Claims on Zimbabweans Cutting off and Selling Their Toes
An apparent social media ploy in Zimbabwe, with people selling their toes for big bucks, is being taken more seriously elsewhere in parts of Africa.
Leah Mukangai 
The rumor circulating that Zimbabweans are cutting off their finger toes to help them escape poverty has sparked many reactions across Africa. The rumor has been highly discussed and shared in Nigeria.
A tongue-in-cheek Zimbabwean blog post suggested that the trade was happening at a shopping center in the capital, Harare.
It quotes WhatsApp messages with figures as high as $40,000 being presented by customary healers in South Africa for a major toe.
It is entirely expected for body parts to be utilized in deceitful conventional alleged fixes. Promoted by quacks or phony healers, they are related to black magic - and are censured by regarded conventional healers, known as "sangomas" in southern Africa.
In any case, journalists say the sums in question - $40,000 for a major toe, $25,000 for a center toe, and $10,000 for somewhat one - are ludicrous and a great many people see it as so.
Toe images and jokes are coursing in Zimbabwe, frequently posted with the hashtag #Chigunwe, and that signifies "toes" in the nearby Shona language, acquiring light and alleviation hard monetary times.
But none of Zimbabwe's extra critical newspapers have taken up the tale and a few humans on Twitter have complained that the hilarity is a distraction from extra essential problems going through the country.
