At a little village called Isimila, on the Iringa-Mbeya road (Highway A-104), there has been a tomb with reputation - a myth really. It is said when electrical power lines were laid to pass above the tomb, the power did not flow, no matter what technicins did to troubleshoot. Then the Iringa old "wise" men pointed out the reason - it's the tomb. The company then circumvented the tomb contrary to the survey map, and, lo, electricity flowed. The skewed-for-no-logical-reason lay of pylons provides a good fodder to tour guides.
Recently, though, when a road-building firm had wanted to run a straight path that would go right over the tomb, they were warned of futile attempts of works in the past.
I was tickled to learn that they contracted some people "who would risk their lives" to shift the tomb at a (rather exorbitant) fee. It's not uncommon to hear of shifting graves-even entire graveyards-out of "respect for the departed".
I'd love to hear explanation to auditors as to why the exercise of moving the solitary tomb should cost so much. To keep off spirits? Belief in the supernatural is commonplace in sports in Africa, some soccer teams even keep in payroll "an expert" who shall help "enhance" the team. Coach, it seems, takes second place...
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