Girl, 11, emits charcoal from eyes after spooky dream
A God-fearing family from Maun have put their faith in the power of prayer to heal their 11-year-old daughter as she battles an unusual condition that sees her shed balls of charcoal from her eyes.
The strange ailment first struck in August last year, when the family visited their home village of Etsha over the school holidays.
To add to the mystery, the little girl told her parents that the night before her troubles started, she had a spooky dream in which she was seated around the fireplace with others when charcoal suddenly lifted supernaturally from the flames and flew into her eyes. Sadly, it proved to be an accurate premonition.
The condition initially caused the child ‘excruciating pain’, as she wept eight to ten pea-sized pieces of charcoal from both eye-balls over the next two days.
Speaking to The Voice, the girl’s stepmother, Keneilwe Topaye, reveals it was 19th August when their world was turned upside down.
“We were attending our sister’s wedding when suddenly the child started crying in pain. She rubbed her nerves, as she said that is where the pain was. When we tried to help, she said the pain had suddenly moved to the eyes and, as she rubbed the eyes, we noticed there was something inside,” explains the 37-year-old Maun resident.
To their astonishment, they realised there was charcoal in their daughter’s bottom eye-lid.
20 minutes later, a second charcoal particle appeared in the same painful manner, beginning from the nerve and emerging through the eyeball.
When a third piece came out minutes later, Topaye says they decided to leave the wedding and return promptly to the house.
“We got into the house and prayed. Elders were there. Some suggested that we take her to a traditional herbalist but we decided against it as we are Christians and we believed that God would heal her.”
Nodding his head in agreement, the girl’s father, Isake Jeremiah, 39, admits they were shocked and panicked but still trusted God.
“To tell you the truth, that day, I saw that this thing called witchcraft is real; I saw it with my own eyes!” he narrates with a shudder.
“We kept praying and, the following morning, I returned to Maun with my daughter,” he continues, adding once home, she shed one last ball of charcoal.
For a time it appeared their faith had been rewarded, as, after two days of hell, the charcoal stopped almost as suddenly as it had started.
All was well until December when the child, once again, travelled to Etsha to visit relatives for the festive season.
A few days after her arrival, Jeremiah and Topaye received the dreaded call: the daughter’s ‘illness’ had returned.
Rushing to the village early the next morning, Jeremiah arrived to discover one of the elders had taken his child to a local traditional herbalist to ‘exorcise’ the charcoal.
“She was told that whatever is happening to the child was the work of some evil people. However, the herbalist allegedly said he was unable to help.”
Jeremiah swiftly returned to Maun with his daughter, where he and his wife sought spiritual intervention from church.
Although the charcoal persists, the doting dad tells The Voice it is nowhere near as severe as the original August bout.
“The problem has been solved and, although she occasionally sheds very tiny pieces of charcoal, it does not even come with any pain; we thank God for this healing,” he concludes forcefully.
