A Zimbabwean family residing in Engineering high-density suburb of Highfield in Harare, is being tormented by something inexplicable.
The children in this family claim to see things that cause them great distress, including snakes, hyenas, and short people, yet these entities remain invisible to others.
This predicament began in 2016, as the children started witnessing the unusual.
"The children suddenly began to say they were seeing short men with long white beards, as well as snakes and hyena. They also say they see people holding knives in the house," says Eugenia Maguma (37), the mother of the family.
These occurrences are witnessed by all the children in the family, even though they live in different places.
"One of my children is at my mother's place in Mutoko, another lives in Chitungwiza, and I live here with the two younger ones, but the problem is the same even though these children live in different places," says Maguma.
She says her children were fathered by three different men, as she was fleeing from a spiritual husband who is said to be spiritually sexually violating her.
“My children were fathered by three different men. The eldest son is 20 years old and lives in Chitungwiza. The 13-year-old son lives in rural areas with my mother. The two I live with are a girl aged 11 and a boy aged 8. These two are the ones who see the hyenas, snakes, and short people the most. The youngest one has things he sees at school that have even caused him to be withdrawn from school,” says Maguma.
"I see a person wearing black clothes, the same one my children see," says Maguma.
"I have a husband I live with, with whom I have no children, and he constantly fights with a man who comes to our bed and tries to sleep with me. We see this man when we open our eyes, sometimes I open my eyes and see him in the middle of us during sex."
The terrifying events don't stop there. The children in the family claim to be pelted with stones, but they can't see where they come from or who throws them.
"These children cry out, claiming to be touched by a spirit that says I am the wife of a man whose spirit is coming out of them," says Maguma.
"Sometimes I suddenly can't find these children at home, and when they return, they say they were at the river. The door of the house is knocked on, and when you open it, you don't see anyone."
Their 11-year-old daughter constantly writes letters expressing her desire to commit suicide, which the spirit that possesses her reportedly instigates.
"Now these children come home from outside saying they see bundles of US$100 bills lying on the road. When I go out to see, I see nothing," says Maguma.
Maguma's husband, Munyaradzi Nyamvura (44), declined to speak to the news crew about what's happening in their home.
"What amai [my wife] said is all there is to it, nothing more," says Nyamvura.
"This family needs help, they are being used by evil spirits," says Sangoma Masango.
