By Ian Ortega
Last weekend, a team of BigEye.ug writers set off for the famous Bukunja area (home to Paul Kafeero-RIP) to discover the truths about cannibals aka Abasezi as they are known in Uganda. There have been numerous stories over the years that rotate around the existence of these chaps.
BigEye.ug can comfortably confirm that we finally got the real evidence. Having reached in Bukunja at around mid-day, we went off to one of the bars where we interviewed various people to confirm our fears. Everyone was okay about the whole issue and in this side of town, it’s a normality.
“I can show you the basezi around, I was also one but I am now too old for those games,” one Mzee narrated to us. “Here in Bukunja, we have all types of basezi, we have those who day-dance and those who night dance, we have those who run around naked and those who eat fresh human flesh and we also have those who eat live humans when given the chance.”
So, with such background information, we headed off to the burial of someone who had passed away two days back. At the burial, everyone was whispering in their ears while pointing at some men who were salivating. Apparently, these are some of the famous basezi. “You can check around most graves in the area, I am certain, you won’t find the corpses or the remains in these graves, they have been taken and eaten for lunch and supper.”
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We were also warned not to eat any kind of meat in the area. “Human flesh tastes salty but it’s yummy, I wish I kept some part of Theresa whom we ate last week, this one was very yummy, and super tasty,” one of the basezis told us.
According to them, it’s their culture. “This is our nature, you are born a musezi and you are raised as one, human flesh can’t be compared to anything in this world, more so, the private parts,” another one continued the conversation.
Because most families in Bukunja are basezi, they have even signed share-agreements such that they agree on which family will eat which family. Since basezis can’t eat their family members, they have to exchange them with another family.
At night, the winds begin blowing incessantly; small stones keep hitting the roof of the house under which we are sleeping. One of my colleagues tries to switch on his phone and it blacks out. “They always do, even the car flood-lights can fail to work in the presence of a musezi, you can lose your way home if a musezi is to pass around,” our landlady warns us. “These people must be respected and if you doubt their existence, they will make sure they show you evidence.”
The winds gain higher velocities and our host then lets us know that it’s probably the person, whose funeral we attended who is being exported to the family butcher. “It’s all normal, when you die, you must be eaten, even Paul Kafeero is no longer in his grave, and he was eaten in just two days.”
At this point we are so scared, truth be told, when we check on the grave the next day, we find evidence of footsteps and pathways to show that someone was carried away at night. And to exhibit some of the skills these basezi use, a young kid of about 5 years gets us to bury an insect under the ground and asks us to observe keenly. He recites some words and within no minute, the insect which was buried gets onto the top without any excavation. “My dad taught me this, last night I was responsible for bringing out our neighbour’s kid who died from the grave and we ate him for lunch,” the kid boasts.
BigEye.ug is told not to judge the cannibals because it’s part of their human nature. We sign off and we promise to return the next time just to get the bigger picture of the basezi, cannibals, human flesh eaters in Uganda.
If you have any stories or personal experience concerning cannibals, please share them with us. Apparently, the basezi run faster than 4G internet.
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Email: [email protected]
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Twitter: @OrtegaUganda
Phone: +256788551121