Nyami Nyami The Zambezi River God

African mythology of the local Tonga tribe of the Zambezi Valley states that Nyaminyami the River God who lives in Lake Kariba is believed to be a serpent-like creature. He is said to be about three metres wide, but nobody dares to guess at his length.
Legends has it that the water stains red when he swims past. Chief Sampakaruma saw him on two occasions many years ago, but the river god has been in hiding since the white men arrived in the country. According to African mythology he lived under a large rock close to the present day Kariba dam wall. No tribesman would venture near it those few who did were sucked down with their canoes in the whirlpools and never seen again. They called the rock Kariwa, the "trap" and hence the name of the lake, Kariba.

Nyami Nyami The Zambezi River God

The Punishment Of The Faithless One

Although most bird-lovers know that the Trumpeter Hornbills of Southern Africa make their nests in hollow tree trunks, it is not everyone who knows that, once the hen has laid her eggs, her husband seals the entrance with clay.  He leaves only a small slit open through which he can pass food.  So she is imprisoned inside the tree trunk until the young birds are old enough to be fed from outside.  Then he breaks open the hole so that she can help him feed the fledglings.
If you ask the people of Matabeleland, they will tell you that the Hornbill cannot be blamed, for his wife richly deserves her imprisonment.  It all started like this they say- in the days of long, long ago.  The Hornbill and his wife used to build their nest in the treetops; they used twigs, well sewn together with hair from the tails of zebra and wildebeests.  Inside, the nest was plastered with clay, and was lined with the softest thistledown.

They were a happy pair.  Three fine eggs lay in their snug little home.  Proudly the Hornbill sought the tastiest fruits in the forest, so that his dear wife need never leave the nest and the precious eggs.  To find her favourite fruits, her devoted husband searched farther and farther away, which meant that the time he was away grew longer and longer.

The Punishment Of The Faithless One

The Guinea Fowl Child

Pitipiti should have been a very happy woman. She was married to a rich man who had many cattle. But after years of marriage, she was still unable to give him the many children which a man like him deserved. She went to see many people in the hope that they would be able to solve her problem; but to no avail.
Day after day, she watched as her husband’s love for her faded away before her very eyes. She was very sad the day that her husband married a new wife so that he could at last have children. But she was also happy for him when she learned that his new wife had given him a child, and then another.
Each time she learned that the new wife had given birth, she went to offer the newborn a gift; yet she was refused each time. The new wife would tell her, “My husband wasted too many years with you. In just a short time, I have already given him children. Go away since no one wants your gifts!”
Pitipiti was saddened to see that her husband’s love for her that once used to shine in his eyes was slowly replaced by pride for his children. Yet, she continued to work her fields and live life the best she could in her solitude.

The Guinea Fowl Child

Ghost wagon in the "Spokeveld"

The wagon would chase across the fields in the early morning silence with an incredible speed across unseen roads.
Major Ellis recounts the following events in an old book. He was driving in the past coach from Ceres towards Beaufort-West. he was sitting up front with the coach driver when the wheel broke. They had to pull off the road in order to check what happened when they heard a wagon racing towards them. Ellis thought it was on the road heading straight towards them, but Anthony de Beer, the coach driver said No, the sound doesn't come up from the road. Apparently the noise the wagon made was amazing. As the wagon stormed past them Anthony shouted, "Where the devil are you going?"

Ghost wagon in the "Spokeveld"

De Deur Ghost

Boundary Road, home of the
De Deur Ghost

The story of the "De Deur Ghost", sometimes referred to as the "Walkerville Ghost", is well known in our area, and has been around for several decades.  So much so, that the details have become a little blurred and there are now several variations.

It is said that if you drive down Boundary Road, De Deur, on a very dark night and flash your headlights (or a torch light) three times a headless motorbike rider will appear and drive past you at a great speed.  Some people believe that you must be parked on the actual site of the old house before the ghost will appear.

The origins of the story are that a local farmer was very protective of his pretty young daughter and discouraged all suitors.  He became suspicious of her activities at night after he had retired to bed.  He was positive that she was sneaking out of the house to be with a local lad that often zoomed up and down the dusty road on his noisy motorbike.

De Deur Ghost

The Flying Dutchman Legend

The legend of The Flying Dutchman is said to have started in 1641 when a Dutch ship sank off the coast of the Cape of Good Hope:

Captain van der Decken was pleased. The trip to the Far East had been highly successful and at last, they were on their way home to Holland. As the ship approached the tip of Africa, the captain thought that he should make a suggestion to the Dutch East India Company (his employers) to start a settlement at the Cape on the tip of Africa, thereby providing a welcome respite to ships at sea.

He was so deep in thought that he failed to notice the dark clouds looming and only when he heard the lookout scream out in terror, did he realise that they had sailed straight into a fierce storm. The captain and his crew battled for hours to get out of the storm and at one stage it looked like they would make it. Then they heard a sickening crunch - the ship had hit treacherous rocks and began to sink. As the ship plunged downwards, Captain VandeDecken knew that death was approaching. He was not ready to die and screamed out a curse: "I WILL round this Cape even if I have to keep sailing until doomsday!

The Flying Dutchman Legend

The Door Handle

By Lilith
 Two years later we had started moving out. It may seem strange, I had said we had moved out not so long ago, but in fact we just moved out from the house we moved in after the one we moved to from this house where the occurrences happen... Anyway. I was upstairs in my parents\' room with my brother and I had needed to fetch something from my room downstairs. After the last happening, I had been too scared to go into my room, and hardly was ever in there anymore. I slept in my brother\'s room, and the only time I ever went into my own room was to fetch some clothes and change in the bathroom, or to fetch something in general and go to the living room etc.
I asked my brother to come to my room with me; he was also freaked out about being in my room so he told me to make it quick. I closed my bedroom door so nothing would be able to come inside, and if something was going to, we could hideaway somewhere before it came in. At the time my dad was upstairs watching TV. I found what I needed and we were about to leave the room when there was a weird noise outside the door and we heard someone touch the door handle. We stood there frozen for a few minutes.
I looked away from the door for a few seconds. My brother screamed. I quickly looked back to the door and saw the handle moving as if someone had just taken there hand off the door handle. We ran out as quickly as we could upstairs again. There weren't any footsteps this time, but my brother had seen the door handle turning ever so slowly. I think when my brother screamed it scared the thing away.
I should also say I used to have this old life sized photo of a little girl holding roses. Nothing had ever happened until my dad threw out that picture in my room when we moved into the house, and everything stopped once we had thrown the picture out. My dad had blamed me for scratching all over it, even though no one except my dad had touched it when we moved in. When I had it in my room, it felt like it and everything or something was watching me constantly, from the moment I walk in to the moment I walked out again.
Could this have been the source of it? All my friends who ever came over had said they felt very uncomfortable being in my room and my room only. I really don't know.

The Door Handle