Was Baboon Butchered In Swaziland Village The Result Of Witchcraft Curse?

The answer to the question in our headline is of course, quite obviously, no, but that won't stop us from picking over the bones of the story of yet another 'witchcraft scare' to see what lies therein.

The scare was caused when a baboon reportedly ran into a homestead in the village of Piggs Peak and tried opening a garage door.

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The report in The Times Of Swaziland tells us that the baboon was first spotted by watchman Mandla Maseko when it was approaching a main road - “One of my dogs started barking loudly and violently. At first, I did not suspect anything but continued with my journey. After a couple of minutes, all the dogs followed suit and started barking as well and upon further inspection, I noticed that they had spotted the baboon,” Maseko explained.

Maseko then set his dogs on the baboon following the chase himself from behind.  The now probably terrified baboon passed a number of homesteads before finding one to enter.  A crowd soon gathered to watch how things would progress.

Maseko said after entering the homestead, the baboon went to the garage and tried opening the garage door but it failed. It then ran towards the homestead’s pit latrine where it eventually hid.
The residents followed and stood by the pit latrine’s door, thinking that the animal would come out. It remained inside for a couple of minutes but later tried to squeeze itself out through a small window but failed. It would now and again show its upper limbs as it tried to come out of the pit latrine. Maseko, who was carrying an axe, took advantage of this and hit the baboon’s limbs.

Thereafter, it made a deafening sound before forcefully pushing its way out of the pit latrine, sending those standing at the entrance to all directions. The animal tried to run away but the dogs chased it. The baboon fought back and one of the dogs was injured.
In a bid to save his dogs, Maseko is said to have approached the now fighting baboon and tried to hit it with the axe. It became more violent and it bit him in his right leg.
Seeing that the situation could turn nasty, Maseko made another attempt to hit the baboon, much harder this time. Indeed, he hit it on the head and it lost strength and later died.

Maseko then took the baboon to his homestead where they skinned and cooked it, before eating it with other residents. “The meat was very nice,” said Maseko.


Hmmm....I can't, just can't see any witchcraft in this story anywhere at all but apparently villagers are still talking in hushed tones that the practice of witchcraft is to blame.  Just a baboon terrified by howling dogs trying to find safety before being killed for din dins. Let's hope they don't imagine they find a culprit who they think has been practicing witchcraft!