Good afternoon. News that a bald man was beheaded in Zambézia province last week is a sad reminder of the superstitious beliefs which persist in rural parts of central and northern Mozambique (see below). In this case, the belief is that bald men have mercury in their heads, which can be used in gold mining. Several such beliefs drive people to murder. Old women are killed on suspicion of being witches, and people with albinism are killed in the belief that their skin and bones can bring good luck. Since these killings happen in areas remote from the big cities, it is likely that more happen than are reported. Other traditional practices, while less violent, are still damaging, such as child marriage and the insistence on lobola (a payment from a bridegroom’s family to a bride’s). Failure to pay it means that the bride’s family refuses to register the child’s father’s name at birth, which is stigmatising for the child.
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These practices are not just driven by a lack of education. For one thing, superstitions can persist among people even when they have received a basic education. For another, the killings tend to be carried out by people who are not just uneducated but poor, and who are paid by others. Poverty breeds desperation which leads to murder. It also leads to child marriage: giving away an underage girl means one less mouth to feed.
