Snakes are one of the worst enemies of human beings, going waaay back from the very beginning of times. To the believers, actually the hustler life we endure every single day is a result of the cunning snake.
Should the snake have left Eve to live peacefully with Adam in that Eden Garden, maybe we would be chilling with lions and crocodiles right now, who knows. But look at us now, we have to work hard to eat, we suffer to survive, we get sick and d**e, and the mother nature do punish us often, all because of Eve’s sin, which was provoked by the stupid snake. Shame!
Watch the video below:
And since then, snakes have been our enemy and when you find one, let’s say in your compound, the normal thing to do is to k**ll it in the form of neutralising its danger, but also simply to k**ll it in revenge. Like imagine what would happen if we stayed in Eden Garden rather than this messy Earth. Snake prevented that, then why should it live?
But to Karekezi Ryamukuru, a Rwandan man with special abilities, snakes are so valuable and worth more than one can imagine. The man, who claims to be a wizard, has said to be an extension of his ancestors’ spirits, which he still possesses and makes a living through them.
You wonder how, well we did wonder the same ourselves but we came to realise the truth when we visited him, and this is what we are going to share with you.
First and foremost our visit to the man was not straightforward. He was not welcoming and chased us with his snake sneaking around his arm, head forward towards us as the man approached us with a strong temper.
Karekezi claims that these snakes are a symbol of the magic of his ancestry. Families of both his parents, from mothers’ side and fathers’ side have had a tradition of possessing some magical power and Karekezi is proud to be the current possessor of such powers.
Those snakes come to him naturally, and he welcomes in and raises them.
“We feed them but they get angry sometimes and refuse to eat.”
A living from a curse
Karekezi is still living with his parents and siblings, and their home is his base, where all of his snakes reside. The small ones live outside in a big hole he dug for them. He keeps them there and takes food and water to them. He leaves behind a very big snake to protect the little ones.
When they grow up, he will bring them to the small house he built just outside of his family’s big house. Some will also live with him and the lucky one will actually sleep with him, just like the one he has, which he snakes around his arm as he sleeps.
The Afrimax team watched the man as he played with his snakes in a very dangerous way. He puts so many small snakes around his body and goes as far as k**ssing them and putting them in his mouth, for God’s sake.
If one bites him, he said, it will d**e.
“They sense my sweat and when I get close to them, they notice that I am one of them, because they can’t smell normal human sweat and rest,” he explained of the logic behind his closeness to the dangerous snakes.
“But they feel safe and comfortable when they are with me. They can’t hurt me, I have eaten a lot of them and I am a professional wizard whose way is well prepared for hundreds of years by my ancestors,” he claimed.
Karekezi’s neighbours are used to him now, they won’t visit him or point their fingers on his compound, but they won’t attack him as well.
“My neighbours know that I am a wizard and sometimes I give them my powers.”
But his profession, as he prefers to call it, has affected him since most of the girls in his town have always avoided him, hence the man in his late 30s is still single at his parents’ house.
But he is not yet ready to leave a profession and a skill he’s been crafting for more than 32 years, which also he believes to be his protection.
“That’s my form of protection because when there are as many, there is nowhere my enemies would pass to reach me, not even their evil Spirits,” he said.