Bizarre, Criminal law, International, Religion

Prophet Orders Followers To Bury Him Alive To Bring Him Closer To His Spirits . . . Followers Later Dig Up Dead Prophet

surrealism-painting-grandfather-clock-grave-digger-irony-humor-art_zps780e9a81He was known as Prophet Shamiso Kanyama in Zimbabwe and he instructed his followers to bury him alive as part of his ritual to cleanse their house of evil spirits. They did and were surprised when they dug him up to find out that he was dead. Now the family involved in the ritual is accused of murder despite the “Prophet” demanding that he be buried.


Leanmore Mutero, Tonderai Muswere, Michael Muchengeti, Manasa Mutero and Nicholas Mutero, appeared at the High Court in Harare to face a murder charge.

Kanyama reportedly asked his followers to bury him alive so that he could summon more cleansing powers to heal the family that had been plagued by mysterious deaths. He directed them to dig a grave and bury him alive because that was the way he summoned more healing powers to ward off evil spirits. Indeed, Kanyama helped to dig his own grave and jumped inside. One man begged the men to stop and dig up Kanyama but they ignored his pleas. Instead, the prophet yelled at the man that he was “disturbing his angels, and urged the other to continue filling the grave.”

In the end, Kanyama succeed to getting closer to his spirits.

However, now the courts have a case where the victim demanded on religious grounds to be buried alive. The followers clearly believed that he could survive out of their own religious zeal. What should be the punishment in such a case?

Source: Guardian

18 thoughts on “Prophet Orders Followers To Bury Him Alive To Bring Him Closer To His Spirits . . . Followers Later Dig Up Dead Prophet”

  3. Well at least all of the Prophet’s followers managed to have gotten their digs in!

  4. Well, that was ironic.

    I suppose the silver lining is that he committed assisted suicide before coming up with any brilliant ideas about doing something similar to his followers.

    One would hope that improving education would combat dangerous superstitions, such as the sacrifice of albino children.

  7. They deserve an award for supporting role in a Darwin Award, which should be awarded posthumously to the Prophet Shamiso Kanyama.

    1. Gary T – the Prophet had faith that he would arise. His faith was misplaced. 😉

  8. I agree with Paul. We should have dropped a Nuclear bomb on Hanoi back in 1965. That would have ended the war in Nam. Friends of mine would still be alive and not gone to Nam and died. My Hanes underwear were made in Nam this past year. What an insult. I am voting for Trump to bring jobs back to America.

    1. Lars Vegan – we shouldn’t have allowed the French to retake Indo-China at the end of WWII. That would have saved a lot of problems and a lot of lives.

  9. At what point do those people who are around an insane man stop following his directions? This is close to the situation in 1945 when the guys flying the plane which dropped the atom bomb on some Japanese city whose name I cannot spull listened to their commanding officers and dropped the bomb. The only time they had to answer for it was at the interview which they later got at the Pearly Gates.
    A lot of folks around the world who are “under orders” will indeed follow orders.

    1. It was estimated that the USA would lose 1 million soldiers and sailors invading the islands of Japan. Two atomic bombs killed fewer people than the fire bombing that LeMay was doing.

  10. I think these people are being persecuted for their religion and should be granted asylum in the U.S. and given welfare and free housing for the rest of their lives. 😉

  11. I would have to see how the statute is structured to see what the outcome might be. Generally, I would take it the same way we treat surgeons. We give them permission to kill us, or at least harm us.

  12. Boy, this is a tough one! The whole religious angle. But, they can always get them for planting evidence!

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  13. ‘in the end, Kanyama succeed to getting closer to his spirits.’ LOL! He got closer to something……but I am not sure it’s what he was looking for…………

  14. Now this is a feel-good story.

    Hopefully John Hagee and al-Baghdadi, to name but two, follow in his former footsteps.

    I recommend venomous snakes and high-wire walking as well.

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