Witch Doctor Burnt Man At Stake And It Made The Rain Fall

I came across this from 1923 and found it interesting as it shows how attitudes have changed – plus it mentions coincidence (but was it actually coincidence?). Southern Rhodesia became Zimbabwe in 1980.

In Southern Rhodesia, Africa, where they have summer while we have winter, the natives recently called in a witch doctor to make it rain. The whole country was parched and withered as the result of a long drought.

The witch doctor, of course, announced that a human sacrifice must be made to the rain god, Mwari.

No one was very ambitious to be the victim, so the primitive city council turned their eyes to a worthless neighbour named Mtegedi. He was notorious for his amours with his neighbours’ wives, and the tribesmen gladly seized on the opportunity to get him out of the way.

Well, they tied him to a stake and burned him alive. Millions have similarly perished in the history of superstitious humanity. By coincidence, the victim had been dead only a few minutes when a terrific storm blew along. Rain fell for days, torrents of it.

Coincidence, you know, is the ally of superstition.

If you have been following the scientific news you will know that Americans have been experimenting to produce artificial rain. The most promising method is an airplane scattering electrified sand on a ‘roof of clouds’.

Marconi, some months ago, predicted that rain will come and go at our own will in the future. Then we will become lords and masters of creation on this planet. We will then be able to obtain any amount of power without effort.

The contrast emphasises how man in the primitive state seeks the solution of his problems outside himself, and how in the civilised state he realises that the solution comes from within. In other words, we have to work for everything we get on earth, and progress either individually or socially is up to us ourselves.

We still seek alibis and blame our troubles on external (often invisible) influences. But we are gradually learning that the way to get out of a hole is to climb out with our own hands and legs.

Man’s fate is in his own hands, with a Divine Being ready to help as we help ourselves.

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For more interesting and unusual stories like this go to 67 Not Out – coincidences, synchronicity, UFOs, reincarnation and many other mysteries.