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An African club spent the equivalent of thousands of Kenya shillings on a juju man to win a match, lost, and now faces additional demands for cleansing.
An African club recently spent $1,000 (approximately Ksh 130,000) on the services of a juju man in a bid to secure victory in their upcoming match, only to suffer a disappointing 2-0 defeat.
The Zimbabwean top-flight team Dynamos FC turned to a traditional healer before their game against Highlanders this past Sunday after some players boycotted training last week.
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According to Soccer24, the decision to enlist a juju man came amidst turmoil within the team.
Despite the hefty expenditure on the healer's intervention, Dynamos could not prevent the loss to Highlanders, which now extends Highlanders' lead to a five-point gap over Dynamos, who currently sit in sixth place on the Zimbabwean Premier Soccer League table.
A source close to Dynamos revealed to another Zimbabwean publication H-Metro about the incident.
"Given the issues that were happening with the boys (the players) who were boycotting training, there was a feeling that such a payment was not the right thing to do for the club at the moment," the source was quoted as per KickOff.
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The club's owners, however, insisted on maintaining this tradition.
"The owners of the club said that this was a tradition at Dynamos and it was not going to be changed simply because the players were boycotting training. They said these player boycotts have been happening as long as they can remember, and they come and go, and this cannot be used as an excuse to stop payments to the sangoma (juju man)," the source continued.
The belief among the club's hierarchy was that paying the sangoma was paramount to securing the desired result against Highlanders.
"It was like they were saying that paying the sangoma was more important, in terms of getting the result which we wanted from the game against Highlanders, than the training itself.
The message was like as long as we satisfied the sangoma, then we did not need to worry about the issues that had happened at training because the club would still be in a position to compete against Highlanders," the source added.
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However, the team's performance indicated otherwise, showing clear signs of being affected by the training disruptions.
"Of course, it didn't happen like that because we lost that game 2-0 and the performance of the boys showed that they had been affected by the issues which had happened on the training field," the source lamented.
The mystery surrounding the sangoma's involvement continues, as he is only known to a select few within the club.
"We don't know what the sangoma said about the result because we never get to meet him given he is only known to a few people at the club.
The sangoma got his dues and, maybe, if you were going to ask him how did we end up losing, he will say that without his intervention, we were going to lose maybe 5-0, I don't know," the source speculated.
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The use of traditional healers in football has sparked debate within the club.
"But what we cannot hide is the fact that we are concentrating on things which don't matter in this age and era when other clubs, of our magnitude, are investing in sports science.
We are still stuck in the old ways of doing business instead of asking ourselves why we have not won the league in 10 years if the so-called powers of these sangomas really work.
It’s a reflection of where we are today as a club, and maybe we deserve the result that we got on Sunday," the source criticized.
In a surprising turn of events, the sangoma is now demanding an additional US$2,000 (Ksh 260,000) to "cleanse the team of bad luck."
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This development has added to the club's woes and raised further questions about the efficacy and financial implications of relying on traditional healers.
The practice of using juju in football is not new to Dynamos.
In 2017, former Dynamos captain Memory Mucherahowa told the BBC that the club encouraged the use of juju and that it was his duty as captain to ensure the rituals were followed.
"I’m not saying juju works but it was part of football when I was playing and I’m sure it’s part of football even today."
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