Animal Births in Nigeria

No, not the regular kind that you have all the time on a farm, something far more disturbing. Or at least it would be if it made any sense. According to this story from Nigeria, a woman named Chipo Mahuda claims to have given birth to birds, frogs, and mice after being cursed by her lover's wife. This is one of those stories that any skeptic will tell you is either definitive proof of paranormal activity or completely fraudulent. Some of the other weird stories from Africa such as the car-thief-turned-goat could possibly be explained as simple mistaken identity - a person steals a car and abandons it, leaving the door open for a wayward goat to climb into the driver's seat. But this one?

When visited by the news crew, Chipo confirmed the chilling development. “I conceived after cheating with my neighbour, Learnmore, last year in December. We had several confrontations with his wife and she threatened me with his delivery of animals if I was to continue dating Learnmore and I strongly suspect her of bewitching me. I was already five months pregnant and I couldn’t stop as Learnmore demanded to have sex with me in the bush and at Waterloo farm where he works.

“I could not believe her words until 30 July when I started hearing strange voiced from my stomach similar to the squeaking of a mouse and of small chicks. Suddenly I felt serious labour pains and had a stomach ache. I went to Waterloo clinic and when they pressed against my stomach, they heard the squeaking. When they saw a mouse coming out of my privates they couldn’t find a solution and referred me to Marondera Hospital,” she narrated.


However, she said people advised her not to go to the hospital, but visited a traditional healer instead. “They said it is a traditional problem and I will die if I go there so I went to a sangoma instead. That is where I got the medicine to help the animals come out of my stomach leading to the strange delivery. After such experiences, I decided to stop dating Learnmore but it seems he can’t afford parting ways with me. He has threatened to commit suicide if I leave him,” she added. Chipo’s grandmother, Gogo Anna, kept the creatures that were delivered.

Since I don't see how this could be done with a spell, all I can think of is that either the story is made up or it's some sort of an elaborate hoax. I suppose somebody skilled in stage magic could make it look as if a woman were giving birth to a mouse if they were present in the delivery room. Mice, after all, are small enough to be palmed by sleight-of-hand. Still, it seems like a lot of trouble to go to for not much gain aside from notoriety. It might make some sense if she was looking to accuse the wife of witchcraft to get her our of the way, but since she seems to no longer be interested in a relationship with the lover that would tend to argue against it.

On the other hand, in the unlikely event this is a spell that someone out there knows, feel free to share!