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Memory
Mucherahohwa was captain of Zimbabwe's most popular club for eight years before
retiring
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Does the use of juju, voodoo or witchcraft help teams to win
football matches?
It is a question that has
been around as long as football has been played on the continent.
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Memory
Mucherahohwa's autobiography lifts the lid on a bizarre world of rituals and
superstition
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Stories
abound of charms, amulets, and even animals buried in the vicinity of stadiums
in order to bring success on the pitch.
Clubs
often resort to using undesignated entry points to the stadium in an effort to
avoid being "bewitched" by the opposition.
Even
a stray bird perched on top of a goalpost before a game can set the tongues of
juju believers wagging.
In
Zimbabwe, there have been claims and counter-claims but the use of juju has
largely remained shrouded in secrecy.
Until
now.
One
of Zimbabwe's most revered players has lifted the lid on the practice during
his time at the country's biggest football club, Dynamos.
Memory
Mucherahohwa, who led Dynamos to the 1998 African Champions League final, has
revealed a world of bizarre rituals, spells and charms to enhance the team's
fortunes on the field.
In
his autobiography, Soul of Seven Million Dreams, the 49-year-old former
Zimbabwe international said belief in juju was so deep that it got in the way
of technical strategy and negatively affected performances.
"Every
week before a game the team would consult a traditional healer. I, as the team
captain, would be the one to execute whatever the sangoma (juju-man) had said.
Whether it actually aided us, I do not know," Mucherahohwa writes.
"The
team believed more in juju than players' ability. We believed in collective use
of the juju and consulted one traditional healer as a team.
"In
most cases we had the team's traditional healers who were on the team's
payroll.
"The
belief was so high at the club that coach [Peter] Nyama lost his job in 1990
after being fingered by a traditional healer as being guilty of jinxing the
team."
Mucherahohwa,
who retired in 2001 after captaining Dynamos for eight years, also describes an
incident in which a juju-man slit the players' toes in order to administer his
"medicine" and asked the team to play through the pain.
"The
cuts were so deep and our toes were in pain throughout the match.
"The
pain was made worse by the fact that we drew the match 1-1 [against Canon
Yaoundé of Cameroon] to bow of the competition [ 1987 Africa Cup of Champions].
"In
that case juju did not help us at all, but that did not stop the team from
believing in it.
"My loyalty was with the team's cause and I was prepared to do anything. I was prepared to die on the field ... and even volunteered to be the team's juju carrier."
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