Msiri's Head: A Curse and A Mystery
In the traditional belief systems of the Garanganze people, as with other Central and Southern African cultures, illness and disease are not caused by pathogens but by magic and supernatural forces. The sickness suffered by Stairs and the expedition members was attributed by them to Msiri's spirit and his people taking revenge, and a rumour took hold that Stairs had kept Msiri's head and it cursed and killed all who carried it. The Mwami Mwenda chieftainships' history says that the expedition fled with Msiri's head intending to present it to Leopold, but 'Mukanda-Bantu and his men' caught and 'killed all the Belgians' and the head was buried 'under a hill of stones' in what is now Zambia.
Another account says that when Stairs died he had with him Msiri's head in a can of kerosene, but there is no mention of it in Moloney's or Bonchamps' journals. The whereabouts of Msiri's skull remains a mystery today.
Read more about this topic: Stairs Expedition To Katanga
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