CHIENGI: The Capital of Witchcraft
The Legend of Chiengi Charlie (CHALI)
In the days of Northern Rhodesia, Chiengi was the only Boma closed down because of witchcraft. The territorial officers knew where it was but no one wanted to be posted there.
Chiengi District is right at the north-eastern tip of Zambia on Lake Mweru, bordering Congo DR. It is inhabited by the Bwile people.
In Luapula and Northern Provinces, Chiengi and Mununga have a diabolical reputation of harbouring the most powerful witches, wizards and sorcerers and evil little demons called utuyebela and utumbuma which take up residence in homes spreading nightmares and mischief. Witchcraft, superstition and the supernatural are commonplace.
The wizards and witches of both Mununga and Chiengi are renowned nationwide and considered the most powerful. There is a saying that if you cross a Chiengi native, you will see the buttocks of a snake.
The number of outsiders who died in mysterious circumstances in Chiengi is numerous. In recorded history the first to die after passing through Chiengi was Portuguese explorer and doctor, Francisco de Lacerda.
He is reputed to have become sick in Chiengi before dying in mysterious circumstances in 1798 in Kazembe’s kingdom south of Chiengi. In the district lies the feared village of Mununga coined the heardquarters of witchcraft. Legend has it that the most powerful witches and wizards in the region have an annual coven once a year at the equinox at midnight.
They arrive on air-born reed mats, woven winnowing baskets, broomsticks, on the backs of owls and bats or simply materialise. They bring many wares of the magic kind to sell. If you have an enemy you want to fix, you can buy a bolt of lightning to strike your enemy, an assassin killer bee which can be sent to your foe in an envelope, a bat, owl or cat to spy on your enemies no matter how far they are and protective charms, popular with thieves and bandits who believe the charms make them invisible to their victims and the police and render them invicible to bullets.
The evidence of this belief in protective charms is always found by C5 when they gun down bandits. They have been found adorned with charms and tattoos. You can also buy a hex to put on your rival (popular with women) British Colonial records documented many of the mysterious occurences.
Chiengi, the ‘haunted boma’ on Lake Mweru, gained an evil reputation after many unexplained deaths, trauma and madness.
Chiengi was first established as a Boma by the British in 1895 when Sir Harry Johnstone, based in Based in Blantyre sent two agents, Kidd and Bainbridge to create a fort to strengthen British presence in the area and keep the Belgians out.
Kidd and Bainbridge died in mysterious circumstances. They were rumoured to have been cursed by a wizard they offended but most likely were poisoned.
Kalungwishi boma was built over their graves and villagers reported seeing white spooks there.
One man after another kept dying not only of illness but also in mysterious circumstances. As a result the Boma was closed down during World War 1 between 1914 and 1918. It was reopened after the war and and again Chiengi began claiming “Bwana Victims.” At least two had nervous breakdowns.
-A newly appointed District commissioner, Reardon and his wife went insane and were shipped of to an asylum. It was rumoured that they had a dispute with a local chief who bewitched them.
– In 1927, GH Morton, another DC, reported seeing ghosts. He displayed madness and was sent to a Cape Town asylum.
-His replacement in 1929, GH Hoare, fell seriously ill and died delirious with blackwater fever screaming of ghosts.
District commissioners who were sent there kept dying.
After all the deaths, nervous breakdowns and madness they closed Chiengi for good. The official report put all the casualties down to malaria and blackwater fever. Chiengi was only reopened as a district in 1996 after 63 years. A sub-boma had been opened in 1973.
From 1900 to 1909 a ferocious man-eating lion named Chiengi Charlie with half a tail unleashed a wave of terror in the district. It was possibly an albino lion because the locals called it “the White Lion”.
This lion terrorised Chiengi and the hinterland near Lake Mweru in the decade between1900 and 1910.
The locals insisted it was inhabited by an evil spirit because of its cunning and apparent intelligence. Even the most experienced great white hunters failed to kill Chiengi Charlie and a legend was born. For a long time, attempts to hunt down Charlie failed. On one occasion he leapt into the courtyard of Sealy, the District Officer’s house, but escaped before Sealy could get in a shot.
Efforts to bring Chiengi Charlie’s reign of terror to an end intensified with villagers sleeping around fires and keeping watch all night and yet Chiengi Charlie just kept on killing and mauling. The lion was stealthy, fast and fearless and broke through the thatched roofs or mud walls, smashed down doors and on occasion simply walked straight into huts with open doors during the day.
Eventually, Chiengi Charlie was joined by two other lions and the mayhem they caused almost threatened to destroy the local fishing trade. Many villagers fled the district. It was reported to have killed and eaten over 100 people in one year including the gunbearer of a white hunter who he savagely mauled before killing his servant.
Only one person successfully fought off Chiengi Charlie and was in turn regarded with awe. A woman was sleeping in her hut when Charlie smashed his way in. With great bravery she picked up a burning fire brand and whacked Charlie in the face. He turned on his half tail and fled.
Eventually a professional hunting team of British and Belgians backed by villagers managed to corner Charlie and shot him dead with the villagers spearing him for good measure. His two sidekicks vanished, never to be seen again. When the hunters talked to the villagers they discovered that he was actually not Charlie but CHALI.
The British administrators had mispronounced the name. It was believed that Chiengi Charlie harboured the restless spirit of an evil wizard called CHALI who had been killed by villagers a long time ago.
In 2019, five youths, members of a football team, were clearing a field when they were struck dead by a bolt of lighting. There were whispers that they’d disturbed the resting place of a wizard so he zapped them. Any unexplained death is blamed on witchcraft. The western world has occult. Africa has witchcraft. “Same difference.”🙈
There is a witch craft museum at Mwansabombwe. Strange happenings have been reported by some people who have visited it. One journalist claimed that all the pictures he took inside the museum turned up blank.
Much of the stories of witchcraft are intertwined with a deep belief in the dark underworld and many myths have sprung from that to this day. Present day Chiengi is a beautiful rural district which belies it’s dark past. Underneath the serene surface by Lake Mweru, beliefs still simmer.
People don’t talk about witchcraft openly and most believe in Christianity. They can go to church in the morning, take their children to the modern clinic but furtively visit a witchdoctor or traditional healer under cover of the night.
People have their personal beliefs. People still come from far and wide to buy a bolt of lightning⚡, an assassin bee🐝, a spy owl🦉, bat 🦇, or cat😾,
By Verona mwelwa Mwansa