A group of young primary school pupils have caused a stir in their community after they were caught red-handed performing blood rituals.
The pupils from a certain Mbuyazwe Primary School in Zimbabwe, were caught in the act while they were cutting each other at the back of their hands before exchanging the blood.
According to B Metro, elders within the Mbuyazwe community have failed to understand reasons behind their actions and suspect that it is linked to satanism.
A village source said: “It was discovered that some Grade Four and Five pupils had wounds at the back of their hands.
“They were questioned on what had happened and they explained that they had taken broken bottles to cut themselves in order to exchange blood.
“They exchanged the blood by rubbing the bleeding wound onto each other’s hands and they believed by so doing the blood from another person would have entered into another person’s cut.”
Another resident of Mbuyazwe compound stated that they were shocked by the reports as it never made sense.
“Just imagine primary school pupils being said to be doing such a thing? It is not normal and we suspect there were evil forces behind it.
“How did they come up with such an idea of exchanging blood? As parents we are still worried and they were not even afraid of cutting themselves.
“They have cuts at the back of their hands and they were writing a one (1),” he said.
It is said that after the discovery of the issue, the pupils were counselled on the dangers of such behaviour.
Efforts to get a comment from village head Ngoma were fruitless as he was said to be at work in Nyamandlovu, but his daughter confirmed the incident.
“There were pupils who cut themselves at the back of their hands and it is not clear why they did that and I do not have much information,” she said.
Bulawayo provincial education director Dan Moyo said he was not aware of the issue.