Prayer and Church Replaces 'Juju' and Voodoo in Zimbabwe Football Club
"Juju" or voodoo has long been a part of African football. In recent years, however, the powers and beliefs anchored in "juju" appear to be slowly dying, with prayers replacing these old traditions.
According to MW Nation, some African clubs believe in the power of voodoo so much that there are those who enter the football pitch using undesignated entrances to avoid getting charmed by their opponents.
So much is the power assigned on voodoo and tradition that things that might seem bizarre are regarded as perfectly normal.
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Just last week, the team bus of Silver Strikers entered the Bingu National Stadium in reverse gear to ward off bad luck in their game against the Bullets for the quarterfinals of the Airtel tournament.
But one team in Zimbabwe has opted to shun voodoo practices. Instead of charms, juju and spells, the club owner advocates prayers.
Yadah FC owner, Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries founder Walter Magaya, told Religion in Zimbabwe that the reason his team lost its last match is because more than half of the players failed to attend church and pray.
He added that as Yadah FC is a "spiritual team," the only way they can win their games is if there is a covenant between the team and God.
"The players and their technical staff approached me, asking me to pray for the team. I said no, because there is no agreement between me and the team," Magaya said. "Yadah FC is a spiritual team. If there is no agreement between me and the team, the team cannot win."
"God can only release power, glory or grace where there is an agreement between two parties... there is no agreement in Yadah FC. In this church today there are about 10 to 15 players out of 45, where are the others? Maybe they are at a sangoma or an apostolic sect. How do you win them?" he said.
After the club suffered their second defeat, Magaya suspended the team's coach, Jairos Tapera, because of his decision to field players who were not part of the "spiritual team" the self-proclaimed prophet chose for the game.
Following Yadah FC's third loss, the Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries founder and club owner blamed the defeat on himself.
"You won't understand it when I say [that] it was all spiritual and some of the players might not understand it but I do and that is why I am taking responsibility for what happened," he told The Herald.
