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A pity for the unfortunate individuals killed due to the superstition. Uganda is another place rife with superstition, or at least it is reported from there. I remember a girl of about 9 or 11 years of age who commanded a rebel army and the soliders believed they were immune to bullets. This was only in the last decade or so. Also a whole church building or hall where all the inhabitants were burned alive for some alleged witchcraft (over 200 persons). When I hunted in Zimbabwe in 1994 we were driving along a track at night back to camp. One of the trackers was shining a spotlight around and it was good to see what game was around on the sides of the road. The light picked up a hyaena and the PH immediately said "shoot it, shoot it!". I hesitated as you never know if you are going to be expected to have to pay for it and I certainly didn't want a spotlighted hyaena. When told no, I took a shot but the hyaena was running away and dodged into the dark just as I fired at about 100 metres. Missed. Found out then that Viv in camp, doing live game capture, wanted a dead hyaena to supply to a movie company in Kenya. The hyaena was to be frozen and flown up to Kenya. Would have earned the "getter" a US$100 fee. They didn't tell me that until AFTER I missed it. Anyway to the point. Wayne the PH mentioned that it would have been interesting to see which of the three trackers would have been willing to handle the hyaena. He said certainly Judea his tracker, but not Chipisi a local tracker. The man in question was George, the properties game guard/tracker who was also a Christian. But never found out. The local Ndebele believe that hyaenas are witches who have turned themselves into a hyaena and will not handle them. Or so I was told. |