HARARE – A 46-year-old man living in Hopley Zone 5, Harare, says he is being pursued and bitten by large, dark flies that nobody else can see, and believes the affliction is linked to the deaths of his six siblings and a relative’s alleged money-making rituals.
Collin Murutero, a native of Mozambique, says the ordeal began in early 2025 and has left him unable to work, socially isolated and unable to pay school costs for three of his children.
“I have suffered from the problem of being followed by flies that bite me all over my body. What bothers me is that I am the only one who sees these flies. Even when I tell others that I am being bitten, they don’t see them. They bite exactly like bees, to the extent that my body swells,” says Murutero.
Murutero, who is married and has four children, says the first attack happened at his home in Hopley. He recalls seeing many flies land on his head and spread across his body before the insects began biting him.
“The problem of being followed by these flies just started when I was at my home in Hopley, where I saw many flies land on my head and cover my entire body, acting like bees, and then they started biting me. I called my wife and children, and told them about it, but they said they didn’t see the flies I was talking about. They left after a while when many other people arrived,” says Murutero.
He says the insects appear both at home and when he is moving around, making it difficult for him to sit with other people, travel comfortably or carry out his business selling various goods. He also says the bites make him immediately ill and cause swelling across his body.
The experience has brought suspicion from neighbours and relatives. Murutero says some people now believe he is mentally unwell, while others accuse him of involvement in witchcraft or claim he sought wealth-getting charms that turned against him.
“Because of this problem that I alone see flies biting me, some people now think I am losing my mind. I am not mad. I have a problem that needs public assistance. Where I go, I am told that I was bewitched by living people who cast a spell of bad luck on me,” says Murutero.
He says the deepest fear behind the claims comes from his family history. His father died many years ago, leaving only his mother among the older generation. Murutero says he was one of seven children, but the other six died in unusual circumstances and without long illnesses.
“My father passed away a long time ago. I am only left with my mother. We were seven children. All the other six died strangely, without prolonged illness. In all these misfortunes, a close relative buried all these bodies because no one in our house had enough money to handle these hardships,” says Murutero.
According to Murutero, the relative who helped bury the bodies is now at the centre of suspicions raised by traditional healers and prophets. He says that, wherever he goes for help, he is told that a family member has placed a spiritual “tracker” on him and is using his suffering to make money.
“Everywhere I go, I am told that some relatives who are using me to make money cast a ‘spiritual tracker’ on me. They are said to have put a spirit on me that causes these biting flies to follow me. This is also causing people to shun me. Even in my work of selling various goods, people don’t buy,” says Murutero.
He also says the same close relative appears to know where he has gone for help and what he has been told. Murutero describes returning home from visits to traditional healers or prophets and finding the relative waiting outside in a car.
“Whenever I come back from seeking help, I always find one of my close relatives waiting with their car at my house. They then tell me where I went and everything I was told there, and I wonder how they know. They then explain again the deaths of my relatives and the help I received from others in burying them, and I am surprised by it,” says Murutero.
The accusations have also had a direct effect on his children. Murutero says his eldest child stopped attending school, behaving as though possessed by a spirit, while he has been unable to raise fees and other costs for the three younger children because the fly problem has stopped him from earning a living.
“I have suffered from this problem, and when these flies bite me, I immediately start to get very sick. Some people tell me that I am bitten by flies because I smell, that I don’t bathe. That’s not true. I bathe very well. And that I am involved in witchcraft is not true. I am not involved in witchcraft as I pray very much,” says Murutero.
During a conversation with Murutero, he said the flies were beginning to gather around him. Nothing was visible to the reporter. His wife, who spoke via telephone but declined to give her name, confirmed that he repeatedly complains of being bitten, although she and the children cannot see the insects.
“It’s true, my husband has a problem. He says he is bitten by flies, but I and the children don’t see them. We used to think sometimes he was losing his mind, but then we realized that strange things are happening to him. We are tired of going around with him without anything coming out. Some of his family members he was born with have all died; he is the only one left,” says the wife.
Traditional healer Letwin Manguwo, popularly known as Gogo Mamoyo, from Seke in Chitungwiza, links Murutero’s experience to what she describes as a spirit of bad luck working with goblins to make people avoid him.
“Murume uyu akaiswa mweya yezvitunha zvehama dzake, izvo zvinoita kuti ateverwe nenhunzi sezvinoitwa zvitunha. Uyu munyama waakaiswa wokuti asemwe nevanhu. Anofanirwa kubatsirwa nekukasika; zvinopera,” said Gogo Mamoyo.
Murutero’s account comes against a wider background in Zimbabwe in which families often turn to traditional healers, prophets and medical services at the same time when confronted with distressing or unexplained behaviour. Research published in 2024 on mental illness and traditional healing among the Korekore people in Rushinga found that many people interpreted severe mental distress through ideas about witchcraft, sorcery, broken taboos and aggrieved spirits. The research also recorded families moving between traditional healers, faith healers, psychiatrists, psychologists and nurses while searching for an explanation and treatment.
The study described traditional healing as an enduring part of Zimbabwe’s health-seeking landscape, rather than a practice that disappeared with the expansion of hospitals and clinics. It found that people often kept their visits to healers private because of fear of ridicule or judgement, even when they also consulted medical professionals.
Murutero says he is now seeking public assistance because the attacks, the family accusations and the loss of income have left him unable to care for his household. He maintains that he is not involved in witchcraft and says he wants an explanation for why he alone sees the flies, why his body swells after the bites and why his family has suffered so many deaths. For now, he remains in Hopley with his wife and children, facing an affliction that he says follows him from place to place.