we must all strive to rid tanzania of superstition

A day hardly passes without a section of the press reporting on witchcraft-linked attacks, maiming and even killings. Albinos in this country live in constant fear of being attacked and their limbs chopped off by thugs commissioned by greedy crooks who reportedly need their body parts for making get-rich charms!

Cases of the killing of alleged witches, especially in the regions of Shinyanga and Mwanza, are a legend. Condemnations, arrests, prosecutions and imprisonment over the years have failed to wipe out the primitive practice. Earlier this year in a village in Mbeya Region, two men were beaten and buried alive together with the man they were alleged to have killed through witchcraft.

Our football is widely associated with witchcraft, and some of the leading teams, led by otherwise educated urbanites, are said to spend huge sums of money on soothsayers. Accounts of politicians seeking witchdoctors’ help to boost their chances of winning an election are rife in the country.

The city of Dar es Salaam is awash with posters put up by “doctors” who proclaim solutions for poverty, chronic diseases, life partners and even examinations! It means our children don’t have to study hard to avoid Division Zero; all they have to do is visit and pay such “experts” and voila, one earns Division One! Why do authorities tolerate such crookedness?

Matters have not been helped by the proliferation of “charismatic” preachers whose main “mission” is to dispense miracles and defence against witchcraft, instead of rubbishing the practice.

We can’t claim to be a nation aspiring to be a middle-class economy, whose basis is science and technology, while we remain steeped in backward beliefs perpetuated by crooks masquerading as healers, doctors or even preachers.