next, the first buffalo that was shot this season was hit high on the shoulder and never presented an opportunity for a follow-up shot. After relentlessly tracking the buff for three days the blood spoor finally ran out and we had to write the buffalo off as lost.
The second hunt of the season was for leopard. In this densely populated area there is literally potential for a leopard to be in every tree. The baits were hung and with expectations running high the hunters checked their baits religiously every day for the next week. Each day the hunting party returned to camp with the same news as the day before……..nothing. The trackers who had spoken to me before about the Mudzimo plucked up the courage once more and literally demanded that I arrange a visit otherwise they knew no leopard would come to bait. With nothing to lose I reluctantly arranged the visit.
We arrived back at camp after driving for six hours to fetch the Mudzimo and it was immediately clear the staff were terrified of him. We assembled everyone in the staff quarters that afternoon and upon instruction from the Mudzimo took off our shoes, arranging ourselves in a circular fashion. The ritual now began. After about an hour of clapping and chanting he held some “magic” maize meal between his hand and mine and said the blessing was complete.
That afternoon the hunting party went and sat at the only bait that had been hit by a cat. Within a few hours I could hear the truck approaching with the trackers singing and shouting congratulations to our client, sure enough he had taken a big tom leopard.
The PH rushed over to me with the trail cam that had been positioned at the bait and motioned for us to come have a look at it. We crowded around the viewfinder and there were pictures of the cat feeding at exactly the same time as the Mudzimo was giving us his blessing!
Until Next Time Good Hunting and Safe Travels!
Visit our website at www.safrique.net
Matt Hulley-Miller.
MD Safrique, Mozambique
