A 69-year-old woman from Buhera claims to have come face to face with her husband, who was presumed dead and buried in 2011.
In an unsolicited interview with The Manica Post on Monday, Judith Machao recounted a remarkable encounter in Murambinda in January with her supposedly deceased husband, Canisio Machao, more than a decade after she had attended his funeral.
Judith alleges that Canisio’s family, in collusion with him, orchestrated an elaborate deception to make her believe he had died, all in a bid to deprive her of the house they had built together in Glen View 7, Harare. She said:
I arrived in Gutu days after his purported burial, as I was staying with my mother in Buhera at the time of his alleged demise.
It was my daughter who informed me of his passing on, prompting me to travel to Gutu to pay my condolences.
However, my father-in-law and relatives failed to show me his grave, claiming they would do so during his memorial service (nyaradzo), which, to date, has not been held.
Judith further claimed that she had travelled to Murambinda in January to collect her marriage certificate from the Registry Office, intending to use it in court to reclaim the Glen View 7 house she said was rightfully hers, when she unexpectedly encountered Canisio.
She also alleged that the house, which she maintained was built brick by brick through their joint efforts, was taken over by her brother-in-law, Peter Machao, just weeks after the purported funeral in 2011. Judith said:
I never imagined I would lay eyes on him again. I thought I was losing my mind when I saw him at Murambinda.
I had gone to collect our marriage certificate from the Registry Office, as I wanted it to use to regain possession of our matrimonial house.
He approached and instructed me to return home to Glen View 7, promising to deliver the certificate to me.
I informed him that I was being denied access to the house, but he assured me he would resolve the issue.
She said that when she met Canisio, he confessed to having been imprisoned all these years and allegedly instructed her to return to their matrimonial home and wait for his return.
However, five months have passed, and Canisio has yet to reappear or resolve the matter. Said Judith:
He just told me that he had been in prison all the years, and that I should forget everything and go back home. I was not hallucinating. I recall everything that I saw and did that day in Murambinda. My husband is alive.
Judith vehemently denied suggestions that she may have been hallucinating when she encountered the man presumed dead.
She presented a death certificate for the late Canisio, which stated that he had passed away in 2011 and, curiously, listed him as a widower.
The certificate, issued on November 8, 2022, indicated that Canisio died on November 7, 2011, at Harare Central Hospital.
In a separate interview, Judith's niece, Nyevero Chinoona, said that no one besides Judith has claimed to have seen Canisio since his reported death in 2011. She said:
We only heard that my uncle had passed away, but strangely, no one knows where he was laid to rest. My aunt had to obtain his death certificate from the Registry Office.
The incident in January was both frightening and shocking — my aunt is convinced that it was indeed her late husband she saw, and who are we to question her? She does not suffer from dementia or any mental illness.
Nyevero suggested that it may have been the spirit of the departed that appeared to her aunt.
Judith’s daughter, Sylvia, affirmed that Canisio had indeed passed away in 2011. She said:
When he died, he was a widower, as his second wife had predeceased him. They had three children together. He had divorced my mother long before his death, which explains why his death certificate states he was a widower. Canisio is late; we buried him. She is confused and needs help. She should stop disturbing the dead.
President of the Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association (ZINATHA), George Kandiero, said that what Judith witnessed may have been an apparition of her deceased husband rather than a physical encounter. Said Kandiero:
They have his death certificate, and all accounts confirm that the man is indeed dead. It is possible that what she saw was his ghost or spirit.
Such sightings occur, especially if some rituals were performed at the grave by family members.
Another possibility is that Mbuya Machao is experiencing hallucinations of her late husband, which might lead her to believe he is still alive.
In some cases, such visions are believed to be caused by malevolent forces, people with ill intentions placing a curse on her so that she appears mentally unstable.
To some, she might appear mentally unstable, but that could be a curse at play.
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