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Four images of men in red and yellow robes who appear to be suspended in the air are circulating on social media across Africa with claims they show an annual event in Congo where witches and wizards display their magical powers for fun by flying. The claim is false: the photos show members of the Matsouanist movement in Congo-Brazzaville jumping to perform their religious rite, and not flying. The set of four images featuring barefooted men in long garments was published in this Facebook post alongside a caption explaining that onlookers could see them flying around. January 17 in Congo this took place, reads the caption, which gives credit to an earlier post on Facebook. A conference of witches where people displayed their magical powers as people could see them flying around. Screenshot taken on February 11, 2022, showing the false Facebook post More than 1,400 people have shared the posts since they were published on January 26, 2022. Some of the comments express shock, while others are sceptical of the claim. Awesomeness I didn't know we have Astronauts in Africa I thought NASA only do these stunts in Spacecrafts in the US...its good to know that the gravitational Force of acceleration is finished in Congo (sic), reads one comment. Screenshot taken on February 10, 2022, showing some of the comments on Facebook Social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle revealed the same claim has appeared elsewhere in Africa, including Ghana , South Africa , Zambia , Nigeria and Gambia . AFP Fact Check debunked a similar claim circulating in French here . A keyword search for Congo January 17 on YouTube found a television report of an event uploaded to an account called Grevy Web TV. The video of the celebration of Mfumu Matsoua week shows people jumping repeatedly while shaking hands with an individual. Some scenes in the YouTube video match the backgrounds in the Facebook images, including the red carpet and some of the people. Spiritual greeting The Matsouanist movement is a traditional African religion inspired by Congolese politician André Matsoua and predominantly practised in the central African country. Another keyword search for mfumu matsoua on Facebook led to several posts, including one shared on January 19, 2022, by a page called Ngunza Kimoko France. The post features 10 images, including the four claiming to show evidence of men in flight, and credits all the pictures to photographer Hadrien La Vapeur. AFP Fact Check contacted the page administrator who identified himself as Stany Rodriguez Mtumua, the representative of the Matsouanist religious movement in Europe and overseas. Mtumua explained that the images were taken on January 17, 2022, at the esplanade of the Brazzaville Convention Center, during a meeting of Matsouanists. He said that he got the images from the photographer who was asked to document the event, indicating that they were taken at the same event where the YouTube video was filmed. Members of the religious movement are seen jumping for the spiritual greeting or entransed hello towards their spiritual leaders, according to Mtumua. The act involves jumping or leaping under a spirit’s impulse, before reaching out to the elders, Mtumua told AFP Fact Check. They say [online] that they fly through the air like people do in some Chinese martial arts movies. We laugh about it, he said. Photographer and filmmaker Hadrien La Vapeur confirmed Mtumua’s statements to AFP Fact Check, including that he took the images at this year’s meeting of the Matsouanists. They [the Matsouanists] sometimes reach quite impressive heights, said La Vapeur, who is also the co-director of the Kongo feature documentary, a film evoking the world of spirits and magic in Congo-Brazzaville. An image showing the spiritual greeting ( Hadrien La Vapeur / ) The exercise is called swing or tezo and the jumps are part of Matsouanist rituals organised every Sunday during their meetings, according to Etanislas Ngodi, a specialist in political violence and social movements in Congo-Brazzaville. It doesn't mean that people take off into the air, as it has been claimed on social media. It’s more of a technique allowing you to gauge the level of spiritual progress of the devotee. Most of the time, people don’t jump higher than 1.5 metres. The person jumps as they move forward. The Matsouanists The Matsouanist name was derived from André Grénard Matsoua, a resistance fighter in the colonial era. He notably opposed colonial penetration. Born in the 1880s, he died in 1942. He was imprisoned more than once, said Laudes Martial Mbon, AFP correspondent in Brazzaville, which Ngodi confirmed. The circumstances of his death are a mystery and give rise to many hypotheses including that of the colonial administration of the time which suggests that he died of dysentery on January 13, 1942, in his cell in Mayama (Congo) and was buried in the process to avoid a popular uprising, Ngodi added, explaining that the movement became more popular in 1947. But for his followers, his disappearance is mystical. Mbon said that the Matsouanists are also called crows and are known for their magical-fetishistic and religious practices. They consider themselves, and are considered, mystical people, if not simply sorcerers. The Matsouanist movement no longer has the same aura as it had before, during and just after the French colonisation.
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