South African soothsayer, Nozo Zintoyinto rightly predicted many matches that were played in this year’s AFCON.
…And here comes another odd but true story for the year 2017. Since January 14, there has been a feeling of tension among participant countries in African Cup of Nation’s tournament, as many worried greatly about the possible outcome of the matches.
While some were soaked in profound anxiety, regarding possible results of the Ghana vs Cameroun match held on February 2, some others relaxed in their seats, having already known the winners of the game.
Though this is set to upset many Ghanaians, the truth still has to be told. A South African soothsayer in the person of a very old woman, had predicted the outcome of the AFCON semifinal clash between Ghana and Cameroon, days before the D-day.
Nozo Zintoyinto, an 85-year-old woman from Xhosa ethnic group, rightly predicted Ghana’s defeat in the semifinal clash, to the greatest surprise of many.
See: The Prophet who Predicted a Win for Ghana’s President in 2016 Elections
It had been a sober evening for Ghana, as the Black Stars lost yet another chance of putting an end to the 35-year jinx of no trophy. The Indomitable Lions of Cameroun beat Ghana’s Black Stars 2-0 in the AFCON semifinal match held at the Stade de Franceville on February 2.
The match which started with a goalless first half, saw Cameroun aggressively utilize their opportunities; scoring two goals against the Black Stars -at the 72nd minute and in the third minute of added time. Cameroun is set to face Egypt in a final fight for the AFCON title on Sunday february 5, while Ghana will face Burkina Faso in the third place play off on Saturday February 4.
Another opportunity missed; one could only imagine the amount of sadness and disappointment in the hearts of Ghanaians as the referee blew the final whistle of the game. The Black Stars would have been a step closer to breaking the long and miserable jinx of being ‘Africa’s nearly men’, having won the trophy last in 1982.
But all these laments had nothing to do with Nozo Zintoyinto,who makes a decent living predicting future incidents including the outcome of matches. While Ghanaians prayed for success ahead of the match, 85-year-old Zintoyinto was doing her ‘thing’ in South Africa. The soothsayer before Thursday’s clash, had consulted her ancestors who revealed to her the winners of the match.
VOAnews.com who interacted with the South African soothsayer towards the end of January 2017, narrated the wired encounter with the old woman. According to VOAnews, Nozo Zintoyinto is a ‘Sangoma’ – a name for soothsayers in South Africa, who has been predicting real life incidents for over 60 years. The woman who uses sea shells to commune with her ancestors, says she gets messages from the spirits based on how she interprets the sea shells.
On to the more interesting part: 85 year old Nozo Zintoyinto knows nothing about soccer but has been predicting matches for people especially those who do a lot of betting games. During her interaction with VOA, she revealed how she was able to predict that “Ivory Coast and Senegal would not do well” at the AFCON, long before the tournament.
Nozo also narrated several incidents where her predictions helped people win a lot of money in betting games. Narrating some of the incidents, Zintoyinto said her predictions of defeat for Ivory Coast and Senegal, had caused a client to put one hundred rand (about 7 dollars) each on Ivory Coast and Senegal being knocked out. “That is what happened to the man, he won a lot of money,” she said
During her interaction with VOA, Zintoyinto also predicted Egypt’s defeat against Burkina Faso. When asked about the February 1 clash, the Sangoma simply gave a symbolic reply saying that;
“The spirits are showing me players dressed in red. They are celebrating. They have light skins. They are not black Africans.”
This was a clear prediction of Egypt’s win at the semifinal on February 1. Egypt won on penalties after a goalless 120-minutes match with Burkina Faso.
The South African Soothsayer again, made a prediction for Ghana vs Cameroun clash during the interaction.
“The ancestors are shouting a lot. They are disagreeing about this match. But most are telling me Cameroon will win,” Nozo said.
While she made her predictions, the Sangoma was quick to say that neither she nor the spirits, are unerring. Some ancestors according to her, can be mischievous and mistaken sometimes; and for this reason, whatever prophecy she makes should only be used as a guide. She however explained that though the ancestors may faulter, her shells are always correct.
Narrating how it all started, Zintoyinto said that while she was a teenager, a deceased ancestor appeared to her in a dream and called on her to be a Sangoma. She continued that after the incident, a senior traditional healer then trained her on traditional healing methods, telling the future, as well as interpretation of signs from the spirits.
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