Girl ‘Resurrected’ After 11 Years Returns to Her Village
Lucas Bottoman
The Nation
Mkungula (Malawi):
Sixteen-year-old Josephine Chilamba, who died at the age of five in 1994, is believed to have resurrected last month after spending 11 years in the world of darkness.
Josephine surprised people who spotted her walking around a graveyard as mourners were returning home after burial ceremony of one village member in Mkungula Village on October 2, 2005.
Hailing from Mtemwende Village in Traditional Authority Tambala, Dedza, Josephine told people who questioned her that she was looking for her mother, Luduwina Chilamba.Luduwina said her daughter died in April, 1994 after a short illness as they were transporting her to Nkhoma Mission Hospital.
Chilamba said people were puzzled to note that Josephine’s body was feeling like any normal living body in terms of temperature, an indication of something fishy surrounding the girl’s mysterious death. She said women, who were washing the body, noticed that the girl’s hands were grabbing the funeral caretakers, adding that the girl could urinate and sneeze as her body was being washed.
Josephine said after disappearing from this world she was taken to a certain house in Mtemwende Village where she met other 15 stranded people who were made to work on the owner’s garden, grocery shop and do other house chores like drawing water and cleaning utensils.“I used to go to the village well to draw water where I sometimes recognised my relatives, but I could not talk to them,” said Josephine.
She explained that all the people kept in the house were given one dish to share for lunch and dinner per day, adding that the landlord renamed her Dolpha.Asked how she found herself back to this life, Josephine said there was a man who took her into a confined room with a small glass window who went to the garden, leaving the door unlocked.
“Something just came into my mind to try to open the door of the room in which I was confined and when I did so fortunately it opened, hence I found my way out,” said Josephine. “Then I started running until I found myself near the graveyard where village headman Mkungula’s wife took me to her house.”
Since Josephine came out of the dark world, people who prayed for her the first time have given her yet another name of Deborah.
Josephine’s mother said Nkhoma Police is aware of the incident because they were the ones who handled the whole case and that many people flocked to the village to see her.
Nov 16, 2005
Lucas BottomanThe Nation
Mkungula (Malawi):
Sixteen-year-old Josephine Chilamba, who died at the age of five in 1994, is believed to have resurrected last month after spending 11 years in the world of darkness.
Josephine surprised people who spotted her walking around a graveyard as mourners were returning home after burial ceremony of one village member in Mkungula Village on October 2, 2005.
Hailing from Mtemwende Village in Traditional Authority Tambala, Dedza, Josephine told people who questioned her that she was looking for her mother, Luduwina Chilamba.Luduwina said her daughter died in April, 1994 after a short illness as they were transporting her to Nkhoma Mission Hospital.
Chilamba said people were puzzled to note that Josephine’s body was feeling like any normal living body in terms of temperature, an indication of something fishy surrounding the girl’s mysterious death. She said women, who were washing the body, noticed that the girl’s hands were grabbing the funeral caretakers, adding that the girl could urinate and sneeze as her body was being washed.
Josephine said after disappearing from this world she was taken to a certain house in Mtemwende Village where she met other 15 stranded people who were made to work on the owner’s garden, grocery shop and do other house chores like drawing water and cleaning utensils.“I used to go to the village well to draw water where I sometimes recognised my relatives, but I could not talk to them,” said Josephine.
She explained that all the people kept in the house were given one dish to share for lunch and dinner per day, adding that the landlord renamed her Dolpha.Asked how she found herself back to this life, Josephine said there was a man who took her into a confined room with a small glass window who went to the garden, leaving the door unlocked.
“Something just came into my mind to try to open the door of the room in which I was confined and when I did so fortunately it opened, hence I found my way out,” said Josephine. “Then I started running until I found myself near the graveyard where village headman Mkungula’s wife took me to her house.”
Since Josephine came out of the dark world, people who prayed for her the first time have given her yet another name of Deborah.
Josephine’s mother said Nkhoma Police is aware of the incident because they were the ones who handled the whole case and that many people flocked to the village to see her.
Nov 16, 2005
