The life of a paranormal investigator is certainly an interesting one. You would be amazed just how many random people have astounding stories to tell about weird events which have either happened to them or happened to someone they know. Just a few days ago I was investigating a demonic possession case that allegedly took place in Yuquan Monastery in China's Hubei Province (article on that event shortly forthcoming) in which the victim's body inflated to a grotesque size. My luck proved to be in no short supply when I started talking to a taxi driver on the morning of the day on which I am writing this now. He used to live in Gweru, Zanzibar - and we got talking about witchcraft customs in that area. He started telling a story about an unfortunate barkeeper who wronged a witch-doctor and was thus cursed. The outcome of this curse was that he would inflate like a balloon before popping in much the same way as such a rubber inflatable. This was enough of a synchronicity - and just a highly intriguing story - for me to be persuaded to immediately write up the case to my blog.
The Witchcraft Death of Andrew Chisanga[]
Andrew Chisanga is the central figure of the upsetting story I am about to tell you. He was a barman at a local pub in the city of Gweru, Zimbabwe (which was known as Gwelo up until 1982). From the telling of the tale that I received from the taxi driver, it seemed as if Mr. Chisanga was a fairly respectable man. This driver was certainly not afraid to speak his mind about the people from his hometown, and he didn't have a lot to say about Andrew, but this might've been due to the tale having been told to him by one of his relatives as opposed to the events contained wherein having been witnessed by him himself. The events apparently took place some time between 1980 and 1982.
Chisanga's fatal mistake came when he entered a financial dealing with an acquaintance. This dealing didn't involve a particularly large sum of money, but it was evidently enough of a sizeable sum for the acquaintance in question to take it very seriously. Eventually Andrew reneged on the payment he was due to make to the man - who was perhaps something of an aspiring loan shark - and he was highly displeased with this. It turned out that the acquaintance had some connections to the shadowy underbelly of witchcraft practitioners in the community - and so he was able to contact a witch-doctor to place a curse on the hapless Andrew. The curse stated that Andrew's stomach would inflate like a balloon before popping, finally killing him after what would presumably be an agonising process. The taxi driver put it up to a psychosomatic illness - but the witch-doctor's curse took hold of Chisanga immediately. His stomach started to fill with gas and his body became grotesquely bloated. He was quickly taken to a local Western hospital - and tubes were affixed to his stomach in order to hopefully allow the gas to drain out of his body in order to save his life. However, the gas somehow refused to leave Chisanga - and his stomach became wider and wider until it finally burst, killing him instantly.