BANGUI, KOMPAS.com – The stench continues to waft lately along the largest waterway in Bangui, Republic Central Africa.
Then in the reeds on the banks of the Ubangui River, the fishermen found a mutilated corpse wrapped in a sack.
Last month in just one week three bodies were found. All of them were handcuffed and beheaded, then the rest of the bodies had their organs mutilated, local sources told AFP.
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Gruesome finds like these are nothing new in this poor landlocked country, where violence is part of everyday life.
But every time there is a body found in the murky Ubangui River, human crocodile which is called Talimbi often made a suspect.
Some say Talimbi was a human who metamorphosed into a reptile, while other people believed it crocodile man it is a sorcerer who never goes out of the river.
Whatever the locals believe, the myth of Talimbi has been shrouding their minds for decades.
The method of killing him was always the same: The victim was dragged into the river and killed as a form of punishment for the offense committed.
The fear of Talimbi is even deep-rooted among residents of Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, including those who have studied abroad.
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Myth as social control
The people there believed that the mutilation of the corpse indicated the abuse of the victim.
“If his penis is cut it is an adulterer. Ears are cut for those who do not listen,” he was quoted as saying Kompas.com from AFP, Friday (20/11/2020).
Aleksandra Cimpric, an anthropologist and specialist in African modern witchcraft, said the superstition was meant to prevent bad behavior.
“He acts like a regulator of norms of behavior and good morality,” he explained.
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The justice system in Central Africa is very poor, a long history of poverty and corruption. On the other hand, Talimbi is considered to be able to take justice into his own hands for people who are clearly guilty.
“Whoever is Talimbi, he will verify if what you say is true,” said Jean-Claude Beta chairman of the Association of Tradipractitioners, whose members are traditional healers.
In order to find out whether the accusation is true or false, a stick or a plant will be thrown into the river. If floating means that the accusation is a lie.
But if he drowned, Talimbi would punish him and the victim was mystically summoned to the riverbank.
“When you are called, you will be pulled into the river even if you are 100 kilometers away,” Beta said.
“There is no forgiveness. You will die.”
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Crocodile illustration-Even so, the deep-rooted belief in crocodile humans is an opening for the killers to exploit.
“Just throw the body into the river and the story of Talimbi will cover those who killed him,” said Joseph Bindoumi, head of the Centrafican Human Rights League and former prosecutor general.
One of the most recent victims found in Ubangui is a young woman. His body was never claimed by family or friends.
His case was closed after a group of young people buried his body near a river and placed a cross over his grave.
Police said the woman’s body was the only one taken from the river, not one of the three and there were no signs of violence, according to local reports.
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Cannot be resisted
“The body is in a decomposed state,” said Inspector Mathurin Koh of the Criminal Brigade, who was unable to provide an exact cause of death as no autopsy was performed.
Koh, who wrote a study on magical metamorphosis, admits he knows a lot about the Talimbi phenomenon and says it is a practice of deceit as well as witchcraft, some of which are outside his official authority even though it can be severely punished.
Instead of reporting to the police, the victims’ families prefer to go to a traditional healer to find out who asked Talimbi for help.
Belief in crocodiles also spread to the area Central Africa another, in which the three civil wars destroyed the public education system and undermined traditional structures of authority. Most of the territory of the former French colony is still controlled by the militia.
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“When indifference spreads, it becomes standard. Those who oppose this rule are practically rejected by society,” said Joseph Bindoumi, a former prosecutor.
The mutilations found in drowning victims are often the result of prolonged immersion, he said.
“But if you say it’s a crime or a regular drowning, no one will believe you.”
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