Welcome! We’ve come to the end of the alphabet on this year’s A to Z April Blog Challenge.
The Zambezi River forms the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. This is where you can see the spectacular Victoria Falls. You might even find the Chitapo who are definitely not beautiful mermaids. Rather they are evil spirits that trick people into the water and then swallow them. They aren’t picky – they’ll take any man or woman.Not only that, they’ll take pots, pans, baskets and whatever else isn’t being used and float them on the water. When people try to retrieve the items, the Chitapo will grab them They don’t even need to touch the victim. They can capture people’s shadows and then their bodies will follow. But, they do have a redeeming quality – they will rescue children from the rapids.
If you are interested in learning more about the Chitapo, head over to the Global Table Adventure. You’ll even find a recipe for a traditional Zambian breakfast bowl made with pumpkin, peanuts, and oatmeal which looks quite yummy.
The Chitapo mermaids continue to cast fear into the hearts of people in Zimbabwe in present times. Recently work on two reservoirs in Zimbabwe were halted because of mermaid sightings. Supposedly, the mermaids were terrorizing the workers.
Samuel Nkomo,the Zimbabwe Water Resource Minister, said that the only way to deal with the problem was to bring in healers to conduct traditional beer making rituals to rid the reservoirs of mermaids. It must have worked because work resumed.
And finally,
Z is for Zoolander. I’ll leave you with this zany quote from the merman played by Ben Stiller.
Thanks for Living in a Mermaid World with me this month! Post a comment if you’d like a chance to win some mermaid goodies.
Also, I am a member of Pam’s Unconventional Alliance for the A to Z Blog. Stop by and say “hello” to the other members of the team:
You can find Pam at An Unconventional Librarian
Shalini blogs at Something’s Cooking and Tale of Two Tomatoes.
Rajlakshmi blogs at The Twinkle Eyed Traveler, The Poetry Wagon, and Destiny’s Child
Parul blogs at Happiness and Food.
Wow. Beer to rid yourself of evil mermaids? I dunno but I sure don’t want to find out.
GREAT CHALLENGE CLAIRE!! Thanks for all the mermaid knowledge!
Wetness is the essense of beauty; I like that!
Thanks for helping to make this AtoZChallenge an interesting journey!
Gail’s 2016 April A to Z Challenge
Bravo for completing the challenge, Claire. How many countries have you covered over this month with the legends of the mermaids?
Loved travelling along with you during this challenge.
Loved to learn about the Zimbabwe mermaid. They sound like… intersting creatures.
And congratulation on completing the challenge. I really enjoyed lerning about mermaid around the world. It’s so intersting how many similarities there are in stories abotu mermaids around the world even in parts very far away from each other.
Thanks so much for sharing 🙂
Mermaids that trick people into the water and then eat them sound scary. I wonder if that’s retaliation in some way for the way people use bait fish to trick fish into being caught and then eaten by people.