Abstract:
The belief in the existence of witchcraft and magic still runs strong in the African context. Because of this, early
anthropologists, missionaries and colonial administrators tended to describe African indigenous religion and culture
through misleading terminologies such as ‘primitive’, ‘superstition’, ‘magic’, ‘witchcraft’ and ‘fetish’. The westerners
misunderstood and misinterpreted African religion and sought to pursue the philosophy of the centre to displace
everything African. Nevertheless, good and bad heritage exists in African religion and culture. The paper explored
the nature, use and impact of mubobobo, a magical remote sexual intercourse, metaphorically called ‘blue tooth
sex’, in Masvingo province, Zimbabwe. The study posited that there are some unscrupulous individuals who practice
mubobobo on unsuspecting people that results in detrimental socio-psychological experiences. The research
corroborated methods to gather data and established that mubobobo is seen in ambivalence with some regarding it
as an outrageous magical spiritual experience whilst others including the legal fraternity consider it as unfounded
and illusionary. In the final analysis, the study concluded that mubobobo is a mysterious and mystical practice that
is true to the Shona believers in phenomenological terms in the Zimbabwean context.
