Zimbabweans say angry ancestors are behind road accidents

"Are we being punished for something we don't know about? [What we are doing is] asking forgiveness through our ancestors to our almighty God because we are too poor and too small to go directly to him."

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Sharing his fears, all the traditional chiefs in the area met recently and agreed to hold a cleansing. In some places along the road, the ritual has not been held since the early 1990s, because many of the elders who performed it have died.

Some believe that those who tried to perform the rituals since then were the wrong people and only made things worse.

Murambiwa Mupaiki, secretary to the traditional chief near Featherstone on the same road, said there hadn't been any cleansing rituals at nearby Dorongo, believed to be the site of the white pioneer camp, for more than 15 years.

"At Dorongo we brew beer and beat drums and slaughter beasts to appease the ancestors," says Mupaiki, holding a black cowboy hat in his hands. "Now it's a very long time since the rituals have been done."

Unless the ritual is revived, Mupaiki says, people fear that things could get much worse.

"They're afraid of drought. They're afraid there'll be some more accidents," he says. "There could be an outbreak of locusts or another pest. Or even a war."

Many traditional leaders, recruited in past years by the ruling ZANU-PF party, were so busy with politics and administration that they had no time for their old duties, he adds.

"Some people who are brave enough urge their traditional leaders, 'Don't you see? Something has to be done here.' "

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But regulars on the road -- professional drivers who've seen more accidents than they can count -- just want the road fixed. Period.

When something goes wrong, says Mnefashi, 39, a bus driver who's plied the infamous route for nine years, there's little room for maneuver. He will give only his first name for fear of dismissal.

He most dreads a burst tire -- the most common cause of serious accidents -- which killed a close colleague and 28 passengers in the Munyati River accident last month.

"It sounds like an explosion or a big piece of metal breaking off the bus," he says. "What you need to do is not panic. If you hear that noise, you have to be ready for the bus to do anything."

He's burst three tires and managed to control the bus. One time it veered off the road, but he was able to avoid hitting the trees or rolling over.

"There are people who think there's spirits. There are no bad spirits. It's just the potholes in the road," he says.

He carries no talisman to ward off evil forces. But he does have one bit of insurance.

"I've been driving this road for years. I know each and every pothole and every uncertainty of the road," he says.

Chisvu, the chief metekedza, sees another solution. He believes just a little more humanity will make things right.

"We have become so politicized that we have turned on each other," he says. "There's no love."

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robyn.dixon@latimes.com