Human bones for sale

—  Dealers targeting tombs

—  Cases on the increase—police

–Bones going for K10 million

 Human bones are being exhumed from graves in Machinga and reportedly sold in Mozambique, a Weekend Nation investigation has revealed.

Following on several media reports of people who were caught with human bones in Mangochi and Machinga, this reporter—posing as supplier to some and buyer to others—visited Nanyumbu, Nampeya, Chikwewo, Ntaja and Nsanama trading centres in Machinga where he learnt that bones are sought much after among fortune-seekers.

Through interaction with a bicycle taxi operator he hired to take him to Nanyumbu TC, this reporter established that there are dealers at Ntaja and Nsanama, particularly middlemen.

The operator said one of the middlemen, who operates a grocery at Ntaja, once approached him to help exhume a corpse at Chindamba graveyard.

“He offered me K25 000 as payment for the job. But I refused; and since then, we became enemies as he thinks I spread the news to other people about his dealings,” he said.

The grocer was reportedly out tending to his crops when this reporter went to the shop to ‘seal’ a deal with him.

On the other hand, a woman this reporter feigned to have fallen in love with for purposes of the investigation at Nsanama TC revealed that ‘Muhammad’—who runs a sizeable shop—could be interested to partner the journalist in the ‘human bones’ business.

Muhammad willingly agreed to meet the reporter over a cold one in the evening to discuss business.

At the bar, he said he would be willing to part ways with K10 million or anything of that value, including a brand new vehicle, in exchange for human bones of an adult.

“If you have them, I will buy from you right away,” he challenged.

The reporter promised that he would bring the bones the next evening.

He could, however, not disclose where he would take the bones to and what he would do with them.

Another bicycle taxi operator, hired on the way to Nampeya Village the following morning, spoke of receiving a similar offer from a prominent businessperson in 2011.

He said the businessperson offered him K5 million for bones of an adult person and K2 million for minors younger than 14.

“He told me he wanted to use the bones to make charms. I told him that is an abomination to a God-fearing person like me,” he said.

But the businessperson left Nsanama after “rumours that he was trading in human bones started making rounds.”

Ntaja Police Station officer-in-charge, Cosmas Chidothi, said  “a day hardly passes without the police recording complaints or cases bordering on perceived or actual exhuming of corpses for human bones”.

“In fact, the people of Group Village Head Ntaja last Tuesday [March 3] woke up to a sight of human bones stashed in plastic bags in a maize field a few metres from the police station,” explained Chidothi.

He said the station registered the first case of body exhumation in 2010 when residents of Chikuluma Village in Traditional Authority Liwonde reported to his office that their graveyard had been tampered with and a corpse had been exhumed.

The villagers suspected Anusa Kasonda—who is also Village Head Chitumba—to have been behind the act.

True to their suspicion, police recovered bones of the exhumed corpse stashed in a sack in Kasonda’s house.

“After questioning him, he admitted to digging up corpses, but what was regrettable was that he refused to disclose his business associates in spite of the pressure the law enforcers piled on him,” explained Chidothi.

He believes the disclosure of his associates could have helped law enforcers to establish where the market for the trade is and what the bones are being used for.

Kasonda was convicted and imprisoned for 24 months on the charge of conduct likely to cause breach of peace.

“He just finished serving his jail term a few months ago,” he said.

Chidothi said following Kasonda’s conviction, the practice died down until end 2013 when bone dealers started terrorising graveyards in villages under T/As Nkoola, Kawinga, Chikwewo and Kapoloma in search of human skeletons.

“No one, except those involved, knows where the market is and how they use bones,” he said.

Chidothi said the confiscated bones are sent to hospital where they are incinerated.

Head of the station’s criminal investigations department, Felix Kamkwamba, said between February 2014 and February 2015, Chiuja Village (T/A Kawinga) had four tombs excavated.

Three more tombs, he said, were dug up in Ngunga Village in T/A Nkoola where two corpses were stolen.

“The bone dealers failed to finish exhuming the third tomb,” he said.

In Nselema Village in T/A Bwananyambi, police on the night of February 13 2015 recovered a bag full of human bones in a house of a man who was being suspected to have stolen a chicken.

Kammwamba said the man is among 11 suspects whose cases have been referred to the High Court in Zomba.

On February 20 this year, police in Mangochi arrested Jairos Duwa, 37, of Bawa Village in T/A Mandimba in Mozambique who wanted to sell human bones to a Malawian businessperson at K900 000.

He, however, ended up in the hands of law enforcers who had received a tip-off from well-wishers.

Machinga Police Station chief, Gideon Nahumu, said the matter has become a serious problem which requires collective efforts between police and communities if it is to be combated.

Nahumu recounted that from November 2014 to January 2015, 10 people were arrested for being found in possession of human bones while two others were arrested on suspicion that they exhumed corpses.

He said his office has since referred the 10 suspects to  the High Court in Zomba where their cases will be heard while Liwonde Magistrate’s Court is handling two cases of persons suspected to have tampered with tombs and have been charged with conduct  likely to cause breach of peace.

Eastern Region Police spokesperson, Thomeck Nyaude, said 10 suspects whose cases have been referred to the High Court in Zomba have been charged with ‘illegal possession of human bones’, which attracts a maximum of life imprisonment.

But Nahumu was quick to emphasise that the statistics from his office may not give a true picture on the ground as some cases go unreported, especially where communities choose not to inform the police.

Senior Group Village Head  (GVH) Kawinga concurred with Nahumu that there could be more cases which go unreported.

He cited Nampeya Village where corpses were exhumed, but the matter simply ended in the hands of community leaders.

“As chiefs, we don’t know the motive of people who are doing this,” she said.

Sheikh Shayib Rajab of Nanyumbu Mosque said Malawians must face up to the fact that the emergence of the trade is an effort by desperate people to find their way out of poverty.

“I believe this is pure Satanism. Are you sure one can turnaround his or her financial standing at the touch or sight of a bone of the dead?” he wondered.

Rajab said Islamic teachings emphasise the need to respect graveyards because “these are the places where our brothers and sisters are resting as they wait for their day of resurrection”.

He also blamed police for the trade, saying they handle suspects connected to this issue with kid gloves.

“I feel it’s insensitive to give bail to these people. These are just the same as murderers,” he said.

GVH Ntaja, however, attributed the problem to decay of cultural and moral values.

“Graveyards used to be some of the most feared and respected places in ancient days. But probably due to the influence of democracy, people no longer see the importance of respecting the graveyards,” he said.

Chidothi said some of the suspects  he has dealt with justify their act by saying they are simply trying to put to good use what the society condemned and threw away.

But Asiyati Gerald, a Chiuja Village resident whose son’s grave was tampered with, said the news about the theft of his son’s bones devastated her the same way his death did.

“By burying him, we never meant to hate him. We simply rested him as we wait to meet him after resurrection,” she said.

Ntaja said the situation may force chiefs to deploy volunteer security guards to protect tombs from tampering and preserve Yao culture and traditions in respect to the dead.