Zimbabwean Soccer Player Drowns During Cleansing Ritual

"The technical team told every player to get into the river so that they could be cleansed of bad spirits," it said. The paper quoted local police commander Peter Rodzi as saying that after the swim, the other players had noticed that one of the team was missing. "The area where the team was swimming is prohibited as the current is strong. The river is also infested with crocodiles and hippos," said Rodzi.

Zimbabwean football teams and many others in Africa are steeped in supernatural beliefs. Football officials and players are convinced most football stadiums are fortresses for home teams because of juju, and routinely perform certain rituals to overcome “bad spirits”, but rarely do the rituals result in death.

Farayi Mungazi, a former Zimbabwean football commentator now reporting widely across Africa for BBC World Service told New Zimbabwe.com: "How can these things still happen in this day and age? It's unbelievable. I have heard stories galore on juju right across Africa but this is tragic. It's got to be the worst because someone actually died."