Tanzanian witch doctor drowns
2007-08-28 11:58
Dar Es Salaam - A traditional medicine man in Tanzania drowned after jumping in a river and promising to resurface three days later with revelations from ancestral spirits, said police on Tuesday.
Rukwa regional police commander Daudi Siadi said the local witch doctor, named as Nyasio Alfonso, staged his ill-fated stunt last week at the village of Masingo in the western Mpanda district, near Lake Tanganyika.
He said that dozens of villagers chanted and drummed as the fortune-teller dived to confer with the riverine spirits.
Siadi said: "The incident was reported to us by the village leadership on Sunday, four days after Alfonso threw himself into the river. His decomposing body was fished out several metres downstream."
The police officer said the incident was the first of its kind in the region. He said: "We are not aware of such practices although belief in witchcraft is widespread in Rukwa region."
- AFP